The Last Action Hero

First of all, I know I've been slacking about new blog posts, and I apologize. I've just been a little sidetracked lately and haven't gotten around to posting. But that's not the point of this post, so I'll stop rambling and get to the gist of it. The other day at lunch, a particularly redundant saying which I don't quite remember made me think of a long-forgotten favorite movie: 1993's often-overlooked The Last Action Hero. Not only had no one at my table seen it, but neither had the one person who I was sure would love it if he had, a black belt and likely future BASE jumper himself, was unfamiliar with it too. Troubled, I went to IMDb only to find that users gave it a rating of only 5.6/10. Hence this post. The Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, stars in this humorous parody of the action film genre, which also borrows from the "play within a play" aspect of Hamlet. The story follows young Danny, who receives a magic ticket originally from Harry Houdini, which allows him to enter the world of any movie he watches. He enters the realm of Jack Slater IV (Slater being a character portrayed by Schwarzenegger, who also appears as himself later on), leading to his frantic and comical efforts to get back to the real world and an effort to stop the Jack Slater villain from altering the "real" world to his benefit. This isn't the kind of movie meant to compete for Academy Awards or move the hearts of millions; It's not The Godfather or Schindler's List. But if you want a fun, exciting, unique film to kill time with on a rainy day or on a similar occasion, then by all means consider this movie.