Last Action Hero

I always thought Schwarzenegger’s 1993 action farce was vastly underrated, especially when considered as a set with True Lies. Of course, I could be mistaking the accidental achievements of the many chefs who had a hand in this entree, between the four credited writers (Zack Penn, Adam Leff, Shane Black and David Arnott), director John McTiernan (Die Hard I and II, Predator, The Hunt for Red October and the remakes of The Thomas Crowne Affair and Rollerball), and the half dozen or more producers. The key for me anyway is that this is so over the top it’s become camp, intentionally or not, and filled with laughs. Since it was available via On Demand in high def I couldn’t resist.
Last Action Hero asks what if a golden movie ticket gifted by Harry Houdini to an old movie theater usher (Robert Prosky) when he was a child really does have a bit of magic. Prosky gives the ticket to troubled teen Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) before unreeling the brand new Arnold actioner Jack Slater 4. Wonder of wonders, the ticket is magical and minutes into it Danny finds himself in the movie’s world. Right in the back seat of Slater’s red convertible in the middle of a car chase between Slater and a pickup truck full of mobster Anthony Quinn’s henchman.

Danny is a huge fan and knows things–from the first three Slater movies–that Jack cannot understand. Of course he doesn’t agree that his world is simply a cinema fantasy despite the many strange things pointed out to him like an animated, speaking cat as a police office, that every woman seen is at a minimum hot or that Slater himself is never sick nor more than minimally injured.

Benedict (Charles Dance), a high-powered English hit man working for Quinn, gets Danny’s wallet and the half of the magical ticket in it. Realizing what it can do, Benedict steps in and out of different movies recruiting bad guys to terrorize the “real” world. Danny and Jack get back themselves (Jack and Danny’s mom, played by Mercedes Ruehl, hit it off but do not hook up), in order to stop Benedict and the others. Ian McKellen, playing Death in what’s supposed to be an Ingmar Bergman film, even steps out to check out Jack because no one has ever not been on one of Death’s list.
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