Transported into the cinematic world of his favourite action hero, a young film fanatic struggles to convince the character that his life is one big movie in this ambitious exercise in meta/self-referential filmmaking starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not well received upon initial release, the film arguably tackles a bit too much for its own good. It is not only an action movie spoof, but a fourth wall breaking exercise, a surrogate father/son tale and a personal identity drama as the action hero gradually comes to accept that his world is make-believe. If messy and uneven, 'Last Action Hero' is nevertheless a lot of fun. The opening sequence is a bit of a spoof of director John McTiernan's 'Die Hard' and the preteen protagonist even comments on a situation being like in 'Die Hard' towards the end! There are also amusing moments to be had from the boy recognising F. Murray Abraham as the man who "killed Mozart", him imagining Schwarzenegger in Laurence Olivier's 'Hamlet' and a zany sequence involving Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' near the end. The best moments though come from Schwarzenegger poking fun at himself and constantly mispronouncing his own name.
Review of Last Action Hero
