Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes…. wait, wrong film
Back in the mid 90s, our man Arnold Schwarzenegger was on an action hero high after the tremendous success of Terminator 2: Judgement Day (or what I would like to call Terminator 2: Same as the Last). Looking for a way to be a bit more kid friendly, it seemed as if he wanted to get in one more action movie before he shifted to family-esque films. In comes 1993’s Last Action Hero.
The movie had a unique premise, as a young action film fan named Danny (Austin O’Brien) found himself inside his favorite action series starring tough guy Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Danny, still aware of the real world, helps Slater solve the death of his favorite uncle and the potential assassination of one of the ‘mob families’ in the film. What’s great about this movie is that it went through every action movie cliché. You have the invulnerable hero, who can walk through a line of bullets and survive an exploding house. You have the surreal life of a hero, who does what he wants when he wants. There is also the antagonist Benedict (Charles Dance), who has the one unique feature about him (removable eye) and who is bound to be thwarted by Slater. Everything that you would expect in an action film is packed into this film. In other words, the film knew what it was and used it well.
The problem with Last Action Hero comes two-fold. The first problem is O’Brien (no Seinfeld jokes please). The kid is very annoying. I’m not sure if he was written properly or not, but you want him to be quiet more than Slater. He isn’t a good sidekick and his goofy antics simply slow down the humor. Also, the amount of time spent in the film world is completely imbalanced from how much time is spent in the real world. That imbalance breaks the story up and creates a ‘rushed’ feeling in the climax of the film (no pun intended). If these things were solved it would have been a fantastic feature, but as-is it isn’t it.
As for the transformation from film to HD, it was good for the most part. There is still some visual graininess to the scenes, but the brighter colors (reds/oranges) really visually benefited from the upgrade. I have seen much better than this, so if you’re a fan of the film, don’t expect a huge upgrade in quality. It could have been much better. The audio kicks some major ass, though. That’s one portion of this blu-ray that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you have a chance to get the soundtrack you should, as you’ll enjoy some badass tunes from AC/DC and Megadeth.
Not much to say on the special features side of the equation for this film.