Nathan Rabin's Happy Place's Definitive Guide to American Movies about the Film Industry
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God help me, I've turned into one of those people who unironically likes Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero (1993) FM
When a movie goes as famously, publicly and disastrously over-budget as Heaven’s Gate, Ishtar and Last Action Hero did, critics and audiences alike have an unfortunate and regrettable habit of turning into studio accountants. For some inexplicable reason, otherwise rational souls turn into nervous bean counters more concerned with a movie’s cost, budget and profitability than its ambition, audacity and artistic merit.
Like Cimino and May’s initially maligned and later respected and appreciated flops, Last Action Hero was the victim of toxic buzz, bad press and abysmal box-office at the time of its release. All three movies were dead on arrival due to the aforementioned factors but, in the grand tradition of cult movies, rose from the grave and were embraced by loyal followings that appreciated them for what they are rather than being disappointed by what they are not.
In a dual performance that makes inspired use of his gift for winking, light-hearted self-parody, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays both a fictionalized version of himself as a relentless self-promoter and fictional action hero Jack Slater.
Austin O’Brien costars as Danny Madigan, a sad, lonely latchkey kid who finds escape from a cruel world in the loving confines of a gloriously dilapidated movie palace benevolently overseen by Santa Claus-like projectionist Nick (Robert Prosky, radiating warmth and kindness).
Danny is particularly enamored of the Jack Slater franchise, a series of impossibly violent, vulgar blockbusters that distract him momentarily from life’s horrors.
Nick gives Danny a magic ticket bequeathed to him by Harry Houdini that allows the awe-struck fan to achieve a whole new level of escapism by entering Jack Slater’s fictional world as a sidekick/partner.
Danny’s immersion in Jack Slater’s fantastical movie realm of pure fantasy and wish fulfillment affords the filmmakers an opportunity to affectionately spoof the eminently mockable conventions of action movies in general and Schwarzenegger’s own bloodbaths in particular. It may have notoriously been re-written by every screenwriter in the business but the surprisingly satirical box-office bombis also much denser with ideas, jokes and running gags than its dire reputation would suggest.
Schwarzenegger once again proves adept at making fun of himself and Charles Dance makes for a worthy villain as Mr. Benedict, a bad guy who luxuriates in aristocratic European evil and is intent on bringing movie bad guys into the real world.
Last Action Hero was unsuccessfully sold as the blockbuster to end all blockbusters when it should have been more accurately marketed as a goofy, intensely meta and surprisingly funny Zucker Brothers-style spoof from a movie star uniquely qualified to poke fun at his outsized image.
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