posted
Lately, I've been going back to re-watch films from 1992-94 and see if I had been...uncharitable in my judgment of them.
It was a difficult time for me. I tended to either repress my pain and confusion, or take out on popular entertainment.
Perhaps I had been hasty in condemning some of the big movies released those years.
Well, I wasn't wrong about 1992! Most of the films that year? Sheer crud. I moved on. 1993. The Last Action Hero. The real life happenings associated with my initial viewing of that film were not pleasant. I have a father who back then viewed it as a personal insult if one had to leave to use the restroom during a movie he'd treated one to.
(He mellowed out in later years.)
My gosh. I remember not drinking anything all day long, so I wouldn't risk having to go. I was not going to make him upset. I only pretended to sip the soda he bought for me.
*shakes head*
I'm basically a mess.
Anyway, as I recalled, the strongest parts of the movie were those that played with the tropes of a stereotypical Action Cop Buddy Flick. The chatty villains. The Guy Who Killed Mozart is a traitor, naturally. The complete lack of unattractive women in the Jack Slater-verse. Jack can't curse, even if he wants to. The "normal" police officers all being given a wacky sidekick (up to and including a cartoon cat!) before going out on patrol.
If the movie had stuck to that, I think I would have liked it a lot more.
But, then comes the third act. They bring two of the bad guys and the hero into the real world, and it tries to be deep and powerful. But, it's impossible for me to feel anything. They've just spent the past 80+ minutes building up how unreal and silly these characters are, even in context! Why should I care if Jack meets Arnold? Why should I care if the bad guys are crashing a movie premiere? What's up with the convoluted powers ascribed to the Magic Ticket? And could the kid's crying face get any more annoying?
The brief cameo by Ian McKellen as the Duke of Spook, the Doc of Shock, the Man With No Tan, Death Himself from The Seventh Seal was the only thing that held my interest.
The film had a great gimmick, and a bit of fun initially spoofing its genre...but then it tried to do a different, more serious story. One much better explored in, say, Stranger Than Fiction or The Purple Rose of Cairo.
It should have been content to be a silly popcorn flick.
I should note the DVD was pan-and-scan format, which made this deliberately larger than life film really rough on the eyes. *blink-blink*
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I thought The Last Action Hero was creative and clever. I especially enjoyed having Arnold Schwarzeneggar the actor as a character in his own fantasy movie, where Slater meets Arnie, and desperately tries to protect him. In a way, it reminded me of an episode of Charmed where characters in old movies were coming out of the screen to function as living people/creatures.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
The Last Action Hero also had some elements of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which is a long-time favorite of mine.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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