Last Action Hero
1993 · Directed by John McTiernan
Original language: English
- fantasy
- action
- comedy
The story
After his father's death, a young boy finds solace in action movies featuring an indestructible cop. Given a magic ticket by a theater manager, he is transported into the film and teams up with the cop to stop a villain who escapes into the real world.
What it’s like
Bright, saturated studio color with the glossy, high-key look of early-nineties blockbusters: sunlit Los Angeles streets, big sodium-orange explosions, and a movie-world Los Angeles where every surface is slightly too clean and too dramatic. The camera moves with brisk, showy confidence, pushing into wide action set-pieces and cutting to crisp reaction shots, while a bombastic orchestral score swells on cue and winks at its own clichés. The mood is sunny, knowing and loud, a comic action spoof with a sweet undercurrent about a grieving kid who needs a hero. Violence is frequent and cartoonish: gunfights, car chases, punches and crashes with plenty of bullets and fireballs, but no real gore, and the peril is played for laughs rather than dread. A brief sequence touches on a father's death, handled gently. Pacing is fast and rarely still, with jokes landing between stunts. This suits a lively Saturday afternoon, a family movie night with older kids, or a fan of action films who enjoys being in on the joke. It is for viewers who want bright, noisy, self-aware escapism with a warm heart.
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