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Last Action Hero
Jack Slater is bigger than life. He is the silver screen's greatest action hero...Then one day his biggest fan is blasted out of the real world and into the movie. together, they begin an epic adventure...Last Action Hero.
- GenresFiction
236 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 12, 2022
Last Action Hero is Robert Tine's novelization of the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name. In the movie, Danny Madigan is a young boy disillusioned with the dangerous, gritty world of 1990s New York and with his meager existence living in a dingy apartment, the lower class son of a widowed waitress. So Danny, like many of us, practices escapism. Except in 1993 there was no Netflix or Disney Plus, so Danny goes to the movies at the theatre to escape reality. Danny loves action movies, and his favourite action hero is Jack Slater, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
One day his elderly friend Nick, who runs the Pandora movie theatre frequented by Danny, tells Danny he has a supposedly magic movie ticket given to him by the famous magician Harry Houdini when he was just a kid himself, backstage after a magic show. He never used the ticket himself, and gives it to Danny. The ticket ends up being magical after all, and Danny is transported from the movie theatre into the newest film of his favourite action movie star, Jack Slater IV. Can Danny survive the flying bullets and enormous explosions of action movie life and get back home?
Last Action Hero is one of my favourite movies, and I hadn't watched it since I was a kid. Around a year ago, I rewatched it, thinking, as many people who rewatch movies from their youth in adulthood likely think, "this is going to be absolutely terrible", but it wasn't! I love the movie today as much as I did back then. Perhaps even more. Its exploration of thought-provoking themes like escapism and heroes, its incredible soundtrack, its balance of mindless macho action and heartwarming moments, and its ahead-of-its-time plot combine to form a spectacular, highly underrated movie experience.
Though the movie is really great, Tine's novelization was just "okay". It follows the movie pretty closely, but did have some interesting minor differences. It has some inconsistencies, and it's riddled with typographical errors, reading a lot like something slapped together quickly and with minimal editing to try to capitalize on the currency of the movie in theatres, which is exactly what this probably was. It's worth reading if you really love the movie like me and want to experience it in multiple mediums; everyone else should just stick to the movie.
Slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaterrrrrrrrrrrrr!
One day his elderly friend Nick, who runs the Pandora movie theatre frequented by Danny, tells Danny he has a supposedly magic movie ticket given to him by the famous magician Harry Houdini when he was just a kid himself, backstage after a magic show. He never used the ticket himself, and gives it to Danny. The ticket ends up being magical after all, and Danny is transported from the movie theatre into the newest film of his favourite action movie star, Jack Slater IV. Can Danny survive the flying bullets and enormous explosions of action movie life and get back home?
Last Action Hero is one of my favourite movies, and I hadn't watched it since I was a kid. Around a year ago, I rewatched it, thinking, as many people who rewatch movies from their youth in adulthood likely think, "this is going to be absolutely terrible", but it wasn't! I love the movie today as much as I did back then. Perhaps even more. Its exploration of thought-provoking themes like escapism and heroes, its incredible soundtrack, its balance of mindless macho action and heartwarming moments, and its ahead-of-its-time plot combine to form a spectacular, highly underrated movie experience.
Though the movie is really great, Tine's novelization was just "okay". It follows the movie pretty closely, but did have some interesting minor differences. It has some inconsistencies, and it's riddled with typographical errors, reading a lot like something slapped together quickly and with minimal editing to try to capitalize on the currency of the movie in theatres, which is exactly what this probably was. It's worth reading if you really love the movie like me and want to experience it in multiple mediums; everyone else should just stick to the movie.
Slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaterrrrrrrrrrrrr!
November 22, 2016
The book is different from the movie all bits that did not make the movie.
Odd that this movie was not liked when came out & is classed as a turkey.But book is great but then I loved the movie too.
Odd that this movie was not liked when came out & is classed as a turkey.But book is great but then I loved the movie too.
April 16, 2012
It's a bummer this bombed. It was an OK concept.
January 19, 2020
Last Action Hero the novel, like the film, is a celebration of why we love movies, movie heroes, and the dumbest things that make action films fun: huge explosions, one liners, macho heroic guys with more weaponry than is deemed realistically necessary, creepy villains played by humble actors from the London Theater, gorgeous butt kicking girls, and how plotless plot devices have more meaning to us in the audience than to the actors who are just paid to read a script and do dumb things so we can worship them as heroes we wish we were, and are inside, mostly without us knowing it. Twelve year old Danny, like a lot of us (me included) escapes to the Pandora theater in New York to watch lots of action films, and couldn't wait for the latest film in the action series classic JACK SLATER. Three movies so far, a fourth on the way. Then his aged friend, a theatre manager, gives him a little gift: a magic movie ticket for JS4 in one week, which would unlock a passage inside the film itself, letting the bearer partake in all the action in the film. And Danny is picked as the first kid in town to see it before it opens in cinemas worldwide. Next night, Danny is all smiles enthralled at the latest installment of the Slater saga, starring THE AH-NOLD SHWARZENEGGER as the cop giving a certain Die Hard Bruce a run for the money. Into the second reel, Danny winds up inside the film itself, teaming up with Slater...only Slater is not quite the hero Danny expected: he doesn't exactly get that he, Jack Slater, is a fictional character in a big budget film (kinda like real life Arnie not getting that he's seen as a role model for a reason!) , he has a family life (sorta), lives in a crummy house, aches that his daughter is taking up martial arts classes (does sound like Ah-Nold, huh?), and doesn't like this pesky kid from another...reality knowing things ahead of time (since Danny did see it go down in the film what the bad guys are planning!). The two team up to track down the bad guy, set the universe right, and learn a lot of stuff along the way about why the film world and the real world are separate, and how both sides can have adventure, thru a certain perspective. To tell more would ruin it for newbies and bore the hell out of those who've seen the film and liked it (or, in a lotta cases, not,) but I myself found it fun and profoundly deep on a lot of levels. A similar film, Purple Rose of Cairo, might've been better, but I dunno, I'll let you readers decide for you.
Three stars
Last Action Hero rules
(The first action hero remains you, yourself and YOU!!!)
Three stars
Last Action Hero rules
(The first action hero remains you, yourself and YOU!!!)
April 21, 2020
You’re gonna live to enjoy all the glorious fruits life has got to offer - acne, shaving, premature ejaculation and your first divorce
Last Action Hero is one of my least favourite Annie films. It seems to drag on and could have been a much tighter, better film, with some good editing. The steelbook is over priced, has a really bad sound mix and suffers from a severe lack of extras.
The novelization suffers from the same issue as feeling overly long as it’s stuck tight to the script, with a couple of minor changes. It doesn’t feel as tedious in parts, due to some short and snappy chapters, and Robert Tine has done what he can with a lacking script.
There’s not many changes from the script/film, just a couple of minor dialogue changes. The teacher changes from a male in the book, to a female on screen and The Ripper initial scene as a minor change, although this is later shown as a flashback.
You have some colour photographs on the back cover and some black and white photos within the book itself. The latter are not in chronological order, with one of the early photos being when Jack is in the movie theatre, during the premiere of Jack Slater IV and there’s also a behind the scenes photo with John McTiernan. I do wish the photos weren’t in black and white, or I think it could have been better being a mixture of colour and black and white. It just cheapens the feel of it slightly. Plus each caption has at the end “in Last Action Hero, a Columbia Pictures release”. Yeah, I know, I’m reading the book.
If you like the film, and like novelizations like me, it would certainly be worthwhile picking up. If you found the film tiresome and tedious, this will not add anything to the film, that you don’t already know.
Last Action Hero is one of my least favourite Annie films. It seems to drag on and could have been a much tighter, better film, with some good editing. The steelbook is over priced, has a really bad sound mix and suffers from a severe lack of extras.
The novelization suffers from the same issue as feeling overly long as it’s stuck tight to the script, with a couple of minor changes. It doesn’t feel as tedious in parts, due to some short and snappy chapters, and Robert Tine has done what he can with a lacking script.
There’s not many changes from the script/film, just a couple of minor dialogue changes. The teacher changes from a male in the book, to a female on screen and The Ripper initial scene as a minor change, although this is later shown as a flashback.
You have some colour photographs on the back cover and some black and white photos within the book itself. The latter are not in chronological order, with one of the early photos being when Jack is in the movie theatre, during the premiere of Jack Slater IV and there’s also a behind the scenes photo with John McTiernan. I do wish the photos weren’t in black and white, or I think it could have been better being a mixture of colour and black and white. It just cheapens the feel of it slightly. Plus each caption has at the end “in Last Action Hero, a Columbia Pictures release”. Yeah, I know, I’m reading the book.
If you like the film, and like novelizations like me, it would certainly be worthwhile picking up. If you found the film tiresome and tedious, this will not add anything to the film, that you don’t already know.
January 3, 2024
A quick read to start the year. This was just a lot of fun, had a great time.
July 25, 2025
The kid asks about his accent 🤣🤣
May 3, 2024
Matige vertaling. Was verder niet heel veel boeiends aan toegevoegd. Tis ook maar een tie-in, lol. Algoeds.
August 6, 2025
Never seen the movie but I enjoyed the book a good amount
May 3, 2016
Despite it's subtitle of "the novel," novelizations are not novels. This particular one is fine for what it is, but I read every book available to me because I was in charge of supervising a naptime and reading books (even novelizations) was better than just sitting.
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews