Last Action Hero

An Arnold Schwarzenegger backlash had been on the cards for some time and when this extravaganza was released the knives were well and truly out. It was actually all a little unfair, because this is a smart, funny blockbuster that gave director John McTiernan the opportunity to send up not only Schwarzenegger's heroic image, but also the action genre itself. The story centres around a youngster (Austin O'Brien) who finds himself sucked into the celluloid world of his biggest hero, Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger), as he tracks the bad guys (Charles Dance and Anthony Quinn) in his new film. Things become complicated when the fictional characters take the chance to escape into the real world. Schwarzenegger has rarely been better and he is backed up by a never-ending stream of star names in cameo roles, including James Belushi, Sharon Stone, Joan Plowright, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chevy Chase, plus Terminator 2's James Cameron, Robert Patrick and Edward Furlong. And, although McTiernan has fun spoofing the conventions of the action genre, he still manages to slip in some spectacular set pieces.