Last Action Hero Retro Package Blu-ray Review

VHS was, when I was a kid the wave of the future. Everyone owned multiple VCR’s. Programs were recorded off tv at a record pace. The video store was the place to go to on Friday and Saturday nights. If the cover struck your eye you rented it. You didn’t read the back, you just grabbed the coolest one you could find. Lot of them even had the Rewind sticker on them. For you young folks, you had to rewind those tapes of you would get charge, depending on where you rented between $1-5.00.

VHS collectors are still out there. In fact there are many who prefer to watch VHS over Blu-rays and 4K’s. I don’t get it to be honest, but I understand how the nostalgia factor can kick in. So why not take the best of both worlds. The VHS covers and the Blu-ray transfer’s. Well the fine folks over at Mill Creek have done just that. They are releasing Blu-ray’s and packaging them in a cover that looks like a VHS tape sliding out of the box. It’s pretty genius as they are using the old school style artwork. There are a handful out now with more to come. I picked the Last Action Hero to cover first.

Depending on who you talk to The Last Action Hero is either the most genius action film to come out, or the worst. I rank it as one of the best. The plot is pretty simple. Arnold Schwarzenegger is Jack Slater, a fiction character in a series of action films. His biggest fan is a young boy named Danny Madigan. Danny lives in a crime infested rat hole and loves spending the day watching movies. He’s friends with the owner of the local movie theater who gives him a Golden Ticket to see the new Jack Slater movie before it actually comes out. It turns out this ticket is magical and Danny is transported into the film.

What follows is a clever laugh riot, yet still slam bang action film. Danny becomes Slaters partner and uses his knowledge of films to help solve the case they are working on. Filled with an overabundance of inside jokes and one liners The Last Action Hero is a fantastic film. Jokes where they go into Blockbuster Video and see and add for Terminator 2 starring Sylvester Stallone never gets old to me.

The stunts and action sequences are amazing. It’s a truly larger than life film that unfortunately slows down when Slater and Vivaldi (The bad guy) are transported to the real world. Although when Jack Slater meets Arnold Schwarzenegger plugging Planet Hollywood much to his wife’s anger is a great scene.

I like the film and the transfer Mill Creek has done is stunning. The audio and video quality are fantastic. Everything pops off the screen and the audio blasts through your speakers. I had the film on DVD and I must say this is a marvelous upgrade.

Throw that in with the retro VHS packaging and you have a winner. I would recommend fans pick these up and collect them now while they are available. There priced to own and look really cool displayed with your other films. A must own for film fans.
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Overall 3.5 out of 5 Stars