"Last Action Hero" (2013), I remember when I first watched this movie. Whenever I see an Arnold Schwarzenegger film for the first time, I'm always excited and have high expectations. Sadly, when I saw this movie, I just sat there scratching my head the whole time, thinking: "what am I watching? Did I put in the correct DVD?" Really, this film has way more complexities than it does exciting action! "Last Action Hero" has a boring and confusing story, and the acting is an overall joke. The plot is, a movie fan gets a magic ticket that transports him into the fictional world of his favorite character. Now, that sounds like a pretty interesting premise! Right? The only problem is, that it somehow got roped into an Arnold Schwarzenegger film. A concept like that works better on it's own, not in a big action movie. On it's own, maybe it could work as a standalone film. However, trying to mix it with otherworldly action and fighting just turns it into a mangled mess. To tell you the truth, it felt more like a satire than an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Granted, I like satire films, they can be a lot of fun to watch. That being said, throwing Arnold Schwarzenegger into the spectrum just makes it laughably bad. Another big issue is the writing. One thing I say, is that if you notice the editing, then you know there's an issue. Well, in this case, I notice the writing. One of the writers of this movie, is Shane Black. Who later went on to direct the letdown known as "Iron Man 3" (2013). You can see early elements of that pile of filth in this film. If this and "Iron Man 3" is the best he can do, then that really tells me a lot about his talent. Any way, "Last Action Hero" is just another run-of-the-mill action movie, and nothing else. Do I even need to mention that it's rated PG-13? Yep, that also amounts to disappointing action and fight scenes, because there's only so much you can do in that case. 9 out of 10 Arnold Schwarzenegger films are rated R, as they all should be. But even if this movie was R rated, it would still be a huge letdown. Bottom line, half the concept belongs and the other half does not. As for the acting, it's just a joke. The only one who seemed to be trying with what he had to work with here, was Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. The rest of the cast is standard to just plain abysmal! One thing that was kind of cool, was the cameo appearances from other actors and actresses. To tell you the truth, that was probably the most salvageable part of the film. Wow, that's pretty bad when the cameos do better than the main cast of characters! Now, let's get to the positive elements in this trash heap. The sets/locations are interesting and give the film a unique atmosphere. All of the special effects are very well-done and still hold up to this day. Finally, the soundtrack composed by Michael Kamen is cool and sets an interesting tone. To be honest, his film score is probably the most memorable part of the movie! Seriously, the music is trying harder than the plot! The best song in the soundtrack, is "Big Gun" by AC/DC. We may not have had a great film, but at least we got that song though! "Last Action Hero" is nothing short of an embarrassment to the action movie genre. Poor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's certainly been involved in his fair share of bad films hasn't he? The most positive thing I can say about this movie, is that he has made much worse than this one. I give this film a 3 out of 5 star rating, which equates to 6 out of 10 stars. A 3 out of 5 star rating is dividing mark where I differentiate a movie being good or bad. "Last Action Hero" is a very marginal 3 out of 5/6 out of 10 and I consider it, by my standards, to be a bad movie. Do I really have to tell you to stay away from this film? No, I think that's pretty obvious. But, should you choose an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, just make sure that it's R rated!
Review of Last Action Hero
