Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Charles Dance, Tom Noonan, Austin O'Brien, Art Carney, Robert Prosky, Anthony Quinn, and Bridgette Wilson.
Year of Release: 1993.
Run Time: 130 Minutes.
Budget: $85 Million.
Gross Revenue: $137, 298, 489.
Ah, The Last Action Hero. You wouldn’t know it by its current gross revenue standing, but this movie is universally considered a failure of epic proportions by the big producers in Hollywood. The Last Action Hero was made at a time when the Hollywood blockbuster machine was in full swing, and the makers of these grand movies couldn’t be satisfied with staggering $100 million dollar revenues, because the movies themselves cost upwards of that amount to make. No, the 90s blockbusters were banking on getting returns well into the hundreds of millions, with the half-a-billion mark being the more desired target.
So why didn’t The Last Action Hero succeed? There was certainly enough marketing behind the thing. At one stage the studio was even going to plaster an advertisement for the film on the side of a rocket ship destined for space. Maybe it was because the movie-going public weren’t ready for such self-referential humour, but then again Scream was, and it only came out three years after this, essentially re-birthing the slasher flick in the late 90s. Maybe The Last Action Hero just sucked. My personal opinion is that it had nothing to do with either of those things. The reason The Last Action Hero failed, in my opinion, is because of dinosaurs. Not just any dinosaurs, Spielberg’s dinosaurs in his game changing Jurassic Park, which was released seven days before The Last Action Hero.
It’s a shame really, because The Last Action Hero was a brave movie, and a good one as well. Basically, a thirteen year old movie buff, by the name of Danny, discovers a magic ticket that allows him to enter into the world of any given movie. As he is a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, he ends up in the latest installment of the Jack Slater action-movie franchise. The character Jack Slater meanwhile refuses to believe that he is a movie character, and this conflict plays out well when he discovers that he is just a hollow character used to justify violence and explosions. The movie is essentially a commentary on the action-movie genre, and the self-referential style allows it to playfully satirise the genre really quite well. Such jokes? How about the time Danny tries to convince Jack Slater to say ‘fuck’ by writing it on a notepad and showing it to him. Slater refuses to say it and then Danny claims that this is definitive proof that they are in a movie: because of Jack Slater’s PG-13 rating, the word ‘fuck’ cannot be uttered. Nor is it said in The Last Action Hero, because The Last Action Hero is itself a PG-13 movie.
Where credit really must be given is in the treatment of its characters, in particular Jack Slater, who upon entering the really world via the magic ticket, must come to terms with the fact that he is a fictional character. There is a great scene at the end of the film where the fictional Jack Slater goes to the premiere of the Jack Slater movie and confronts Arnold Schwarzenegger (who plays himself as a self-promoting schmuck.) The real Arnold becomes convinced that the fictional Jack Slater is a stunt-performer, and is amazed at the quality of his likeness. Real-Arnie goes on and on about getting him some work at public events and then Slater turns around and says something like “Hey, I don’t really like you. You’ve ruined my life in a lot of ways.” It’s a really great moment that is poignant because of its successful blend of humour and drama. You really get the sense of the disconnection between movie reality and actual reality in brilliant scenes like this.
Look, I’m sure they could have made this movie a lot better. However, I think it really succeeds in what it aims to do. If it had succeeded at the box office, we might have started to see some more self-referential blockbusters being made. Ultimately, The Last Action Hero is a great piece of entertainment for movie fans that also manages to contain a little more depth than the average blockbuster. It’s something that I think should have done a lot better than it did, but hey, $137 million aint too bad.
Four Stars:
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