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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1993
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	John McTiernan
Genre:	Action movie parody
Starring:	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Rating:	2/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107362/
Tagline:	Did Someone Say Action?
Favourite line:	"Hello Mrs. Madigan. Arnold Braunshweiger."

Interesting, though flawed attempt at a post-modern take on action movies.

Arnold Schwarzenneger plays Jack Slater, a character who in the movie is played by Arnold Schwarzennegger, the movie star.
When a young boy is given a special magical ticket by the eccentric projectionist of his local movie theatre, who claims it was given to his grand father by none other than Harry Houdini, the boy finds that he is suddenly thrown into the movie world inhabited by Schwarzenegger's Jack Slater, appearing in the back of his car in the middle of a high speed car chase.
Charles Dance plays Benedict, Jack Slater's arch nemesis, who manages to get his hands on the magic ticket and cross over into the real world and, when Slater follows, he quickly learns that the real world does not conform to the same rules as the movie world he is used to.

A sly swipe by McTiernan at the genre that made his name (Die Hard, Predator), this self-consciously namechecks several of the action movie big-hitters, including Stallone, Van Damme and Schwarzenegger himself.
It has its moments as well, the best being the scene in the video store in which we see the alternate reality where Stallone stars as The Terminator, but fundamentally and, curiously really given that McTiernan is such a dab hand at such things usually, it's the action scenes that let it down. The set pieces are unremarkable and lacking in any spirit, leaving the feeling of something of a damp squib of a movie.
It's clever, sure, and really should have been much better than it is, but it is clear to see why this was such a disastrous flop at the box office.
Disappointing.