Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Your thoughts on this movie....
With the help of a magic ticket, a young film fan is transported into the fictional world of his favorite action film character.
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Review The Last Action Hero (1993)
- Thread starter Doctor Omega
- Start date
Your thoughts on this movie....
With the help of a magic ticket, a young film fan is transported into the fictional world of his favorite action film character.
I saw this at the cinema with my sister and both of us were let down y it. Its also the last time I saw that film, so I can't really describe in detail what I didn't like about it. But nothing really worked in this film and that kid was annoying.
Carol
Member: Rank 5
I first saw it on TV so never knew it was a box office flop - it's great! Was Arnie doing comedy too outrageous for his action-thriller fan base? It was way after a similar basic plot joke in Purple Rose of Cairo, so maybe if the Conan - Terminator avids thought Arnie was channelling Woody Allen they voted with their feet to repress such an idea. And missed a treat.
And maybe the fact it was a bit underloved is what put Hollywood off making the most obvious of Pterry Pratchett adaptations - Moving Pictures? I've often wondered...
And maybe the fact it was a bit underloved is what put Hollywood off making the most obvious of Pterry Pratchett adaptations - Moving Pictures? I've often wondered...
Carol
Member: Rank 5
True, but I'm not sure I can think of any Hollywood film kids who aren't (E.T., Hook, the 20 minutes of Phantom Menace I actually saw...all very annoying).
OK quick retract - I like the kid in Jurassic Park, or maybe just the way Spielberg destruct-tests the little twerp at every opportunity.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Clinton Era Caused “Last Action Hero” Failure?
In 1993, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was coming off a decade of major success in films – two “Terminator” movies, two “Conan” films, “Predator,” “Total Recall,” “The Running Man ,” “Commando” and even hit comedies like “Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop”.
He had James Cameron’s “True Lies” in the works and was the biggest action star of Hollywood at the time when his new film “Last Action Hero” came out – a movie that saw him team with “Die Hard” director John McTiernan and have a script co-written by “Lethal Weapon” scribe Shane Black.
Of course “Last Action Hero,” with its kid character and its meta approach to action comedies, was famously a bomb. Budgeted at a costly $85 million back then, the film opened to just $15 million States-side and ultimately grossed $50 million domestically and a further $87 million overseas.
In Hollywood’s eyes, it was a disaster and one from which Schwarzenegger’s career never entirely recovered thanks to a series of flops that followed including “Junior,” “Jingle All the Way” and “Batman and Robin”.
Now, over two decades later, the one-time Republican governor of California tells Business Insider he has a theory as to why the film tanked – and it’s not what you’d expect:
“It was one of those things where President Clinton was elected and the press somehow made the whole thing kind of political where they thought, ‘OK, the ’80s action guys are gone here’s a perfect example,’ and they wrote this narrative before anyone saw the movie. The action hero era is over, Bill Clinton is in, the highbrow movies are the ‘in’ thing now, I couldn’t recuperate.”
Certainly by the early 1990s, those big action films of the mid-late 1980s were on the way out – the genre floundering for a few years before the first foundations were laid for today’s market with special effects blockbusters and mid-budget gritty action thrillers.
But the film also got trodden on by another movie that opened just the week before – “Jurassic Park” which dominated the season with a $395 million domestic gross. Additionally the likes of “Sleepless in Seattle,” “The Firm” and “In the Line of Fire” also found notable $100+ million domestic box-office success in the month or so that followed, while the late Summer was dominated by “The Fugitive” which made $183 million on a budget half that of “Last Action Hero”.
In 1993, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was coming off a decade of major success in films – two “Terminator” movies, two “Conan” films, “Predator,” “Total Recall,” “The Running Man ,” “Commando” and even hit comedies like “Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop”.
He had James Cameron’s “True Lies” in the works and was the biggest action star of Hollywood at the time when his new film “Last Action Hero” came out – a movie that saw him team with “Die Hard” director John McTiernan and have a script co-written by “Lethal Weapon” scribe Shane Black.
Of course “Last Action Hero,” with its kid character and its meta approach to action comedies, was famously a bomb. Budgeted at a costly $85 million back then, the film opened to just $15 million States-side and ultimately grossed $50 million domestically and a further $87 million overseas.
In Hollywood’s eyes, it was a disaster and one from which Schwarzenegger’s career never entirely recovered thanks to a series of flops that followed including “Junior,” “Jingle All the Way” and “Batman and Robin”.
Now, over two decades later, the one-time Republican governor of California tells Business Insider he has a theory as to why the film tanked – and it’s not what you’d expect:
“It was one of those things where President Clinton was elected and the press somehow made the whole thing kind of political where they thought, ‘OK, the ’80s action guys are gone here’s a perfect example,’ and they wrote this narrative before anyone saw the movie. The action hero era is over, Bill Clinton is in, the highbrow movies are the ‘in’ thing now, I couldn’t recuperate.”
Certainly by the early 1990s, those big action films of the mid-late 1980s were on the way out – the genre floundering for a few years before the first foundations were laid for today’s market with special effects blockbusters and mid-budget gritty action thrillers.
But the film also got trodden on by another movie that opened just the week before – “Jurassic Park” which dominated the season with a $395 million domestic gross. Additionally the likes of “Sleepless in Seattle,” “The Firm” and “In the Line of Fire” also found notable $100+ million domestic box-office success in the month or so that followed, while the late Summer was dominated by “The Fugitive” which made $183 million on a budget half that of “Last Action Hero”.
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Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
'Last Action Hero' Writer: Arnold Schwarzenegger Has A 'Very Limited Range'
The problem with The Last Action Hero is that it wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be. It was partly a meta-commentary on 80's action movies and partly pure 80's action movie. Combined with the fact that (as far as I remember) the marketing portrayed it as a pure action movie, so the meta-commentary was off putting to audiences that weren't expecting it.