I used to watch the Bruce Willis-Damon Wayans action flick, The Last Boy Scout (1991) repeatedly as a 15 year old, positioning it as a ‘gritty’ R 18+ rated alternative to Die Hard even though I was often rewatching a TV edit that whittled away all the F-words and excessive blood-letting. Over the successive decades, it’s clearer to see this movie’s cynical, mean-spirited, repugnant, sadistic and self-referential overtones, all of which feed into its unchecked excess as a big budget action movie (excess very much like the very Nineties references the characters make to yuppie culture like ‘goat’s cheese pizza’ and ‘$650 leather pants), excess that was apparently the product of heated macho egos in its making (it would be star Willis and producer Joel Silver’s last collaboration) and resulted in lukewarm results at the box office. Willis plays Joe Hallenbeck, a private detective with a chip on his shoulder, who has a cheating wife and a foul-mouthed daughter (his characterisation is like a Rodney Dangerfield routine; no respect, I tells ya), and is hired to protect an exotic dancer (Halle Berry). When she’s assassinated, Hallenbeck and her boyfriend Jimmy Dix (Wayans), a former NFL quarterback, buddy up to solve the criminal conspiracy behind the murder, involving American football, political corruption and gambling – all of which is just the background for hardcore violence and multiple explosions. I still find this neo-noir nihilistic take on the action genre massively entertaining, particularly screenwriter Shane Black’s (Lethal Weapon, The Nice Guys) patented writing style – lots of patter, callbacks, running jokes, tragic backstory monologues and bad one-liners (there are two scenes where Willis distracts bad guys with his mini stand-up routines) – and director Tony Scott’s maximum visual style (the steamy look of any interior, the neon strip clubs, the rainswept stadiums). Willis has never been surlier (“Touch me again, I’ll kill ya”) and Wayans is a good comedy partner (“Dead guys don’t make bad jokes, do they?”). Taylor Negron and Noble Willingham make for memorably nasty villains. Action composer maestro Michael Kamen (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard) also strikes again with his signature sound. The opening tune sung by Bill Medley, ‘Friday Night’s A Great Night For Football’ is forever stuck in my head. Bonus points for the Days Of Thunder styled title card font. Now available to stream on both Netflix and Stan; also available on iTunes. Recommended, if you’re in the mood for ugly wise-crackin’ violence.
VHS Tracking 