I’d go so far as to say they’re cliches now because of Casablanca.
Yes! I caught it when it started playing on cable, way back when, and thought the build of suspense and horror was great. It feels like a horror film in the middle, but then turns into a warrior’s tale.
It won’t piss anybody off. (Well, practically anybody.) The title is a known and established trope. And you can’t copyright titles for good reason. (You can sort of trademark them.)
I think this is a good idea, and not offensive at all. And I’m not even paying you royalties when I make it. 
And there is nothing wrong with mocking Heinlein, unless you’re mocking him for something he wasn’t. But he was a lot of mockable stuff.
Wow, I agree!
Wait…
“Lo there do I see my father…”
Great film. I actually saw it in the theater.
I don’t buy this as an excuse. Critics frequently embrace stars in different roles if the movie’s good. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s been in other comedies, too, and was in two successful comedies BEFORE “Last Action Hero” - “Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop,” both of which were quite well received. Half the English-speaking world knows the line “It’s not a toomah!” So nobody was unused to seeing Arnold in a comedy.
“Last Action Hero” just isn’t a very good movie; the kid is staggeringly unlikeable and the movie isn’t especially well-crafted. I’d say it definitely has its moments, but the fact it’s a satire isn’t an excuse for its flaws, some of which are just fundamental filmmaking problems; it’s not well edited, for instance, which throws the timing of the jokes off.
Similarly, I am struggling with the idea that people couldn’t buy Bruce Willis in a comedy when the man became famous because he was in comedic TV show. Indeed, Willis is a perfect test case because people were once skeptical of him headlining an ACTION movie, because he was largely known for being a funny guy. You might have heard of that action movie, little picture called “Die Hard.” The movie won people over to the idea of Willis as an action star because, of course, it is an absolutely fantastic movie. There’s no reason Willis could not have had success in a subsequent comedy if it had been good.
I watched Ishtar as well, based on this thread, and realized I had made a grave error about 10 seconds into the opening.
What killed it for me was the bad music. I get that it’s a plot point that these guys are terrible, unlistenable musicians. Did they really need to subject me to what felt like at least 30 minutes of off key, low quality music? This isn’t the Blues Brothers, or even Spinal Tap, these guys stink on ice.
Give me a 5-10 second snippet of bad music, then they go on break, or say “That was great!” to each other. Establishes their cred as bad musicians, but I don’t actually have to listen to them.
Other than that, the plot was acceptable, reasonably humorous, nothing awful about it.
So did I. More than once. And countless times on video since. My son loves it too.
I don’t know if it’s derided so much as overlooked but I loved Mystery Men. Great cast, solid story, and amazing visuals (Kinka Usher’s direction reminded me of Terry Gilliam’s work). But it bombed in the box office and Usher has never directed another movie.
The second Matrix movie was the best of the trilogy. Yes, the orgy scene sucked, whatever.
I really like that movie. It’s one of the handful of Ben Stiller movies that I can watch without cringing. There are only two others: Walter Mitty and Tropic Thunder.
K-Pax. Got a 41 on the tomatometer but a 75 on the audience rating.
Terrific movie: smart, funny, well-cast, and looked great on a budget. A mine of quotes, too.
I thought “Valkyrie” was better than the 61% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s pretty accurate, moves along well. I’ve read and seen other filmed presentations of the July 20th plot and this one explains well how it was supposed to work. I neither gag or go ga-ga about Tom Cruise.
I didn’t realize it bombed. I assumed lots of other people loved it as much as I did. It was great!
The best one is still Sandra Bullock who won her Razzie (and received it in person) the day before winning her Oscar.
$68,000,000 budget and it only earned back $33,461,011.
He did: The Fifth Element.
Yet more evidence that there is no justice in the world.
I knew about the critics panning it, but not about the audience ratings. Good. I think it’s a great movie.
I never understand why the Matthew Broderick “Godzilla” is so hated. I’m not defending it as high art but for a summer popcorn flick I thought it delivered quite well. It was certainly much more entertaining than Spielberg’s “The Lost World” from the previous summer.