Last Action Hero (1993)

A young movie fan gets thrown into the movie world of his favourite action film character.

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers:

Zak Penn (story), Adam Leff (story),

Stars:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney

1 win & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Jack Slater / Himself
F. Murray Abraham	...	John Practice
Art Carney	...	Frank
Charles Dance	...	Benedict
Frank McRae	...	Lieutenant Dekker
Tom Noonan	...	Ripper / Himself
Robert Prosky	...	Nick
Anthony Quinn	...	Tony Vivaldi
Mercedes Ruehl	...	Irene Madigan
Austin O'Brien	...	Danny Madigan
Ian McKellen	...	Death
Professor Toru Tanaka	...	Tough Asian Man
Joan Plowright	...	Teacher
Keith Barish	...	Himself
Karen Duffy	...	Herself

Storyline

Young Danny Madigan is a big fan of Jack Slater, a larger-than-life action hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When his best friend, Nick the projectionist, gives him a magic ticket to the new Jack Slater film, Danny is transported into Slater's world, where the good guys always win. One of Slater's enemies, Benedict the hitman, gets hold of the ticket and ends up in Danny's world, where he realises that if he can kill Schwarzenegger, Slater will be no more. Slater and Danny must travel back and stop him.

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Plot Keywords:

ticket | hero | magic | action hero | projectionist | 

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Taglines:

He's mean . . . And he'll blast through your screen! [DVD cover]

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for strong action sequences

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 June 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Extremely Violent

Filming Locations:

1100 block of Angelina Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

£3,634,344 (UK) (17 September 1993)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Oak Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) SDDS (8 channels) (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many of the "props" in the film are made by "Acme".

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Goofs

When Benedict's dogs stand on each other, the scaffolding they are actually standing on is visible. Especially above the bottom dogs.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dekker: This is one hell of a way to spend Christmas...

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Crazy Credits

The only opening credits in this film are the ones for "Jack Slater IV"

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: Simpsons Bible Stories (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Poison My Eyes"
Written by Charlie Benante, Scott Ian, John Bush, and Frank Bello
Performed by Anthrax

User Reviews

Say what you want about it . . .

but I actually liked it, and I'm not particularly an Arnie fan (he's not a very good actor and he's a terrible governor). Some of his movies are pretty good, some are pretty lousy, but this one isn't, IMO, anywhere near as bad as its reputation. I happen to think it's a lot of fun. Sure it's cartoonish, but ARNIE is cartoonish! That's what makes this movie so much fun; all of his movies--in fact, all action movies in general--are not much more than live-action cartoons, and this movie gleefully makes fun of them in general, and Arnie in particular, and the best part of it is that he's in on the joke. I don't know why it was savaged so much when it was first released; it really didn't deserve it. Several of his later movies ("Eraser" and "End of Days", for example) were far more deserving of that kind of treatment than this one is.

Anyway, I just like this movie. The action scenes were exciting, there were some very funny lines and a ton of clever in-jokes, some great cameos, and it was just an all-around fun flick. Try it, you'll like it.