Last Action Hero

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Austin O’Brien star in this action drama directed by John McTiernan. When Danny (O’Brien), a dedicated young fan of film star Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger), is given a magic cinema ticket by his local projectionist he is transported into his hero’s latest film. However, one of Slater’s enemies gets hold of the magic ticket and ends up in Danny’s world where he finds a way to finally kill off Slater.

AMAZON REVIEW
John McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October) imaginatively directs this action comedy, which is an interesting failure with some fascinating ironies that make it well worth seeing. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays both a character named Jack Slater–a fictional cop hero who exists only in the movies (ie, the movies seen by the characters in this movie) and the actor who plays Jack Slater in the real world (ie, in the movie we’re actually watching). McTiernan’s hall-of-mirrors effect is fun, though Last Action Hero never quite identifies itself as a pure action movie, science fiction, a kid’s movie, or anything else. (The expensive film suffered at the box office as a result and was roundly criticised for this ambivalence.) What lingers in the memory, however, is Schwarzenegger, playing himself, being confronted by Slater for having created an alter ego for film in the first place. It’s a provocative moment: how often have we seen a major star blatantly wrestle with his actor’s legacy in this way? –Tom Keogh