Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "The Last Boy Scout" (1991). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*



Directed by the late Tony Scott, Ridley Scott's brother, who committed suicide in 2012, "The Last Boy Scout" (1991) falls very much into that action blockbuster, that the coming of age Generation Xers demanded, more explosions, bullets, blood, and less 'boomer' innuendos, and the "Last Boy Scout" doesn't disappoint, sans the odd mix of comedy, over the top violence, and latent frustration, obviously script originated, with misogynistic overtures towards women, with a young Halle Berry, playing a stripper called "Cory" who gets blown away (machined gunned to death), brutally, 15mins, into the movie.  Who was supposed to be protected by the main character "Joseph Hallenbeck" a private detective, played by a dishevelled looking, chain smoking, Bruce Willis, who was preoccupied fending off a henchman, connected to the hit on Cory, who was going out with "Damon Wayans" character "Jimmy Dix", a former, and now injured Quarterback for the Stallions, if you didn't know, an American gridiron team.  Confused?  And we are already 20 minutes into the movie.  With prior oddness (before "Cory" is killed, there is a drugged up gridiron player who goes on a shooting spree on the field), and somewhat out of sync script writing, or lack of continuity, unintentionally, when Hallenbeck, after a drunken night in his car, parked in some street in Los Angeles, returns home to find his wife "Sarah Hallenbeck"  (Chelsea Field) in her dressing gown, and suspects correctly she is having sex with his friend and his private investigator partner "Mike Matthews" (played by Bruce McGill).  After some off centre dialogue, and almost surreal interactions.  Both of them somewhat reconcile on the front lawn of Joseph's front lawn, then Mathews goes to enter into his car, and is blown up.  Phew.

Yes, "The Last Boy Scout" is a jumbled mess, as mentioned, after only 20 minutes, and to explain this obvious chunkiness, apparently there were notable editing issues, with countless editors being fired, while trying to sequence the script, written by screenwriter Shane Black, to the film's overload of visual shots, attributed by Tony Scott's style of filming with multiple cameras.   Thus, it feels like a disorganised spread, which kinda holds up to the conclusion at the end, as does the story.  Giving The Last boy Scout more of a B-grade, or Hong Kong action flick flow, rather than a Hollywood blockbuster with A-listed actors, at the time.   And that is the point, it hasn't aged that well either, what was new in 1991, feels very dated many decades later, and dare I say, strangely backlashy of the 1980s with Scotts attempt at revving up the violence, while working his big budget slickness.  The Last Boy Scout is essentially a comedy with mismatched humour, male bonding/buddy premise, a substantial blood soaked body count, and terrible one liners. With Damon Wayans character "Jimmy Dix" holding it together, in my opinion, with humour and presence, in this unintentional schlock flick, wrapped within a cultish appeal, while Bruce Willis, washed up masochism, watch for the amount of beatdowns he gets in the movie, while mocking his adversiors to keep hitting him, as the audience knows, he will eventually kill them all.  Will make you, yes, chuckle.

"The Last Boy Scout", at least the original version, I believe there is a 4K version which has added footage, apparently it has more gore (?), does ineed fall into the cult movie collection, just on its sheer ridiculousness, oddball dialogue, disjointed camera angles, over the top action, terrible l'll mentioned again, one liners, mega death count, cheating wife's, and dead girlfriend's, with their male partners, "Joe Hallenbeck" (Bruce Willis) and "Jimmy Dix" (Damon Wayans) having little or no emotional reaction to love and loss, while insulting each other right through the 105 minutes, and killing all the bad guys, including two dogs.  Yes, the main bad guy is blown up with a briefcase, he thinks there is a ton of cash in it, only to find a bomb, while two of his dobermans sit by him.  And at the very end of the movie, Willis and Wayans's characters walk side by side peacefully, after all the beatdowns they got, being shot, stabbed, losing a partner ("Cory", Dix's former girlfriend), and cheating wife ("Sarah Hallenbeck"), from a suburban street, into the Los Angeles sunset.

Also, the laughter was very much on (there are many similar, and absurd scenes), after the main hitman/badguy, "Milo" played by the late Taylor Negron was chopped up by Police helicopter blade within a gridiron stadium (the climactic conclusion), and "Joseph Cornelius" (Bruce Willis) begins dancing (after the fight, and looking worse for wear), projected onto the main televised screen, to a full stadium of fans.    

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(A.Glass 2026) 

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