Last Action Hero (1993)
★★★½ — Last Action Hero (1993)
There's a moment in Last Action Hero where Arnold Schwarzenegger walks out of a cinema screen and into the real world, and the film just lets that happen, cheerfully and without apology. No lengthy explanation, no hand-wringing. Just Arnie, blinking in the daylight of modern New York, confused that people aren't reacting to explosions the way they do in the movies. It's a genuinely funny, quietly clever bit of business, and it tells you everything you need to know about what this film is trying to do. The question is whether it pulls it off. Mostly, I think it does.
The premise is as good as any blockbuster of the era managed. A kid obsessed with a fictional cop franchise gets hold of a magic ticket and finds himself transported inside his favourite film, riding shotgun with the larger-than-life hero he's worshipped from the back row. It's a setup ripe for both spectacle and satire, and the film swings at both with real enthusiasm. The jokes about product placement, the absurdity of PG-13 consequence-free violence, the way every supporting character in the movie-world is either a bombshell or a henchman: it's all there, winking at you. Some gags land better than others, but the sheer nerve of attempting this kind of deconstruction inside a mainstream summer blockbuster is something I genuinely respect.
Charles Dance as the villain Benedict is one of the great underappreciated pleasures of 1990s action cinema. He's theatrical in exactly the right way, clearly having an absolute ball, and he gives the film a genuine sense of menace underneath all the comedy. When the story shifts and Benedict crosses over into the real world himself, things get genuinely interesting. Because in the real world, the bad guys actually win sometimes. That's when Last Action Hero earns its keep beyond the gags.
Schwarzenegger, to his credit, is in on the joke the whole way through. He's playing a version of every character he's ever been, and he does it with a self-awareness that could easily have tipped into smugness but somehow doesn't. You think about what he was doing around this time, and I've written about Terminator 2: Judgment Day before, that film being the peak of his action-hero credibility. Last Action Hero came right after it, and I suspect that's exactly why audiences were baffled. They wanted more of the same. What they got instead was the same thing wearing a comedy hat and asking whether you'd noticed the hat.
The tone wobbles, and I won't pretend otherwise. There are stretches where the film can't quite decide if it's a loving send-up or a straight action picture, and it occasionally tries to be both at exactly the same moment, which is a trick that's harder to pull off than it looks. The emotional beats involving the kid and his relationship with the hero feel slightly grafted on, reaching for a warmth the film hasn't quite earned. And at over two hours, it outstays its welcome in the third act.
But viewed now, away from the noise of the summer it was released into and the critical pile-on that followed, it's a genuinely entertaining film with more going on behind the eyes than it was given credit for. It was doing meta-action before meta-action was fashionable, poking at the conventions of the genre from inside them. If you want to see how badly that approach can go wrong, look no further than Batman & Robin (1997), a film that tried to coast on camp and forgot to bring anything else. Last Action Hero at least has wit and warmth keeping it afloat.
It's not a great film. It's not trying to be. It's a big, loud, self-aware piece of popcorn entertainment that happens to have a decent idea at its centre and enough charm to carry you through the rough patches. For fans of the era, of the star, and of action movies that dare to take the mickey out of themselves while still delivering the goods, it's well worth your time.
Three and a half stars.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 1993 | Watched: 2025-10-08
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from John McTiernan: Die Hard (1988) · Predator (1987)
More with Arnold Schwarzenegger: Batman & Robin (1997) · End of Days (1999) · Predator (1987) · Terminator Genisys (2015)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
