Last Action Hero

On IMDb Last Action Hero gets a healthy 6.1
On Rotten Tomatoes its gets quite a low 3.9

I have spent many years defending LAH because I do believe that it is a good film that has a lot more layers than people would give it a credit for. It is quite a deep film with some outrageously funny funny lines and moments thanks mainly to the wonderful Charles Dance as Benedict.

Some have told me that is not funny, that is a ridiculous film that makes no sense, is cheesy and is a cliche, I have tried explaining to people that that is exactly the point and that is what the film is about but it seems that they cannot understand this.

So I want to ask people here, what do you make of it?

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I think it is a fairly overlooked satire. Unfortunately, the film had some arrantly misguided and inept marketing upon its release, hence why it more or less flopped. It still feels as if it hasn't recovered from that. Why somebody put this up against Jurassic Park in its opening week is beyond me.

It gets a bit silly and doltish at times, but that is part of the films' innate charm. Nostalgia is distorting my viewpoint a bit here, but I always felt it was fairly undervalued piece that cops too much flack. John McTiernan + Arnold Schwarzenegger - you can not go wrong with that. Just look at Predator.

I agree completely. I once asked someone at Hollywood Video if they had it, and he said (in cliche video store clerk fashion): "Why?" So I calmly explained that it is, as Matteo said, a satire of action films, and a pretty good one. It's not the best possible version of itself, to be sure, but some of the ideas and jokes in it are pretty great. Definitely underrated.

Yep... tons of fun.

I think the points about the satire are well made but I found that LAH missed the mark it was trying to make with the satire.

On the far, far end of the spectrum is Tropic Thunder... and the satire is rife with the spoofing subtly underlining it.

Last Action Hero didn't quite get that balance right and it inadvertently came across as a simple fantasy film... still a fun film though, especially if you can watch it with the mindset that it is a satire.

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Love this movie, think it is really funny, the only thing that makes me scratch my head is why the villain, with the ticket to bring any villain he wants, would bring a villain that Arnie has already defeated. Bring in Vader dammit!!!

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Suspect's Reviews

I loved it. It predates Scream, Cabin In The Woods etc with its meta narrative. But I think at that time the, the cinema audience just couldn't get it... plus some bad marketing as well. I only watched it on TV years later. At that time it was all about Jurassic Park. No one cared about anything else.

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