The Last Boy Scout
1991 Directed by Tony Scott
Synopsis
Everyone had counted them out. But they're about to get back in the game.
When the girl that detective Joe Hallenback is protecting gets murdered, the boyfriend of the murdered girl (ex-football player Jimmy Dix) attempts to investigate and solve the case. What they discover is that there is deep seated corruption going on between a crooked politician and the owner of a pro football team.
Cast
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"This being the 90s, you can't just walk up to a guy and smack him in the face. You gotta say something cool first, you know what I mean?"
#95 on Berken's Favorite Movies Of All TimeYup, this is a script by the man who made Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's all here - whipsmart but dickish private detective burdened with amateur sidekick, acidic bromance, noirish mystery, messy relationships with women, female characters with bite who nevertheless amount to damsels in distress, overly loquacious goons who are terrible at their job, perfunctory backstories that end up playing in somehow, a smattering of tender moments tucked underneath all the machismo, someone old and rich pulling the strings, gun hidden in…
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In honour of Tony Scott who sadly passed away yesterday, I thought I'd give this film a go.
One question that seems to keep popping up lately is, "Why the hell havn't I seen this film before"?
This movie is a shining example of that.Written by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Produced by Joel Silver (Die Hard) and Directed by Tony Scott (Beverly Hills Cop 2), The Last Boy Scout is a near perfect early 90's Action flick.
Seriously.Bruce Willis and Damn Wayans have an effervescent chemistry which is compounded by the snappy dialogue. This is typical "buddy movie" stuff, but the script elevates so it transcends the cliches with a knowing wink and shot to the kneecap. Willis…
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Tony Scott made some great action films. A mix of violence,sarcasm and coolness that epitomised his love of the genre,this has a downbeat performance from Bruce Willis that cemented his place as an action hero.
Willis's output between Die Hard in 1988 and this film from 1991 reads like an obituary for most stars. Willis's Look Who's Talking films were the arse-wipes of the late eighties/early nineties and Hudson Hawk although it's a guilty pleasure of mine was critically mauled by almost everyone on the planet. The Last Boy Scout was a real return to form for an actor that would rehabilitate himself completely a few years later with a part in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction after another string of stinkers.… -
A rare breed by today's watered down action formula standards. Everyone involved is in prime form.
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Improved like a wonder upon rewatch. Can't believe that I didn't love this first time around, it's amazing. This is a contender for best Willis performance ever. He is absolutely incredible. The oneliners are stumbling over each other, trying to exit his mouth first. It's a delight to watch. Fabulous screenwriting.
And then some.
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Those were the days that Bruce Wills was more cooler than a cool bud.
Directed by the late great Tony Scott I expected this to be a roller coaster ride of a film.
A great cast and lots of full blown action but some of it was a bit cheesy and OTT.
The thing that shines here is Bruce Willis and I don't mean his head because he has hair in this one. Having Shane Black writing the screenplay he gives Willis some great lines and sarcastic humour.
I have met Willis some time ago and officially can say he is like that in real life (sarcastic) but not shooting people)
2 things in this reminded me of the Die…
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I can't believe they paid Shane Black an insane amount of money to write this tripe.
Cliched and formulaic, even for a 90's actioner.
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My obsession with this movie will never die. Probably both my favorite Tony Scott film, and Shane Black script. The excess captured inside the edges of the frame is larger than life in exactly the way an action movie of this caliber should be. Blues, yellows, and reds tickle that spot between my eyes and brain. The quips never stop, no matter how bad - an unrelenting pursuit to out smack-talk the other. Would've somehow loved to see further adventures of Joseph and James, as P.I.'s, but glad for the purity of just this one.
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Fun action movie, but mostly because it's like many other 80's and 90's action movies. There's a nostalgic pass given.
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This action movie was made by Tony Scott during the era when his visual style was relatively restrained and wasn’t all that distinct from the average action flick. The more distinct voice here is screenwriter Shane Black who was well into his “fuck the world” style of self-aware craziness and snark. I feel like the film would have felt a little more fresh back in 1991 when there were a ton of straightforward action films, but at this point we’ve seen a lot of films that do what this movie did and did it better. That’s not to say that there aren’t a good number of interesting moments here that make the film worth seeing, but I wouldn’t say I loved it.
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My love for Tony Scott clashes with my distaste for buddy/action-flicks. Nobody wins.
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Bummed that I didn't like this. I just didn't have any fun watching it. It's too caustic and ugly, Damon Wayans is bad in his role, and Tony Scott's direction is firmly within his slick 80's/early 90's style that with age has become silly, stiff, and overbearing. I had heard great stuff about this one, but I can't agree.
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Shane Black is a fine screenwriter - evidenced by his work on Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (which he also directed) - and I'm sure the first draft of The Last Boy Scout he turned in was markedly better (and different) than what Tony Scott brought to the screen.
The Last Boy Scout finds Bruce Willis, unshowered, unshaven, perpetually drinking, and chain smoking his way through a standard-yet-promising hardboiled premise: Willis' secret service agent-turned-private detective is hired for a simple surveillance job, that spins quickly into something larger involving a football team and a politician. Black knows his way around hardboiled detective conventions (see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), but here they're uneasily paired with the buddy-action conventions as…
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Those were the days that Bruce Wills was more cooler than a cool bud.
Directed by the late great Tony Scott I expected this to be a roller coaster ride of a film.
A great cast and lots of full blown action but some of it was a bit cheesy and OTT.
The thing that shines here is Bruce Willis and I don't mean his head because he has hair in this one. Having Shane Black writing the screenplay he gives Willis some great lines and sarcastic humour.
I have met Willis some time ago and officially can say he is like that in real life (sarcastic) but not shooting people)
2 things in this reminded me of the Die… -
Wherein screenwriter Shane Black(Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad) reveals his true talent lies in creating modern-day Raymond Chandler stories.
"I don't know anything about being a detective."
"Ah, there's nothing to it. Now, this being the Nineties, you can't just walk up to a guy and smack him in the face. You gotta say something cool first."
"Yeah, like, I'LL BE BACK, right?"
"Yeah, only better than that, like if you hit him with a surfboard, you'd say?"
"Surfs up, pal!"
"Yeah, something like that."