Last Action Hero is a corny, awkwardly edited, fun, and heartfelt meta buddy-cop flick. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the fictional action hero cop Jack Slater (and himself occasionally), Slater is demonstrated as not just a significant Hollywood action hero reminiscent of Schwarzenegger’s famous roles, but the personal idol of real-life kid Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien). Unlike Slater and Slater’s idealized New York City, Madigan lives a rough and lonesome life growing up in a crime-ridden area of the city, getting bullied at school or robbed at knifepoint right outside his home. Living with his recently widowed mother, Irene (Mercedes Ruehl), he goes to the local rundown movie theater run by an older man and friend, Nick (Robert Prosky), to cope with his loss. Nick and Madigan quickly bond, and Nick bestows a cinematic heirloom gifted to him from his brother: a ticket that allows its holder to travel into films. While Madigan initially uses this to meet his hero in Slater, things quickly turn hairy as the ticket falls into the hands of Mr. Benedict (Charles Dance), Slater’s hidden-in-sight arch-nemesis. Once Mr. Benedict finds that he can commit crimes without consequence in the real world, he decides to stay, bringing other evil movie characters along with him. Slater and Madigan must work together to stop Benedict before he kills everyone – finding their own purposes beyond the screen in the process.

Action cranks the camp with mixed results. It’s an hour too long, the writing is bloated, the acting is flat, the editing is disruptively awkward, and it’s chaotically structured. Nonetheless, there are plenty of meta jokes that cleverly satirize Hollywood stars and systems of casting and production, from watching Madigan explain Slater’s actor’s typical roles and lines only for Slater to repeat similarly veined ones to full-on interactions between characters and their real-life counterparts. These jokes help disguise glaring performance and script issues, as quips make up a sizable chunk of the runtime. Watching Schwarzenegger literally make fun of himself with a surprising amount of self-awareness is pure fun. Additionally, the general concept is enticing. Action is a movie about a kid who goes into his favorite movie to make his favorite character realize he’s in a movie – in a movie. It’s equal parts an ode to cinema, movie-ception, and buddy-cop family fun. While none of the film’s parts are entirely cohesive, this vision is clear and creative enough to entertain on its own. There are also many attempts to expand Slater’s world beyond the screen, giving him more depth than the one-dimensional lines allude to. Moreover, though Last Action Hero isn’t exactly well-realized, its humor, meta self-awareness, and self-deprecating nature make it a fun icon of ’90s American action filmmaking and a more humbling gaze at Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Screens in 35 mm Friday, 5/10, 11:59pm @ Coolidge Corner
Part of the midnight repertory series: May-hem