The Last Boy Scout

The Last Boy Scout is a guilty pleasure by any standard, but I’ve seen plenty of guilt-free movies lately that aren’t this much fun.

The Last Boy Scout is overwrought, extremely violent, has a relatively unbelievable winding plot, perhaps the foulest mouthed teen ever, tons of low lives everywhere, lots of shots to Willis’ face, and is actually a pretty entertaining effort, an undeniable guilty pleasure.

What ultimately is so distressing about The Last Boy Scout is that, despite its loathsome attitude, it is an outstanding action thriller. It sets its sights a hair above the gutter and hits bullseye every time. [13 Dec 1991, p.5]

The lushly photographed film skids into the gutter. It may have a certain appeal to people who like to talk mean to each other, but beyond that, it's one stupid rubber ducky. [13 Dec 1991, p.F1]

The story is beholden to the trendy steroid-and-TV world view: pump it up and cut it fast. Still, the dialogue, while fitfully glib, is wry and engaging, like a profane Raymond Chandler on speed. No one acts (in the Stanislavsky sense, anyway) but all perform well.

The Last Boy Scout is no worse than Lethal Weapon, and it's slightly more tolerable than Hudson Hawk. The action scenes deliver, the storyline is efficiently handled (if utterly unoriginal), Wayans is an appealing foil, and Willis' wiseacre personality fits the character he's playing. [13 Dec 1991, p.35]

The Last Boy Scout is a perfect example of what's wrong with Hollywood. The problem is the script, which is awful. [13 Dec 1991, p.G5]

As much as I love Die Hard, I'm going to just tell you the details about The Last Boy Scout. This movie is very similar to Lethal Weapon and I can't believe that I haven't been reviewing all Lethal Weapon films. Including the scene where Darian, Joe's daughter watching it. While I was thinking about this recently I watched the opening credits from this and the guy who wrote the story and screenplay is Shane Black. He just wrote the screenplay for the Lethal Weapon films and now The Last Boy Scout. That is why the story is done twice. Why didn't I think of this before? What really surprised me is that it bombed at the box office which was crazy and aside from that I'm surprised that it had a cult following. So it's directed by Tony Scott and all I can see is the same location as Beverly Hill Cop and Beverly Hills Cop 2. The action scenes are awesome as usually like the ending where Joe and Jimmy heading to the football stadium to take down Marcone and Milo before they take down the president. This movie is awesome, well, not as good as the Lethal Weapon films and the Die Hard films which stars Bruce Willis but it's still awesome. So this buddy cop action flick will make you dance a jig and have Friday night's a great night for football.

Misogynistic, homophobic, downright toxic: This early '90s hit can be described this way from today’s perspective. At the same time, THE LAST BOY SCOUT represents a high point in the work of Black and Scott: Gun violence, mistreatment of women, fistfights, one-liners, explosions, cigarette consumption, profanity, Bruce Willis – everything is dialed up to the max here. There’s no room for subtlety. ‍♂️ Since the film is ultimately more of a detective story than an action extravaganza, THE LAST BOY SCOUT feels like CHINATOWN relocated to late '80s/early '90s L.A., spiced up with everything spicy the last decade had to offer. Not a favorite movie, but in the right company and with a few beers, it’s still pretty awesome.

Die hard with a sports theme but that's not a bad thing. Bruce Willis is the quintessential 90s action anti-hero.

The leads chemistry was not exactly popping here, this is such an easy role for Willis that he seemed mostly bored by it. Tony Scott was the true one of one.