Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most famous movie stars in the world, but he thinks one underrated movie in his filmography was given a Raw Deal.
Schwarzenegger’s biggest movies have attracted an incredible amount of acclaim over the years: The Terminator is a terrifying, beautiful horror actioner; its sequel, T2: Judgment Day, is one of the greatest movies of all time; Predator is one of the most seminal action films of the ’80s; and True Lies ranks among James Cameron’s best works.
Let’s not pretend, though: he’s had a few stinkers, like Junior, Batman & Robin, End of Days, and the latter two Terminator entries, Genisys and Dark Fate.
However, when looking back across his whole career, there’s one movie in particular that he feels is pretty underrated.
Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks this amazing movie is underrated
According to Schwarzenegger, Last Action Hero is his most underrated movie.
Directed by Die Hard’s John McTiernan, it was a dream-come-true premise for any young, hungry cinemagoer. It follows a boy who’s transported through the cinema screen into the star’s fictional Jack Slater universe, where he meets and teams up with him against a wicked assassin who manages to escape into the real world. It is incredible, especially for its one-liners – for example: “To be, or not to be… not to be.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said: “It was slaughtered before anybody saw it. It was literally a political attack because I was campaigning for [former President George H.W. Bush], but Bill Clinton won.
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“Last Action Hero was great – it wasn’t fantastic, but it was underrated. Now, more and more people are seeing it and saying, ‘I love this movie.’ I’m getting the residual checks, so I know it’s true. It made money – that’s always an important thing for me. Because it’s show business, right?”
It’s not the first time Schwarzenegger has cited Clinton’s election win. Earlier speaking to Business Insider, he said it was “the year to beat on Arnold”, referencing the constant coverage of the movie’s production and seemingly negative test screenings.
“It was one of those things where President Clinton was elected and the press somehow made the whole thing kind of political where they thought, ‘Okay, the ‘80s action guys are gone, here’s a perfect example,’ and they wrote this narrative before anyone saw the movie,” he said.
“The action hero era is over, Bill Clinton is in, the highbrow movies are the ‘in’ thing now, I couldn’t recuperate… I think more people would have seen it if the press treated it differently, but now the good thing is that with streaming people can go and watch it.”
Last Action Hero is available to stream on Netflix and Hulu. It is also available to rent or buy via Amazon Prime, which you can sign up for here.
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