Is Last Action Hero (1993) underrated?

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I use to not like the movie when I was younger. I like how it started out, but didn't like the third act Jack Slater goes into the real world and things got too ridiculous cause they are wanting to be more serious, and yet more silly at the same time.

However, going back to it as an adult, aside from the third act, everyone thing else is so good and so funny. So it's better now than back when I saw it back in the mid 90s, to the point in maybe the third act is worth forgiving, and maybe isn't as bad as I remember possibly.

But what do you think?



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But what do you think?
Apparently I liked it enough to have done a couple replays.

Both IMDB and RT have it rated at 6.3. I would say my rating would be near that, maybe a few fractions higher. What rating do you think it deserves?
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It would've been interesting to see this be a straight adaptation of Shane Black's original script before it got diluted by studio notes and other writers (Zak Penn is one of those screenwriters whose credit on a movie tends to strike me as a red flag). There are shades of this in the finished product (like the scene where Jack starts to lose it over the idea that he is just a fictional character) and I don't think it's bad, but as it is I can't help but think of what could have been. So no, I wouldn't necessarily call it underrated.
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Yeah, I'd say it's underrated, simply because most people seem to think it's terrible, and it was clearly a bit ahead of its time with all the self-aware fourth wall stuff, which has become a lot more common since. Plenty I'd change about it, to be sure, but there's so many fun and interesting ideas in it that I'm willing to forgive all that.



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Apparently I liked it enough to have done a couple replays.

Both IMDB and RT have it rated at 6.3. I would say my rating would be near that, maybe a few fractions higher. What rating do you think it deserves?
Oh well if I were to give it a rating, I'd say somewhere between 5.9 and 7, but not sure.

It would've been interesting to see this be a straight adaptation of Shane Black's original script before it got diluted by studio notes and other writers (Zak Penn is one of those screenwriters whose credit on a movie tends to strike me as a red flag). There are shades of this in the finished product (like the scene where Jack starts to lose it over the idea that he is just a fictional character) and I don't think it's bad, but as it is I can't help but think of what could have been. So no, I wouldn't necessarily call it underrated.
And this is where the movie kind of goes downhill for me, is when he goes into the real world, it feels that it could have been handled differently, and I also do not get some of the rules of the real world.


WARNING: "SPOILERS" spoilers below


How is that if the villains kill Schwarzenegger that will mean Jack Slater dies? This is just a theory, and who knows if it will work. Or why does the villain want Jack Slater out of the way so bad, since in the real world, he is just a normal man who could be killed much easier, and would be much easier to get hide from? Plus, what is the villain's plan exactly? He talks about how he could get King Kong to come into the real world, but how would that benefit him exactly?

Or how is that when after Slater is shot, getting him back into the movie is actually worth the trouble? Wouldn't he still be alive in the previous Jack Slater movies, and therefore still live on, even if the Slater from Slater IV dies?

These things kept me scratching my head, and I feel that they were perhaps trying to make the third act to serious and too complicated for it's own good. The Grim Reaper stuff also seemed to come out of nowhere, and I read that some say, he was only put in the movie cause of influence from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, but that could not be true as well.


However, watching it again, the first two acts are so much fun, that maybe it could be forgiven.

One thing I noticed that I didn't before is that this movie came out the same year as Demolition Man, which is also a spoof on the action genre, but with Sylvester Stallone.

I wonder both actors coming out with a spoof type movie the same year was intentional? However, in some ways, Last Action Hero, may have some more memorable gags?



Yeah, I'd say it's underrated, simply because most people seem to think it's terrible, and it was clearly a bit ahead of its time with all the self-aware fourth wall stuff, which has become a lot more common since. Plenty I'd change about it, to be sure, but there's so many fun and interesting ideas in it that I'm willing to forgive all that.


Pretty much this.
Solid premise... 25 years ahead of Deadpool


Though it's good, way better than its reputation... I think with a bit of tweaking, it could have been great.



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You're better off watching a random Japanese film. It'll probably be a masterpiece, unlike this flick.
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A typical "Hey, you want to be a film buff? Here's a couple of references!" movie.
Are you using "references" to encompass all the self-referential stuff? Because that stuff is a lot cleverer (and more ahead of its time) than a lot of other things that just "reference" stuff.

Regardless, I still think a meta-analysis posture based on what you think some people might think watching it says about them is the wrong way to watch and judge any film. If you're watching it, and picturing some tasteless American viewer watching it and thinking they "get" film as an art form, and that makes you mad, and that anger is reflected in your rating, I think that's probably bad.



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I loved this as a kid! I have never seen it as an adult but it is what it is, a funny action movie during a period in which Arnie was happy lampooning himself.
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I saw this movie for the first time about a year ago...I don't think it's as bad as its reputation, but there are definitely better movies out there. Loved Charles Dance as the bad guy.



It would've been interesting to see this be a straight adaptation of Shane Black's original script before it got diluted by studio notes and other writers (Zak Penn is one of those screenwriters whose credit on a movie tends to strike me as a red flag). There are shades of this in the finished product (like the scene where Jack starts to lose it over the idea that he is just a fictional character) and I don't think it's bad, but as it is I can't help but think of what could have been. So no, I wouldn't necessarily call it underrated.
Wasn't the reverse true? Zan Penn wrote the original script and Black was brought on to rewrite it.

I would say its a film that was both ahead and behind the times, ahead of the times in the strong meta cinema focus but behind the times as one of the last non Bay big 80's action blockbusters in an era were CGI was becoming a big attraction. Viewed today arguably the reverse is true of course and the relative lack of CGI is probably a plus for most.

As far as how well it works personally I suspect that Black's rewrites were probably for the best. I mean most obviously Arnie does charming comedy better than he does serious drama but the drama that is present I think works better in opposition to that.



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Wikipedia seems to back you up on that. Guess it was easier to think of it as a good Black script that was compromised by Penn.



i like this movie a lot, and very original plot, saw it so many times as a kid



Never liked it. Nice idea but badly realized.
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