Search - The Last Action Hero on DVD

"To be or not to be? Not to be" (Something explodes!)

needstobuyabike | Chicago, IL USA | 12/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a resoundingly misunderstood film. Probably the finest parody ever made of the action genre as a whole; this film mocks the absurd excesses that most summertime action blockbusters indulge in. The script is clever enough to divide itself between the dark brutality of the real world and the campy superficiality of Hollywood. It revels in poking fun of the very films that have made Arnold Schwarzenegger (in?)famous. The world outside the silver screen is filled with stark reminders of how un-Hollywood life is. There is crime, bullets hurt good people, and extras that are killed have families they've left behind. Young Danny (Austin O'Brien) loves film more than anything else. He attempts to put aside the problems of his life in live in the world that Hollywood has created for him. His favorite indulgence is the Jack Slater series of films. They star Arnold Schwarzenegger as the title-hero, a cop modeled after the cloned result of Dirty Harry and Rambo. Slater is a smooth operator who never makes a wrong step and never fails to land on his feet. He is essentially everything that Danny, and in reality most children, wish they could be. When he is given a magical movie ticket by Nick the friendly pathetic mildly wise projectionist at his favorite theater, Danny is transported beyond his world into that of his hero, Jack Slater. He is quickly engulfed in one of the most entertaining action sequences ever put to film. It is the crystallization of the genre where there is unexplained action and unnecessary and unequal reaction. A car explodes because another car goes near it. A would-be assassin is thrown from his perch atop a moving truck into a parked ice-cream truck that then explodes. A truck explodes in the air for no good reason, and meanwhile, all the women are attractive (by Hollywood standards). They move from action sequence to action sequence, all of which are completely superfluous and equally delightful. Anyone who has ever made fun of, or rightly criticized, the films of Jerry Bruckheimer would find this work profoundly amusing. On screen, Slater and Danny must confront the cycloptic henchman Benedict (Charles Dance) and his benefactor Vivaldi (Anthony Quinn) in order to stop a takeover the SoCal black market and to extract revenge for the killing of Slater's favorite second cousin. This plot of course, is secondary to the parody. It moves well and revels in its self-justifying fictional world where a cartoon cat can be a cop, because it's normal there. The other side of the screen is filmed with dim lighting and always hinting at danger beneath the surface. Danny's mom (Mercedes Ruehl) is a widow who struggles to support her child both materially and emotionally. She works the unglamorous midnight shift. Nick is a washed-up never-was who had dreams of another career and justifies compromises he has made to his goals by referring to his job in the manner, "Hey, it's still show business." When Slater enters this world, and gets shot, not only do the bullets hit him, but they cause more than flesh wounds. In the "real world" the on-screen villains can take advantage of corrupt systems to come out on top. This film parodies not only action heroes and the action genre, but also bad scripts. Danny knows not only what has already happened in the movie, he can accurately predict the next steps of the transparent plot of the action film he was watching and then participates in. The film makes groan-inducing puns and points them out. The film points out how action films sometimes modify classics to fit into modern pop culture. This movie could have been a bit shorter and could have done without some of the melodrama in the "real" world. But those are miniscule flaws next to the eminently enjoyable rest of the film."