Abstract
ANNY MADIGAN TRUDGES RELUCTANTLY TO ENGLISH CLASS, where the dull topic of the day is Hamlet. The boy doesn't much care, for his mind is still at the movies. He's been truant all morning at the local cinema, where he has reveled in the goofy machismo of his favorite characterJack Slater, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. In Last Action Hero (directed by John McTiernan, Columbia Pictures, 1993), Danny is a latchkey kid from New York City whose widowed mother can't seem to get him to attend school. His preferred subjects are action-adventure flicks, not classic literature. He loves most movies, but the Slater films are his favorites. These are standard-issue genre pictures starring Schwarzenegger as a cocky, invulnerable, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later police detective from Los Angeles. The boy has practically memorized these movies, parodically called J ack Slater I, Jack Slater II, and J7ack Slater III A fourth Slater film is about to debut when Last Action Hero begins. But this morning he must get to class and listen to his teacher describe this boring work of literature as if it were exciting-just the sort of thing that English teachers always do:
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