Last Action Hero (1991)

Last Action Hero (1991)

Last Action Hero is that type of film that I think is absolutely brilliant, although not too many others agree with me.

A basic synopsis: Danny is a young film fan, who is especially impressed with the Jack Slater action films (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger). One of Danny's few friends (or probably his only friend) is an old movie projectionist, Frank (Art Carney). Frank, who seems to be as lonely as Danny, invites Danny to a sneak preview of Jack Slater IV, which Danny, who worships Jack Slater, (even to the point of daydreaming a new action hero Hamlet in his English class starring Jack Slater) eagerly accepts.

Now for the plot point that most people have a problem with. Frank the movie man has in his possession a ticket that was given to him by Harry Houdini. This "magic ticket" is used by Danny to attend the impromptu showing of Jack Slater IV, as Frank insists that to see a movie "you've got to have a ticket". Turns out that the ticket is indeed magic, and it enables Danny to enter the world of Jack Slater IV. Soon after Danny is attepting to convince Jack Slater that he is a fictional character in an action movie, helping Jack track down "the bad guys" and enabling the director to rally a multitude of in jokes, including, after Danny's attempts to convince Slater hes in a movie and taking him to a video store, a view of the version of Terminator 2 that Slater would have seen, the one starring Sylvester Stallone.

Little touches prevail to highlight the fact slater lives in a movie. All the phone numbers are 555 numbers, there is a crane for ACME construction, and no bad guy can shoot straight, and you can wipe yourself clean with a cloth after falling into a tar pit.

"Hey Yo! Hasta La Vista, Adrian..."

After a bit of this and the theft of the ticket and the escaping of the villain into the real world, thanks to Jack throwing him through a wall that the ticket has used as a portal. ("Usually when I do that it leaves a hole..." says a puzzled Slater), Danny and Jack return to the real world still trying to catch Benedict (our villain). The bringing of fictional characters into our world is used to highlight the absurdities prevelent in action films; heroes can be shot (but they are only flesh wounds), cars explode via a scratch, cops show up in droves within seconds of a crime. This is how Benedict thinks and when he realises our world doesn't work like that, he , of course, wants to stay, because as he exclaims "Here! The Bad guys can win!"

Last Action Hero reaches its greatest point when Jack Slater, in the real world, encounters Arnold Schwarzenegger, who of course just assumes Slater is a celebrity lookalike. Using the ticket, a previous villain in the Slater films returns for another showdown.

This is one of Schwarzennegger's better films. It's entertaining, it's a very good example of how Arnold can be funny, and it is a good idea. A film that deconstructs its own genre and it was released five years before Wes Craven used the same idea in Scream.

Don't believe everything you hear about Last Action Hero. It's not as bad as you will be led to believe. Of course there is suspension of disbelief involved in the magic ticket plot point, but apart from that, this film makes more logical sense than any other action film. Slater is virtually indestructable and always wins because he's in an action film. The internal logic of Last Action Hero hold together more because of this aspect, than for example Ripley in the same situation in Aliens. The reason Slater is able to do what he does is because the film sets up the point that that's always the way it is. Aliens, on the other hand, is shown to us as a possible realistic event. Last Action Hero prides itself of being fiction.

It is also my favourite Schwarzenegger film. It's damn good, if you allow yourself to believe in a magic ticket, which is actually less disbelief than you need for a lot of films.

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