Last Action Hero/YMMV
- Alternative Character Interpretation: When transported into the movie world, Danny's casual glee could be a coping mechanism to keep him from freaking out and his knowledge as a movie buff helps keep him alive.
- Angst? What Angst?: Danny is robbed in his apartment at knife-point early in the film. His trauma seems limited to merely that scene and when he's at the police station; the second Danny leaves the station, he goes on like nothing happened.
- Given that he grew up in a section of NY, where that kind of thing happens often, it's possible that he has grown accustomed to the environment he lived in.
- Awesome Music: "Parking Lot".
- Critical Backlash: It was roasted upon release, but it isn't that bad.
- Cult Classic: It was roasted by critics and ignored by audiences (who were still flocking to Jurassic Park) upon release, but earned a fandom in the following years.
- Genius Bonus: The names of the bad guys are references to classical music composers. And the soundtrack is partly made up of modified classical music. Parodied in that classical music doesn't even exist in the Slater-verse.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- It's the only role where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver appear together, and it will certainly be the last. The scene that had Maria arguing with Arnold is even more uncomfortable.
- That and his character Jack Slater's backstory involving being divorced by his ex-wife.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Slater's interaction with Schwarzenegger still works now that he is governor.
- It gets worse/better - while the projectionist is listing things that are worse than being a fictional character, along with floods and wars, he mentions politicians. Twice.
- Also, Last Action Hero did a lot of what TV Tropes does today—years before there was TV Tropes. This website actually makes the movie a lot more hilarious than it was before.
- "When the governor gets here, call me."
- Magnificent Bastard: Benedict, though starting out as Tony Vivaldi's self-proclaimed lackey, quickly proves himself to be the true menace of the film. An exceptional hitman whose marksmanship is only rivaled by his dry wit, Benedict is the real mover and shaker of Vivaldi's operations, and, briskly picking up on the fact that young Danny knows far more about him than he should, Benedict ultimately gets his hands on Danny's magic ticket, enabling him to betray Vivaldi and travel from the Jack Slater film series into the real world. Both disgusted and intrigued by the lack of empathy "real" people display towards their fellow man, Benedict guns down a mechanic to test his theory on this, and, upon receiving no comeuppance, concocts his master plan to bring forth every movie villain to the real world, simply because "in THIS world, the bad guys can WIN!". When confronted by Slater, Benedict fatally wounds the thus-far nigh-invulnerable hero with a simple yet brilliant tactic: tricking him into the open by making Slater believe Benedict's gun is has clicked empty, when truthfully, he "just left one chamber empty" before gunning Jack down.
- Narm Charm:
- DA BED GUYS IN DEAH!!!
- Nao, NO MORE MOOFIES!!
- Needs More Love: And A LOT of it. The movie itself is an homage/parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies, quite a risky move from today's California governor. Most things about which people complain, particularly its crappy and corny script during the in-movie scenes, are actually Self-Deprecation played for humor.
- The Problem with Licensed Games:
- Although the film itself is a pretty interesting Deconstruction of action films, the developers of the tie-in game decided to play everything very straight. Admittedly, they weren't helped by Executive Meddling that prevented them from depicting Slater battling the enemies in any way other than via hand-to-hand combat — instead of the absurdly over-the-top array of weapons originally intended — forcing them to completely redesign the game into a more standard Beat 'em up at the last minute.
- Of course, if you wanted to get meta with it, that's perfect because it's likely any Jack Slater video games sucked too.
- Retroactive Recognition: At the time, Charles Dance (Mr. Benedict) was most well known for serious drama films, and he had an extremely limited presence in genre films. Nowadays, after the runaway success of Game of Thrones and Dance's memorable role as Tywin Lannister, he's a lot more recognizable to a mainstream audience viewing this film.
- Special Effect Failure:
- The launcher that rockets the cop car in the air during the house explosion is clearly visible, as it falls to the ground.
- Jack Slater's game of chicken in the real world also has a rather visible tow cable laying across the alley floor.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Even those who love the movie acknowledge that it has a kick-ass premise, but the execution falls somewhat short.
- On the other hand, to get everything you possibly could out of the plot, the movie would probably have to be ten hours long and involve rather a bit more navel-gazing and a bit less fun than is expected of what's still ultimately a summer blockbuster movie.
- Uncertain Audience: A mass Lampshade Hanging of action/adventure movie tropes mixed with a comparison between Real Life and cinematic reality.
- Vindicated by History: When the film was released, it was panned by critics and was a box office flop. But in the years since then, opinions of the film have softened somewhat. Many people now regard it as an enjoyable parody of action movies from the 1980s and 1990s, and it has even managed to achieve Cult Classic status.
- What an Idiot!: Invoked in the movie by The Grim Reaper, who remarks that Danny's an idiot for not looking for the other half of the ticket. Face Palm.
- Woolseyism: Done brilliantly in the German and French versions, where Jack calls himself "Arnold Beckenbauer". Google it if you don't know the name; any- and everyone in Germany- wait, in the world does.