Last Action Hero

Young movie geek (O’Brien) receives a magical movie ticket that mysteriously transports him into the cinematic world of action-star Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger). Fun ensues as he tries to convince Slater that he’s really “in a movie”, dodge all kinds of bad guys, and return back to his native New York.

Fun, enjoyable, action-packed, humorous ride through the world of movies, action heroes and the fine line that rests between fantasy and reality. This movie is a joy to watch, always keeping you entertained with exaggerated action sequences, inside jokes, dozens of cameos by other movie stars (don’t bat an eye or you might miss Robert Patrick in his full police uniform from TERMINATOR 2 (8/10) or Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell from BASIC INSTINCT (7/10)), and a semi-coherent plot that keeps spilling slick action scenes all over this trigger-happy movie.

Schwarzenegger plays his role as it is supposed to be played (a movie character that can’t believe that he’s in a movie), and even shows up as a cameo himself, as Arnold Schwarzenegger (one of the funniest scenes is when the real Maria Schriver (wife of Arnold) scolds the real Arnold about over-promoting his Planet Hollywood restaurant at movie premieres, at the movie premiere of Jack Slater 4). The little kid is decent, and the bad guys are your obvious hyperbolized nemeses, but that’s okay, because this movie is a complete send-up of all action films, and if you don’t “get the joke”, than you’ll probably not enjoy the film very much (also, if you don’t like action…skip this film!). The soundtrack is constantly pumping you up, the action sequences are extremely well shot, and there are no boring parts in the entire film.

On the down side, the movie does run a little too long, there are one too many explosions, and some people may not follow the entire plot line that has some of the characters moving from one dimension to another (I had no problem with this), but hey, no movie’s perfect right? Overall, this movie is a great nacho-munching extravaganza, filled with superb action scenes, a bunch of cool cameos, and a super-tough-guy action star that does the job to the best of his ability. Fun stuff !!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian