The joke that a few people got
Im one of those few people who got the joke. I got the joke back in 1993 when it came out. I know that this movie was meant to spoof those absurd action movies.

Premise: Daniel gets a magic ticket from a movie store owner given to him by Houdini. While watching the latest Jack Slater movie, Daniel gets transported into the movie itself and ends up joining Jack Slater(played by Arnold) in his crazy adventures. This particular adventure involves Jack finding out the killer of his brother.

Opinion: There are plenty of good things to say about this movie and a few bad things to say about this movie. The action is plentiful and the sets look great. That kid is annoying little wimp though. The humor hits(the outlandish stunts, shooting TNT away with bullets, the hackneyed catchphrases, a funeral filled with strapped mob families etc)as well as misses(Slater's daughter screaming like an idiot while thrashing a bad guy in her room and the cartoon police cat WTF?). My biggest gripe with the film is that it has to constantly explain itself through that craven kid. Its obvious that Daniel is the voice of reason in this movie and what an annoying voice that is! You mean to tell me that somebody breaks into your house armed with a knife, dares you to stab them in the back with the knife and you do nothing? What a wuss! Besides these flaws, this movie is still underrated gem that is worth picking up. A noteworthy satire on ludicrous action flicks.

Awesome fun ride with great parody humor!!!
This movie deserves much more recognition than it gets. It is well written both in story and in the parody within the story. It's one of Arnold's better movies, along with Predator and T2. The whole concept of a boy with a magic ticket that allows mixing of both real world and fictional cinema world is brilliant. The writers covered all the major bases on this one. It's a movie I can just sit down, relax and watch over and over again. And really, it's the perfect capper to the whole 80's generation of quality, fun action movies. It's a tribute sealed with a kiss and a hell of a good time. Highly recommend it to those who enjoy 80's movies, those who enjoy well-done parodies, and those who just like to have fun and enjoy the little kid inside themselves.

"I Think The Taxis Are Bulletproof."
Perhaps the most misunderstood movie released in the 1990s, The Last Action Hero is 130 minutes of tongue-in-cheek laughs at action adventures.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is fantastic in his over-the-top performance as the perfect matinee-idol, Jack Slater. His biggest fan, Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) receives the chance of a lifetime to meet his fictional hero, through a magic ticket that transports him inside a Slater movie.

But the movie villain swipes the ticket and escapes into the real world. Slater and Danny must stop the crook by traveling back to reality, where the bad guys are not scripted to lose in the "closing" scene.

Directed by John McTiernan and featuring a great cast - F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Anthony Quinn, Ian McKellen - the special effects are dynamite, with dialogue that doesn't take things all that seriously.

By Schwarzenegger flawlessly pulling off such one-liners - "Could I speak to the drug dealer of the house, please?" and "Sir, are you a henchman?" - this is clearly a romp through a timeless genre, with the emphasis on Fun.

Rare Edition of film, but can be found for cheap if u know where to look...
First off, this edition of the film is a double sided dvd which contains the widescreen and full screen versions of the film. This edition is hard to find because it looks EXACTLY like the release which only contains the full screen version. Rather than pay $35 for the widescreen version of the film from a seller on amazon, you should go to hastings and sift through there copies looking on the back at the small box below arnold. It should say "widescreen or standard formats". I got my copy for $6.99. Nothing against amazon, but the few individual sellers trying to charge a fortune for this film are just trying to make a cheap buck. Amazon itself is the best place on the web or off to buy dvds.

As far as the film itself, the first half is absolutely awesome arnold-tastic action, but the second half get kinda dull. The first makes it worth adding to any action collection. Ice cream cone to the skull.

An emblematic cult movie!
"The last action hero" is a puzzled fable, a movie within a movie, a smart recreation of our modern vision about the seminal concept of the hero, rescuing the essence of its meaning, spiced of clever humor that truly demands from the viewer a very detailed knowledge of certain classics of the genre.

Jean Epstein as well as many other theorists of the cinema, have established over and over the fact to watch a movie into a dark hall surrounded of other people that barely or nothing know about, it `s very close to what we might a sensorial experience, a cathartic evasion (and sometimes a spiritual meeting, just in very reduced exceptions like Tarkovsky, Bresson, for instance). But Mac Thiernan knew to employ smartly all the available devices to convey us through this labyrinths of missed images, memories and livings immersed in those frames that run 24 times by second, because the movie occupies a place into our contemporary memory, according the level you regard it.

Pitifully, the message was not entirely understood, due perhaps the presence of Scharwzeeger meant for many people full action without another second reading.