In Defence Of Last Action Hero
5. The Shane Black-John McTiernan Dream Team
Last Action Hero is obviously a send-up of bombastic, testosterone-fuelled action flicks, but rather than skimp on the gonzo action while pushing the laughs to the forefront - as is so common in the action-comedy genre - this is a movie that instead juggles both splendidly.
This is in large part because the movie has two men at the forefront who are respective masters of these genres. McTiernan, best-loved for Die Hard, Predator and Die Hard with a Vengeance, once again serves up deliciously-helmed mayhem, albeit with the added comedic twist lent by Shane Black, who of course made his name off the Lethal Weapon franchise.
Ironically, original writers Zak Penn and Adam Leff wrote the script as a parody of Black's movies, only for Black and his writing partner David Arnott to come aboard and rewrite their work over several drafts.
Fusing McTiernan and Black's unique sensibilities resulted in a movie where a guy can get killed with an ice cream cone propelled from an exploding ice cream van, and it can be both hilarious and terrifically shot. This is a film where Arnie shoots a stick of dynamite through the air, because why not?
The movie-within-a-movie parody wouldn't be as effective as it is without a director capable of taking the material seriously from a stylistic perspective, which perhaps only further confused audiences about the movie's true intentions at the time of its release.
Today, Tina Turner's cameo as the Mayor, the hilariously on-the-nose exposition, Lethal Weapon-esque jazz music, absurd product placement and countless other wink-wink lampoons of the action genre couldn't make it seem much more obvious. That they're true to the absurdity - and the joy - of the genre ensures the movie retains an affectionate tone that never ventures into mean-spirited territory.
And of course, McTiernan couldn't resist including a few game references to his own work, namely a helicopter laser aimed at Arnie's head distinctly resembling the Predator, and a slow-motion fall mirroring Hans Gruber's (Alan Rickman) unforgettable demise in Die Hard.
It all combines to ensure that Last Action Hero keeps its finger firmly on the pulse of action cinema.