Last Action Hero

[Barry]

The Last Action Hero is a 1993  film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is an insightful, funny, clever, satirical movie. Which is exactly why it failed at the box office. You see Arnold’s fan expected a traditional action movie. I did, very much, enjoy the movie. 
 
Reminiscent of Woody Allen’s 1985 “The Purple Rose of Cairo” the characters on screen can venture into the real world of the audience and vice versa. (Buster Keaton actually did this first.) Schwarzenegger  uses this technique to point out and make fun of movie traditions that all firmly set in action and adventure movies, especially his own.
 
But this movie was more for a Woody Allen type audience, not a Schwarzenegger one. His young fans simply didn’t get it, they wanted a pure action film. Way back then, I saw this movie in the theatre with ¾ of the seats empty. The other seats were filled with people under the age of 30.
 
Let me give you an example.  The young man, a movie goer from the “real world” sees, on screen the villain played by F. Murray Abraham. He yells out, “Don’t believe him, he killed Mozart.” Believe me, not one person, other than me and my friends, in that audience saw Amadeus. Hamlet is referenced in the beginning, with Arnold playing him. Lines like that just went over their heads.  Not every line was perfect, but this an enjoyable film. There are also plenty of cameos.
 
The video here is excellent and the Atmos soundtrack is very good, often exaggerated,  to be part of the fun.

[Paul Heroy]

Let me give you an example.  The young man, a movie goer from the “real world” sees, on screen the villain played by F. Murray Abraham. He yells out, “Don’t believe him, he killed Mozart.” Believe me, not one person, other than me and my friends, in that audience saw Amadeus. Hamlet is referenced in the beginning, with Arnold playing him. Lines like that just went over their heads.  Not every line was perfect, but this an enjoyable film. There are also plenty of cameos.
 
The video here is excellent and the Atmos soundtrack is very good, often exaggerated,  to be part of the fun.

I've never seen TLAH, but I loved Amadeus (as a young man, even) and now I MUST see this! Thanks for the review Barry.

[AVSCraig]

I've never seen TLAH, but I loved Amadeus (as a young man, even) and now I MUST see this! Thanks for the review Barry.

Same here. I might need to do a blind buy of this.

[bmoney]

First time ever viewing it. I loved it. Had to realize what it was first 20 minutes or so since it was soooooo cheesy lol