Last Action Hero

Movie Grade: B

DVD Features Grade: F

Overall Grade: B-

With Bluray being the next logical step forward, it seems that the distribution companies are taking a step backward to re-release even the most random of older film in the highest of definitions. Up until more recently there would only be new or recent releases, and high demand classics that made their way onto this new format: more recently that standard has changed drastically. Case in point is this 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Last Action Hero. Just staring at the box art – a close up of Schwarzenegger brandishing a gun and looking intense – gave off an overwhelming sense that this disc packed in two hours of action so trite it would have been boring at its release. It turns out you should never judge a Bluray by its cover.

The film starts off even more extreme than anyone could expect; seemingly at the predictable climax of a cliché action movie. We have a hostage situation, a yelling police chief, a cop who plays by his own rule, etc. The only apparent quality to the film at this point was how humorous all of these circumstances were. I felt fairly foolish after about five minute when it’s revealed that this is a movie within a movie. The actual movie is about Danny (Austin O’Brian) who is a huge fan of Schwarzenegger‘s films and looks similar enough to the kid from Terminator 2 to be seamlessly pair with Arnold. After the projectionist at his local theater gives him a magical movie ticket, Danny is transported into the world of the movie and has an action packed adventure alongside his fictional hero Jack Slater portrayed by none other than The Arnold.

The plot and characterization isn’t the driving force of the film; in a way it is the absence of these factors that keeps things going. By this point Schwarzenegger has developed a great sense of humor about his own filmography and shamelessly pokes fun at every last convention. At this point in the early nineties was a time where all of the action films of the 80′s like Rambo, Indiana Jones, and numerous others had created a narrow path for similar films to follow. The Last Action Hero serves as a piece of evidence, alongside Blazing Saddles and Scream, that a genre having a successful parody is a fatal sign.

Aside from being an omen of the death of the era in action films, this is an incredibly light hearted and fun movie. The humor isn’t extremely clever or high brow, but it is hard not to laugh at how zany, and still true to the genre this parody is. When Danny has to wait in the car and Slater tells him there is a gun in the glove compartment: how can someone not laugh when he

opens it and guns fall out as if they were forcefully pack in there. Jokes like that, along with people pulling out weapons from nearly impossible hiding places or inexplicably being skilled in hand to hand combat.

If you’re looking for a movie to rent, don’t make the mistake I did and let the cover fool you. If you are uninterested in the cover, and have a sarcastic sense of humor, this is oddly enough the movie for you. All of the characteristics that come to mind at the site of this box are exactly what you will have two hour worth of jokes at the expense of. At times the plot drags, and when Slater has his emotion moments the laughing stops and embarrassment pity sets in, but that is a small price to pay for the other hundred and fifteen minutes of nonstop action, and subsequent mockery of said action. For any die hard fans out there: you will be disappointed to know there are no special features on the disc. In all seriousness, this doesn’t seem like a film with a massive following, so everything should be just fine.

Movie Grade: B

DVD Features Grade: F

Overall Grade: B-