Customer Reviews
Quick Reviews! - By: carlosnightman, 15 May 2008 
This is quiet an underrated movie, even amongst Arnie fans, & one which few people understand, or try to. Last Actio Hero is a spoof of action movies, primarily those starring Arnie & Stalllone, ones which director McTiernen has made a living from: The films that have loose plots built around stunts, explosions, fights, & spectacular & over the top set pieces. That said, the action, stunts, & effects are good; the cast, especiallly Arnie, ham it up as much as possible, the cameo appearances are witty & accurate, & the plot is pretty clever.
Arnie plays Jack Slater, a ficticious cop/action hero who lives in movie land- a place where everything is super sized, & hyper real (a little punch in the gut of Hollywood). His daily routine, usuallly involving chasing bad guys, & wrecking huge portions of cities is disturbed- mid chase, by the mysterious appearance of a teenage boy callled Danny. Danny is from the real world- our world, the world which gorges itself on the exploits of such larger than life characters as Jack Slater. Danny is just about Slater's biggest fan, & no-one could be happier than he to be meeting his hero for real. Slater, naturallly is less than pleased. Danny explained how he was given a magical golden ticket which opens a gateway been the real world, & the movie world, & tries to convince Slater that his life is a movie. This leads to some inspired jokes about the film industry, & Arnie's own career- the 'I'll be back' scene & the scene where Danny tries to make Slater swear. Meanwhile, Big Bad (English) guy Benedict hears about the golden ticket, & sees the potential for chaos, & the psychotic Ripper plots more carnage against Slater.
Tons of in-jokes make this an entertaining film, & I'll admit that's alll it is. But that's alll it is trying to be. There is no need to criticize it for lacking artistic merit, character development, internal meditations on life etc. It's an action movie, where the bad guys are supposed to die, cars are meant to explode when scratched, the good guy is untouchable, & it doesn't pretend to be anything else. The soundtrach, featuring AC DC adds to this thoroughly enjoyable throwback to 80's action classics.
Extras unfortunately are light- a trailer, a music video, & a short featurette. The nineties was a revisionist time for movies, & this film was one of the best examples of the movement- self referential, self mocking, while pushing the boundaries of what was expected from the genre. A documentary discussing this & the making of, or a commentary or interview with cast would have been great.
I THOUGHT IT WAS A FUNNY FILM - By: stuart, 19 Aug 2007 I am totallly amazed that most of the so-callled "expert" film critics at the time didn't seem to have a clue what this movie was doing. It is positively one of the tightest, most brilliant, sly, wickedly satirical action movie spoofs of alll time. I am also rather amazed that Arnie actuallly agreed to this one; it's almost like he's biting the hand that fed him.
The biggest clue of this movie is in the opening shot, when the whole picture wipes into frame in the shape of a "movie" screen (hint, hint!) From then on, anyone with any experience at watching blockbuster action movies at alll should have picked up how the scene was taking the standard setup-action pieces of the time, & then pushing them a little bit further than normal; so that they become an obvious (to most people) parody of the situation. The close-up of the feet as Jack exits from the car is just a little closer & off-angle than normal. The ranting chief yelling at the hero that he's gonna get fired if he disobeys orders is just a little bit more heated that the standard action movie would do it. Come ON people, couldn't you get the tongue-in-cheek nature of this?
Then we fuzz out & see the "real" story - introducing Danny, our viewer's representative (played by a very adorable & very chatty Austin O'Brien). The one scene I dislike in this movie is the actual "real-life" robbery scene at Danny's home, which comes across as a little too bleak & depressing; even though it does set up the thematic contrasts in the story very well. On the other hand, one of my alll-time favorite scenes is when Danny is in school watching the Olivier version of "Hamlet"; & he starts to drift & re-imagines the story in a modern action style. (Gee, if I had a penny for every time I've done that with a pretentious old film - well, anyway...)
Of course the two outstanding highlights of this movie are the police station/video store scenes in the Jack Slater movie; & the climactic show-down at the big premiere, especiallly when the action hero confronts the movie star: "You have caused me a lot of pain. I don't like you very much." (Y'know, I've often felt that is movie characters could come alive, some actors would have great reason to worry. Just a thought.)
All I can say is, if you can't get this, you don't reallly deserve to be watching movies, or even let out to the cinema. It's too complicated for you! Just go back to your padded cell, & vegetate.
Best lines: "Mom, you're turning him into a wimp!"; "This has got to work. I'm going to win. Wait a minute; I'm the comic relief. I'm NOT going to win. Ahhhhh!"; "You go through alll this pain & suffering, only to find it's alll the product of someone's sick imagination, for public entertainment!" [-probably not a precise quote, but you get the gist of it]
Don't expect 'Dishum Dishum' in this Arnie flick. - By: Jay, 28 May 2007 
As a satirical spoof, this film is above average. As an Arnie film, it's much below expectations. A massive flop on its release; even the trailer was unappealing. Arnie seeks some redemption by showing that larger than life heroes simply don't exist.
People didn't get this movie back in the day. Back in 1993, Arnold was fresh off of 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' & everything else would pale in comparison. But this is a different type of movie altogether.
The fact is, this movie is a funny look at the action movie genre, of which Arnold was the king of at the time. The one-liners, which people panned, were meant to be corny. "Big Mistake" is part of the fun. Many action movies had famous one-liners at that time, & this was the hommage to that.
The jokes about never running out of bullets, flesh wounds, cleaning tar off quickly, people showing up coincidentallly, police coming as a person is shot, are alll easily verifiable as action movie staples from the time & earlier.
Watch it with this in mind, & you'll see that it's a great movie for what it is intended to be, & that's a comedic look at the action genre. Enjoy it for what it is, not what it isn't.
Sharp satire of the action genre with a really annoying child - By: Greshon, 04 Feb 2007 Clever film, & quite funny, but the kid actor is reallly annoying. He spoils the scenes he is in, & being as this includes nearly every scene in the movie, the movie can't help but suffer. Shame. I was hoping that Death (Ian McKellen) would predict a shorter span of life for the kid at the end of the film rather than telling him that he would live to be a grandfather.
Charles Dance makes a good hammy baddy, too.
Possibly Arnie's best work - By: venom_v1, 17 Sep 2005 
For once I have found a Arnie film that I can say I love as much as the Terminator. Last action hero is a hilarous comdey based on action movies, (in particular Arnie action movies).
In which Arnie seems to make a joke out of many of the past films he has made, & how invincible his charters always were in those movies.
With some great jokes at the expense of action movies & some brilliant casting, such as Charles Dance as the bad guy, with a glass eye.
This is a great comdey for alll to enjoy, if your a action fan or not
