Last Action Hero Blu-ray Review & Comments

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Reviewed by Andrew Mogford, 28th February 2010
Last Action Hero, in my opinion, deserves much more respect than it has been given and I am going to stand up for it here. The film has a good story, very funny moments, and great action sequences, and a fantastic cast! What is there not to like here? Ok, some of the comedy scenes are overdone and the ending is too much of a tonal shift from the rest of the film, but these are minor flaws in a very enjoyable couple of hours. If you have never seen the film, don’t allow it’s reputation to proceed it and give it a go. It really is better than you have heard.

As for the disc, the picture and sound are both well above average, and surprisingly impressive for a film that is now 16 years old, although there is a criminal lack of extras here. Bearing in mind the treatment the film has had over the years, I cannot imagine a double dip ever appearing so I have no hesitation in recommending this. If one person discovers an underrated film from reading this review, then I will be happy.


Read the full review...
 
Excellent review, Andrew. The PQ on this was a revelation after all these years. McTiernan loved his lens flare, long before that Abrams punk.
 
This movie has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years. Glad to see that it finally gets the HD treatment.

It was the first movie to have a proper cinema run with SDDS i think and prior to that, SDDS was tested with In the Line of Fire.

I remember that year with fondness when this movie went up against Jurassic Park and the sound wars hotted up between Dolby, DTS and SDDS:rolleyes:
 
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Yeah good review, this too is a guilty pleasure of mine and is underrated. It's much cleverer than most people think it is. Im pleased AVF have reviewed this BD, unfortunately I'll stick with my dvd for now until the price comes down. It's also a shame they didn't include any extras, would've liked to have heard a directors commentary (or is he still in prison?).
 
It was the first movie to have a proper cinema run with SDDS i think and prior to that, SDDS was tested In the Line of Fire.

I remember that year with fondness when this movie went up against Jurassic Park and the sound wars hotted up between Dolby, DTS and SDDS:rolleyes:

I mentioned this in the review, but didn't realise SDDS had already been tested.

Happy days. :D
 
Yeah good review, this too is a guilty pleasure of mine and is underrated. It's much cleverer than most people think it is. Im pleased AVF have reviewed this BD, unfortunately I'll stick with my dvd for now until the price comes down. It's also a shame they didn't include any extras, would've liked to have heard a directors commentary (or is he still in prison?).

I did not know the director was in prison:eek: Not that i should anyway.......
 
Great review, thanks

I think the reason behind a lot of the negative comments on the film were aimed at Arnolds Schwarzenegger's aparent 'wooden' comedy acting, and that sometimes he couldn't quite get the comic timing spot on

It was like he was forcing it too much

I loved the film, by the way

Best Arnie film was The Terminator, I wish he had done more films as the bad guy
When T2 came out, I couldn't wait for Arnie to cause more destruction and mayhem, but was disappointed by the "you can't kill anyone' theme of his character - shame really

Arnie is at his best when the body count is high and his Uzi 9millimetre is emptying in to lots of bad guys

His most polished performance was in True Lies, excellent film, with an excellent cast and fantastic script and story
Bill Paxton was superb

Funny both his best films were directed by James Cameron, who is a great Director, shame he spoilt it all with Titanic - which was one of the worst films ever, along with Top Gun and Dirty Dancing
 
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Couldn't agree more. Never understood why people disliked this movie. In fact I think Arnie is brilliant in the movie :D
I think maybe it was released at a time when action movies were really big, and seeing Arnie spoof the genre was a no no.
 
This is one of my all time favorites, having watched this to death when it came out and still do on occasion.
IMO the 3rd best Ahnold film, after T1 and Predator.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really didn't think much of T2, it's a great film but doesn't hold a candle to the first one. Not to mention Furlong is super-annoying.

But yeah, great review!:smashin:
 
Finally watched this yesterday (1st time ever!) and while I agree with the film review I disagree with the scores for the BD itself. The picture is what it is, looking sharp and detailed in brightly lit exteriors, and decidedly grainy during darker shots. This is entirely consistent with the characteristics of film, so it was very pleasing to my eye. No EE either.

That's not to say that there weren't any iffy moments, as some of the CG shots have horribly blown-out colour (not the first time I've seen that artefact on early CG) and one optical is so bad it looks like a VHS blow-up, but in the main it looks precisely as I'd expect an anamorphic movie of this vintage to look. 8 out of 10 for me.

The sound is pretty kick-ass too. The rears come alive with some surprisingly crisp effects, and while the bass isn't as intense as on a latter-day 5.1 mix, sounding a little breathy at times, it still rocked my sub every time Slater fires his big-ass Desert Eagle, never mind the explosions. Again, 8 out of 10.
 

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