Critique: Film> Reviews.

So here we have "a farewell to the darker, Terminator stuff of Arnie's earlier career"; "a tasteless, clumsy mix of action, comedy and satire"; "one of the biggest flops of 1993 and the 1990s in general."

For all the things that people have labelled Last Action Hero down the years, however, I still can't bring myself to hate it. It's hardly amazing, I'll admit, but I'd still much rather watch this than half the action films that come out today.

It's a self-conscious parody of action movie cliches (made famous primarily by Schwarzenegger himself) and for the most part it comes across quite entertaining. There's plenty of moments concerned with Arnie blowing shit up and making witty remarks about it; and he even meets his real-life counterpart face-to-face and gets the opportunity to poke some fun at himself. Confused? Allow me to explain.

Arnie plays Jack Slater, a fictional action star of the blockbuster 'Jack Slater' movies that are being shown on the cinema screens to audiences in the real world. There's an eleven-year-old called Danny (Austin O'Brien) who considers himself a bit of a fan of Mr. Slater, and regularly skips school just to go to the movies and see him star in his latest adventure. His obsession actually becomes so bad that he starts fantasizing about the big Austrian playing Hamlet when he's forced to sit through Shakespeare's classic play -- which, I can tell you, is rather hilarious.

Danny is later given a ticket by the old projectionist of the cinema, Nick (Robert Prosky). "It's a magic ticket," he proclaims, without really knowing what it does. Soon enough, Danny finds himself being sucked into the movie screen and ends up on the backseat of the car of his favourite action hero Jack Slater.

Danny is in Slater's movie world, but Slater doesn't actually know he's living in a movie world -- he just thinks he's that damn good at killing everyone in reality. When he is forced to enter the real world he finds out that things work a lot differently (apparently, it does hurt when you punch through glass!)

Last Action Hero is basically a movie within a movie, which attempts to blur the lines between reality and fantasy. While this may not sound like anything new or exciting to most viewers, it does at least allow for some great moments of action and comedy. There's a particularly memorable moment where Arnie walks into a video store and notices a cardboard cut-out for Terminator 2, which stars *ahem* Sylvester Stallone.

As far as characters go, Arnie is particularly hilarious in his self-parody as Jack Slater ("I'll be back! Ha! You didn't know I was gonna say that, did you?") The film may not have the darker edge of his earlier works such as The Terminator, but he is still perfect for this sort of role: Defying logic with death-defying jumps and triumphing over countless bad guys at once -- and then dishing out his trademark puns and laughing about it.

Charles Dance is also just as memorable as the cunning, glass-eyed villain Benedict; and although Austin O'Brien just start to jar on your nerves after a short time, he does make a half-decent sidekick, constantly trying to convince Jack Slater that he's living in a movie.

What's incredibly disappointing in Last Action Hero is the ending. Using the magic ticket, Benedict proposes that he can bring any movie character to life in the real world; however, this sub-plot is never properly developed. Instead, we have to sit through a rather lacklustre confrontation between Slater and Benedict.

Despite this disappointing climax, director John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator) is pretty slick in handling the exaggerated action sequences throughout. Granted, Last Action Hero didn't win any Academy Awards after it was released, but that doesn't ultimately mean that it's a bad film. It's actually a lot of fun to watch.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.