23 years ago, Tony Scott cheated on Jerry Bruckheimer with Joel Silver and the results were the over-the-top and totally flamboyant The Last Boy Scout, a mean and nasty action flick from the acid-tinged typewriter of genre-master Shane Black. Pairing Bruce Willis with Damon Wayans, on paper, probably seemed like a great idea (to someone doing lots of blow…), but on screen, Willis out machos Wayans so easily it’s almost comical to watch the two in any given scene together. I mean, Wayans is hilarious, he’s just not an action hero.
This film is a blast from start to finish, from the totally evil bad guys (Taylor Negron POWER, Kim Coates POWER) to the unapologetically bloody and brutal action sequences (the death by helicopter blades finale is the very epitome of, umm, memorable…), this was an actioner that was truly a product of its time, wholly misogynistic and morally corrupt, with an odd, careening tone that oscillated between silly humor (hand puppets!) and graphically violent action so often you half expect some Looney Tunes characters to pop-up mid scene.
And who can forget the asinine opening scene with the faux Monday Night Football intro and the absurdly dark football field action? It’s so wonderful in its trashiness you just have to smile. You get Willis at his smirking, grimacing, hung-over, wife-beater-wearing best here, with the classic Bruce facial expressions present almost all throughout. Ward Russell’s smoky, glossy, yet still gritty cinematography is vintage late 80’s/early 90’s anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen gloriousness. It’s definitely one of Scott’s most interesting efforts, if only because you can see the struggle between the inherent humanist qualities that he always demonstrated as a filmmaker, and the more cynical narrative beats that someone like a young Black would have brought to the table from a screenwriter’s perspective. There’s never going to be another studio action flick like this one ever again.
Review by Nick Clement
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The Last Boy Scout
Summary
Sensational. There’s never going to be another studio action flick like this one ever again.
