MovieChat Forums > Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Discussion > This and Last Action Hero

This and Last Action Hero

posted 6 years ago by GnatNitpicker (52)
4 replies | jump to latest

I think where Last Action Hero failed was it tried to make "The Greatest Ultimate Schwarzenegger Action Movie Ever!"

Terminator 2 sorta already did that.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7699) 6 years ago

Frankly I love Last Action Hero. It was the only Arnold movie besides Jingle all the way I was allowed to see in the theater as a kid. Though to be fair I was born in 1986 so most of his best movies came out when I was too young to watch movies. Then again I was born too late to see The Terminator or Commando in theaters.

[–] PaladinNJ (21509) 6 years ago

I thought of Last Action Hero as Arnold making fun of himself not an attempt at making "The Greatest Ultimate Schwarzenegger Action Movie Ever!"

[–] DracTarashV2 (4493) 6 years ago

Correct. Last Action Hero was, without doubt, made to poke fun at action movies and all their cliches. Here’s where the star of the movie comes in... Arnold, the quintessential action star of the 80’s & 90’s, got involve in LAH to spoof himself and his work — though he plays it straight, the self-awareness is undeniably there.

So yes, it’s not hard to see what they were attempting to do with that movie. Put together the greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie ever? Nope. Make the ultimate action PARODY starring Arnold Schwarzenegger? Affirmative. And in my humble opinion, they succeeded. While flawed, it’s a surprisingly clever and total blast of a movie that holds up fairly well.

[–] MaximRecoil (4597) 5 years ago

Last Action Hero was a satire of action movies. It failed because a lot of people didn't get that it was a satire, plus, it was up against Jurassic Park, which, in terms of number of tickets sold, is the 17th most successful movie of all time. Had they waited a month or so to release it, it probably would have done a lot better, though it was still never destined to be a blockbuster, because too many people didn't get it.