Last Action Hero
Hey, Do You Remember...?
Christopher Schrader
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2014
⏱️ 93 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donna had never seen Last Action Hero. Chris & Carlos convinced her to watch it by describing it as one of the first mainstream movies to flirt with this sort of cheeky self-awareness. They remembered it as a misunderstood gem that was too ahead of its time in the pre-"meta" cinematic landscape of 1993.
Then they all watched it and realized that was a bunch of hot air.
Chris comes to terms with the fact that his memories of this film always lie to him, the bloated running time prevents Donna from being able to really engage with it, and Carlos still enjoys most of it but recognizes that several sequences could probably be axed.
Other topics include: the effect this film had on Schwarzenegger's career and tentpole movies in general, the differences between the original spec script and the finished product, the loosely defined logic of the magic ticket and how these different worlds operate, a climax that commits the cardinal sin of making a promise it doesn't keep, and much more!
But don't worry - it's not 90 min of complaining. There's still an awful lot to love about this movie.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, do you remember Last Action Hero? |
| 0:06.5 | Hello and welcome Hey, do you remember, Hey Do You Remember, a show where we reminisce about a movie or TV series we grew up with, then take off the rose-tinted glasses to see how it holds up today. |
| 0:31.8 | I'm Chris. |
| 0:32.5 | I'm Donna. |
| 0:33.3 | And I'm Carlos. |
| 0:34.2 | And today we're revisiting Last Action Hero. |
| 0:52.6 | Music And I'm Carlos. And today we're revisiting Last Action Hero. While certainly not the biggest box office bomb of all time, 1993's Last Action Hero is definitely one of the most notorious. |
| 1:00.5 | Overhyped and undercooked, there's no denying that the film never quite reconciles the glaringly different visions and tones it's trying to accommodate. |
| 1:08.4 | But does that make it irredeemable? |
| 1:10.0 | It was a meta-movie before that |
| 1:12.0 | word was so ingrained in our vernacular, and its stubborn refusal to conform to a more traditional |
| 1:16.9 | presentation rubbed many a critic the wrong way. It's a movie that wants to have its cake and |
| 1:22.0 | eat it too. It wants to poke fun at the over-the-top action movies of the late 80s and early 90s, |
| 1:29.0 | while still being a satisfying example of one in its own right. The idea was that by the time the credits rolled, these cliches |
| 1:34.1 | and conventions would have been put out to pasture. The genre would no longer be able to indulge in them |
| 1:39.4 | ever again. Action movies would be forced to evolve and become more sophisticated. And in a way, last action |
| 1:45.8 | hero did mark the beginning of the end for the sort of overblown spectacle it was taking to |
| 1:50.4 | task, but not in the way it intended. It was not a noble herald ushering in a new era of |
| 1:55.8 | escapist filmmaking. Instead, it was a cautionary tale passed down from one nervous studio executive to another. |
| 2:02.4 | In its wake, Reuters eventually gave way to the Everyman. |
| 2:06.5 | Franchises were built on high-concept ideas rather than on the backs of a name actor's brand. |
| 2:11.9 | The film may have set its sights too high and bitten off a little more than it can chew, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Christopher Schrader, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Christopher Schrader and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.