Last Action Hero (1993) Reaction & Review! FIRST TIME WATCHING!! 

RIP Robert Prosky. The theater owner, always liked the actor. He was great at playing the "sweet elderly guy".

Yes, I’ve always loved this movie. It’s a self aware funny story I always liked where Arnold makes fun of himself.

Your reaction when Charles Dance made his entrance was like a mirror to my own. He's such a wonderful villain...

Maybe you had to see this as a kid when Schwarzenegger was at his peak. "the music was unremarkable." I guess AC/DC, Megadeath, Alice in Chains, Def Leppard, Areosmith, Queensrÿche, and Cypress Hill, will be disappointed he didn't like their music.😥

Love the movie, it's a bonkers action meta comedy that's as silly as it is entertaining. Unapologetic guilty non guilty pleasure...makes sense? OK maybe not.

"What happened to the action movie genre?" *Well, first of all super hero movies, but also advances in CG and production techniques means that action movies these days are all fantasy or sci-fi, or over-the-top, exaggerated reality like the Fast and Furious franchise. HK style action also created a demand for stylized aesthetized melee combat that's harder to accept in realistic settings but sells a lot better when it's Darth Maul or Neo. *Jason Bourne - If CG and wuxia pushed "fun" action movies into cartoonish excess, the success of the Bourne movies pushed serious gritty action in the other direction. James Bond, which used to be the undisputed king of silly, over-the-top action, still pushes the bounds of thrilling spectacle but now within the much more limited framework of having to sell as entirely plausible. We've become very demanding in terms of "realistic" action movies, they're harder to write now because the characters and scenarios have to feel authentic as well. *Certain classic tropes, characters and story scenarios won't work in contemporary movies - we have an entirely different attitude toward rogue cops who ignore procedure so they can be violent. We're more aware now of things like how James Bond's Double-0 licence-to-kill squad are international criminals like Jason Bourne and the operatives of Treadstone and Blackbriar. Bad guys are different - Shootings aren't so much gang related anymore, it's all lone wacko incels. Terrorists are difficult to portray without being racist or cartoonish. It's harder to be a bad guy now, there's cameras everywhere and DNA evidence, you can't just be a gang of thugs or a psycho on a rampage, you have to be some kind of criminal mastermind. The Mafia isn't the dominant criminal presence it used to be. The Cold War's over. It's just easier to have heroes fight CG aliens or robots, or have to shoot their way out of a dystopian VR simulation or Cillian Murphy's deep subconscious memories.

This movie is all about the satire, cameos, and references. It's hard to criticize because it intentionally makes fun of itself.

It really is a magical movie for us who saw it as "kids", the demographic it was made for 😁

Love how Arnold could laugh at himself with the whole Arnold Braunschweiger thing. Especially because he was billed "Arnold Strong" early in his career because execs said nobody could pronounce his actual name 😅

Glad you enjoyed it. The movie was never meant to be award winning or deep. Just a parody within a parody of sorts. It seemed geared towards older kids, teens even and young adults who grew up with cheesy 80s movies that were always predictable. I was always sad the movie was so disliked. People don't know how to let go and simply enjoy a silly movie for what it is.

Benedict (Chucky Dance) literally passes through the 4th wall. And there were a bunch of cameos that you missed, Shan. I think you were a tad harsh on this not-quite-brilliant meta comedy. Regardless, if you wanna see Dance be a badass villain again (who doesn't?) the very weird and clumsy Eddie Murphy flick The Golden Child...well, it's definitely *NOT* boring.

One thing to remember is that the movie world was over the top satire while the so-called real world (which is, after all, still pure fantasy fiction) depicted in the movie was still satirical, just not as crazy. I actually liked that it was cheesy and seemingly low effort throughout, but they certainly went all in on the explosions and the cameos.

Having first seen this movie when I was around Danny’s age, I’ve always really loved this one. If viewed through the lens of Fun, it delivers.

I love this movie! One of those movies you can watch over and over and come away with a big old grin on your face. Everything doesn't have to be artistic masterpieces.

It was an action movie satire at a time when peeps didn't understand it was satire. I believe the 'set rules' that they were attempting to use to express the absurdity of the movie was never supposed to be internal logic to the movie; but actually external logic (weird?): The 'set rules' were created by the action genre itself.... so all the absurdity was the making fun of themselves and the genre that they mostly created. I give everyone in the project kudos for being creative; but in this case, they could have mebbe erred on the side of caution and brought in a good comedy writer for script touch ups. I think this would have helped this film be more understandable to the audience at the time (and prolly now too).

Btw, the woman left to Robert Patrick is Sharon Stone in her role from "BASIC INSTINCT".

I was about the same age as the kid in this, and just as obsessed with movies, so this sinked in hard with me :D I still love it. There is more nuanced humour everywhere you pick up as knowledge of movie and moviemaking comes along. But it is just a silly, good time.

When this came out I was 13. So I kind of love this movie. And if Die Hard wasn't about a Christmas Party it wouldn't be a Christmas movie.

The most underrated movie of all time...

This film was kind of pioneering what we, today, might call "meta". Self-aware films that deconstruct their own genres. 'Scream' would do it a lot better for slasher film just three years after this film. And I wonder how much this film served as a learning experience for directors looking to play with the concept.

"There's always a guy in there" Best line of the movie.

A similar themed film of the real world colliding with the film world is The Purple Rose of Cairo by Woody Allen who's films I don't think you have explored yet. Jeff Daniels and Mia Farrow give wonderful touching performances. It was my introduction to Woody Allen films. Highly recommend it.

Seeing Arnold and Art Carney in a scene together (at 7:02) is pretty interesting to me because I literally just finished watching 1974's Happy Anniversary and Goodbye, in which the two actors also share a scene in one of Arnold's earliest acting performances. That makes me think that it had to have been Arnold's idea to cast Carney here because he worked with him before and maybe even wanted to pay him back a little for helping him start his career. Also, this was Carney's last acting performance, so I imagine that he was willing to come out of semi-retirement to work with Arnold again. I just find it neat that they worked together twice, when one was starting his career and when the other was ending it.

William Goldman did some work on the script. The film suffered from having a very short production schedule at the insistence of the studio. John McTiernan said that there simply wasn't time to properly plan the film. And the marketing was problematic. The film feels overstuffed with too much happening/too many ideas and not enough of them developed properly.

It's interesting that Hamlet was groundbreaking for having a play within a play, and this is movies within a movie. I'm sure that's not by accident. And I really want to see a Schwarzenegger Hamlet.

Along similar feel, has Shan watched Neverending Story?

Great reaction, as always. As you realized and acknowledged, it's a meta satire of 80s/90s action cinema -- very goofy, but that's the whole point. I highly recommend the Movies With Mikey video on this movie, it really highlights some of the clever and creative ways this is more than just a goofy parody that breaks the 4th wall.

A guilty pleasure movie for me. At teen age, the possibilities of the concept itself kept my brain going in various directions and fueled my imagination for novel writing for years to come.

Hey Shan! The fact that it's an action Comedy / parody, made by arguably the best action director from the 80s and 90s, is what makes it so awesome. Just like True Lies was such an amazing action comedy (since it was made by James Cameron).

6:31, the late great Anthony Quinn. As popular as James Stewart, John Wayne, Anthony Peck, Humphrey Bogart were at their time but almost forgotten now. Movies that Quinn has played in, The Gun Of Navarone (1961), starring Gregory Peck (The Omen), Back To Bataan (1945), Tycoon (1947), both with John Wayne and Quinn. There are others, (oh, I forgot, the movie Revenge from 1990 starring Keven Costner). But the big one with Quinn, Lawrence Of Arabia. You know that one Shan, thank goodness. All recommended. Oh and you didn't recognize the actor who played Jack Slater's boss. From 48 Hours, the boss of Nick Nolte's cop character. Good reaction and review by the way. Thank you, stay safe, and Have Fun!!!

9:09 "He killed Mozart!" My most favourite quote of this movie. 😀 And of course recommend to watch Seventh seal. Excellent piece of cinematography.

FUN FACT: This was the first movie to use the actual 1993 Columbia Pictures intro. Also in the theatrical, pre-1998 DVD’s TV and RU-vid prints, the original 1993 prototype fanfare is present

Back in the 80's when families were normal and sane, during Christmas you'd be watching Christmas movies with your children all day getting filled with that Christmas spirit then later in the evening when the kids have gone to bed you feel like watching something more adult without losing the Christmas joy so that's why Die Hard is a perfect Christmas movie and should be classified as such.

My favorite gag is the truck in the background flying into the air and exploding and it’s not even acknowledged.🤣

Highly recommend The Seventh Seal. It has some really deep religious/philosophical insights about death and the meaning of life, and for the film critic in you, I've heard it described as "the archetypal use of formalism."

Amazing film Last Action Hero directed by John McTiernan starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Anthony Quinn, Charles Dance, Tom Noonan, Frank McRae, Art Carney, Mercedes Ruehl, Danny DeVito as the voice of Whiskers the cat and the incredible cameos including Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Schriver, James Belushi, Little Richard, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chevy Chase, Damon Wayans, MC Hammer, Sharon Stone and Robert Patrick, a music video of the film is the song Big Gun single by AC/DC. Thank you Shan great reaction awesome😎👍👍👍

She's not just Slayter's daughter, that's Bridgette "Sonya Blade" Wilson. Sometimes a movie just needs to be dumb popcorn entertainment. This is a fun comedy, and that's all it needed to be, really.

Robert Patrick played the T-1000. Later in the police station scene that you showed, there was a lady with shades that looked like Linda Hamilton, but I did not find her credited.

This movie got savaged by critics back 93...but its actually a very clever film.

Die Hard is simply an action movie that takes place during Chritmas. By the way I think you are one of the best reactors of movies out today. Great job Shan.

A great comedy with Arnold Schwarzenegger is PUMPING IRON (1977)

So Good Though!!! This is the Meta-Movie Grand dad... I saw this in the theater as a kid, and I was around the age of the actor playing Danny, so I was the target audience.. Love it! Classic!!

Great reaction. I grew up with the movie so each watch I was more aware of its ridiculousness. Making it actually quite memorable by the end watching arnold drive over the sunset waving actually tears me up with appreciation I grew up with such a funny & fun action comedy.

Whiskers voice was played by Arnold’s friend Danny DeVito. At the premiere, behind Van Damme you can hardly see him, but there’s former 007 Timothy Dalton.

- To be or not to be? - Not to be!

I would pay good money to see this movies version of Hamlet.

I like how in 1993, among classic films like Schindler's List, Jurassic Park and others, both Stallone and Schwarzenegger made very different action films where they made references to their rival (Last Action Hero has Stallone in Terminator 2, and in Demolition Man Arnold became president).

Last Action Hero does one thing really good: Showing how absurd (fun) 80's Action movies where. I love it!

Yes, please react to "The Seventh Seal".

I think the soundtrack is amazing. Not the score, so much, but the selection of songs in the movie predicted the direction Rock music was taking in the 90's. Grunge was on the way out and good old basic hard rock was coming back.

Keep in mind the movie characters are are in character even in the real world. That's not an actor playing death that stepped out of the theater, that's Death. Holy Shit. It's a good thing he appears to be a mellow force of nature when your times has come, version of Death rather than a monster. Can you imagine if something like The One Ring were to brought into the real world?

I absolutely loved the appearance of so many famous celebrities plus the other movie references. I enjoyed this film a lot! 🎥

"Last Action Hero" is not a bad movie. I consider it a touch too ambitious. The idea that all movies exist in a shared universe was poorly realized. And I think LAH's biggest problem was that it came along in the gray time of the early 90s when Hollywood was transitioning from 80s to the 90s. LAH is not really of either decade, and ended up being hit and miss for me.

For me this movie represents and celebrates that intrigue and wonder we all have as true movie fans especially when we were kids. It also literally in this case captures that certain magic of the movie theatre experience.

It's funny you've noticed Robert Patrick in his T-1000 makeup, but you haven't noticed Sharon freaking Stone in her "Basic Instinct" makeup just a second earlier.

Speaking of Charles Dance and Dracula (17:58), he later had a small role in Dracula: Untold. The film was somewhat underwhelming but a sequel featuring him more prominently was hinted (though not realized yet).

About the Die Hard Christmas movie thing; For me it is a Christmas must-see, and by all accounts it really SHOULD be a Christmas movie for everyone, but I do understand why it might be 50/50 on that. It was made in a time where movies didn't open at the same time everywhere. In the US Die Hard was The 1988 summer blockbuster, opening somewhere around late June or early July. But where I live it opened mid-October, and since October here is basically the start of Christmas preparations, it will always be a Christmas movie here.

No, Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It just happens to take place at Christmas time. The fact that it’s at Christmas time is not integral to the plot of the movie. If the Christmas elements can very very easily be removed/replaced and you still have the same movie, means it’s not a Christmas movie.

This is my personal favorite Arnold movie. Not that he doesn't have tons of great movies, but this one is special since it was him poking a little fun at himself. I saw this a lot as a kid on cable and being a movie fan myself it appeals to me even now. Maybe I'm just a big kid at heart lol

Shan, now you have to watch "The Seventh Seal", since it was referenced in this movie.

This is the greatest Schwarzenegger movie. It's Arnie making fun of both himself and action movie tropes in general. That's what makes this movie so surreal. And yes "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie. As some viewers put it, "It's not officially Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off the Nakatomi Tower.

Please rewatch THE NEVERENDING STORY!

You need to do True Lies! amazing film with arnold, tom arnold and jamie lee curtis with an epic small part from bill paxton. True Lies!

"Did you ever want to be a farmer? Here's a couple of achers(acres)." This is possibly my favorite one-liner ever.

I don’t remember a movie being self aware before this one, which is part of what made it a classic. Especially during the 90’s horrible action movies era.

Among other things, this movie is a commentary on free will vs. the divine plan. Slater's life is ruled by a divine plan, i.e. the scripts of his movies. Slater's son dies because the divine author wants a little pathos in hiis story. Slater is divorced because it sets up a joke with the tape recorder. Slater's wife's house (where a scene in the movie is set) is a nice house in a pricey neighborhood - because that's where Jack Slater IV introduces us to his daughter. And as that's a scene in the movie, it has to be a nice house. Slater's apartment on the other hand presumably never figures into the movie Jack Slater IV and is essentially barren. No decorations, minimal furnishings, multiple iterations of the same outfit in the closet (so the hero wil always wear a distinctive outfit) and so on. It's in his crappy apartment that Slater opens up to Danny about how crazy his life has become, and how all of that craziness has screwed his life up - because that location is outside the movie Jack Slater IV. We find out there that the tape recorder bit with his wife is a fake that he set up so it would appear - inside the movie - that he has a life, that he worries that his daughter will get caught up in his action hero life and killed, that he really has nothing in his life other than his screen-worthy adventures. And all because God in his wolrd, the director/screenwriter of his movies, has written his life this way. His divine purpose in life is to entertain people in Danny's (the real) world. Danny, on the other hand, lives in the "real" world, a world more akin to actual reality. Danny lives in the world where Slater's God lives. Sure, in reality Danny's world is just another scripted world, but for the purposes of the movie it isnt. For the purposes of the movie Danny's world is a world with real free will. Things don't happen in Danny's world becasue they make a good story or because the plot needs them to happen. They happpen because people choose them. In Danny's world Slater can say things that he can't say in his own world. Danny's world also allows Slater, now that he knows that his entire life is controlled by divine purpose, to confront one of his world's gods - Arnold. And what does Slater say to the actor who literally created him? "You've brought me nothing but pain." This is Slater's judgment on being the object of divine purpose. Because every crappy thing that has happened to him - his divorce, his son's death, the murder of his cousin - has been deliberately imposed upon him by the divine author as entertainment. At least in Danny's world (as a proxy for our own) when bad things happen to people, it's not because the universe is intent on making us suffer. It's because shit happens and sometimes it happens to us. I could go on further, but that's my general point. And it's late, so I need to get to sleep. But I did appreciate that they worked in some subtle philosophical themes among the action movie satire.

The premise of Last Action Hero has been around for ages. Check out Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and, to a lesser extent, Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr." (from 1924!).

Yes, I do consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie.

Die Hard is as much a Christmas movie as Rocky IV, Trading Places, and Lethal Weapon. It's a movie that takes place at Christmas time, with Christmas not being the main theme.

Please watch "The Neverending Story"!

DieHard is an action movie you watch over the Xmas holidays. Same with the old Batman Returns. Great action film that takes place during Christmas.

Vivaldi was no other than Anthony Quinn. One of the most famous actors of the 20th century.

I remember I had to lie about my age to be able to see this in theatre. Still the action movie tropes were pretty clear even to a kid.

TBH, I absolutely loved this film. Pokes fun and addresses so many movie cliches and traditions - lol

I can imagine Arnold as a stand up comedian. Arnold: Get to to chopper would be starting joke

The music was meant to be generic 80's action film I think. Maybe it would have been better if it had spent a bit more time in the real world rather than rush it through and that the characters had less plot armour whilst in the real world. Not sure how well a reaction to the seventh seal would go (whether the youtube world can handle a black and white film originally in swedish) but I would totally recommend you to watch it. It's one of very few pre 1970's films I'm still happy to re-watch.

compared to the current stuff Hollywood is knocking out this is a masterpiece 😂😂. its a fun film that knows exactly what it is . this is a guilty pleasure for me. and die hard is a Christmas movie. " i have a machine gun ho ho ho ". next thing you will be telling me Alita Battle Angel is not a love story

Possibly the most underrated movie of all time.

Another film by John McTiernan you could check out is '13th warrior', which had a massive budget upto 160 million by some estimates and unfortunately lots of problems as well.

4:42 - this is the moment I most remember from this movie

I definitely think this is a movie that has had its impact lessened over time - this sort of meta-commentary is ubiquitous today but in 1993 the idea of a movie commenting on movies while being a movie within a movie was a fairly novel idea, especially in such large scale and budget. It was very misunderstood at the time, and I think its highest peak of value was probably about 10 years after it came out, just before meta media exploded. It definitely wasn't perfect, watching it now like you I see the flaws in the writing and cinematography. It's almost like the task of going full meta was such a new and confounding task for them that they had to let the rest of the film suffer in order to make it work at the time. Mostly what I love is the character work - Charles Dance, Tom Noonan, F. Murray Abraham, and let's give Arnie some credit here. This was his charm in full force and his performance as an aloof action star might seem easy to pull off but as they always say, the one thing an actor doesn't want to be is themselves so it couldn't have been easy. Shane Black has always had a bit of a self-awareness to his movies, like he loves the absurdity and he also loves calling attention to the absurdity at the same time. I love his movie Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang myself, though I find a lot of the movies he's written to be solid scripts kind of glossed over by directors that don't quite get it (Long Kiss Goodnight comes to mind - good watch but could have been so much more). Good job Shan!

Arnold Braunschweiger is a funny person. Die Hard is definitely a Action Christmas movie, due to the timeline. Charles Dance is such an underrated Villain.

🔥🔥Yes yes and yes and yes it's z first time watching...OH can't wait to watch your reaction, this movie is just really solid, funny and over the top

I think film would have been received in clearer way by many if it was just proper parody without division of realities. As many parodies go plot shouldnt matter much. Parodies are essentially parade of various gags (verbal, visual, et cet). Like, for example, Airplane, Loaded Weapon, Hot Shots, Top Secret. I would recommend Loaded Weapon (good spoof from early 90s).

Shan, you are a sophisticated viewer of cinema so I believe you’ll have the same reaction to this movie we had when it came out. It’s a high concept film where the good stuff is just ‘pretty good’ but the bad stuff is really bad. Pressing play and sending apologies from the 90’s.

I love this movie, I think the cheesieness was intentional to have a dig at action movies, and as for the soundtrack, the action theme was called "Big Gun" and was performed by AC/DC, if you want a real surprise, have a search for "AC/DC - Big Gun" and watch the official video for the song, it's a great video with a cameo from Arnie himself, enjoy.

You should watch Zorba the Greek, so next time you recognize Anthony Quinn :)

Die Hard/Christmas is ..... a meme people parrot every time.

No die hard is not a Christmas movie, "last action hero" is a Christmas movie It has hard to make out Christmas lights in the background often times blurry from being out of focus Best Christmas movie ever!

This movie is easily in my top 10 movies of all time. And #1 for comedy buddy cop movies. To bad it didn't as well because they SUCKED at marketing it. The trailer was beyond crappy and made the movie premise look really dumb. Not in a good way as in "This is so absurd that it's amazing!"

Die Hard somehow feels like a Christmas movie. Set in the holiday season it seems to draw me (and others) to watch it around that tme.

Not a Christmas movie. It all of a sudden became a Holiday movie over 20 years after coming out. Released in July as a summer blockbuster. Time setting of the movie doesn’t make it a holiday movie. No one calls Scent of a Woman a Thanksgiving movie, but it takes place then.

Critics for some reason HATE it when action stars branch into other genres (...which is like, wth? aren't you guys supposed to be FOR art beyond mindless violence?). Arnold got critic hate for "Jingle All the Way" too and it's a mostly beloved family film classic. I also strongly, strongly recommend you watch Stallone's "Oscar", another masterpiece largely forgotten in the West (loved in Europe tho) simply because it was an action star doing a different type of film.

The director has come out and said, it was a christmas movie!

Brian De Palmas "Casualties of War" please! With Sean Penn, Michael J Fox. Ennio Morricone composer. True story in Vietnam War. It's Quentin Tarantinos favorite war film of all time.

Another great reaction as always. Never been even a slight fan of this but you did it justice and treated it fairly. Eagerly anticipating the Wrath of Khan though

To me, a Christmas movie is a movie that goes out of its way to make sure you know it takes place during the Christmas season. Doesn't matter what genre it is. Which Die Hard does. I personally liked this one. Liked it back then at least. Haven't seen it in a couple decades. lol So maybe I didn't like it as much as Predator.

Empire magazine's summer preview issue for 1993 had Last Action Hero on the cover, and a huge article inside - well comparative to any other film featured. It was considered a dead cert to be a huge hit as Arnold Schwarzenegger was extremely bankable at the time - his last film before it was Terminator 2, and before that Total Recall. It would also be directed by the director of Predator. Jurassic Park had about half a page somewhere in the middle. There was even a shot of Schwarzenegger covered in tar pointing and laughing at a dinosaur (just found the image on Google actually) as they planned to release Last Action Hero the same weekend as Jurassic Park and were fully expecting to trounce JP. They eventually moved the release date back a week though, so it came out the week after Jurassic Park. Needless to say Last Action Hero was trounced.

Heyyyy, I loved this one when I was a kid, I'm really looking forward to this review!

Great reaction video