The Last Boy Scout (1991) - A Review

 

An underrated 90s action movie.

The Last Boy Scout is a neo-noir action comedy movie released in the United States in 1991, starring Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Noble Willingham, Taylor Negron, Danielle Harris, Chelsea Field, and Halle Berry. The movie was directed by Tony Scott and was written by Shane Black.

Bruce Willis puts on a great performance as Joe Hallenbeck.

In The Last Boy Scout, Bruce Willis plays Joe Hallenbeck, a self-loathing wreck of a private detective who gets an assignment from his best friend to protect a stripper, Cory (played by Halle Berry). After finding out his wife is cheating on him, Joe meets Cory at the club she works at. Things are a bit tense between them, with Cory's boyfriend Jimmy Dix (played by Damon Wayans) making the situation a bit worse. We find out out that Cory is trying to get Jimmy his job back (Jimmy was a quarterback who got banned from the league for gambling and drug abuse). Things go bad for Joe, Cory, and Jimmy, with Joe and Jimmy being held in police custody over it. When released, Jimmy convinces Joe to let him help with the case. Joe reluctantly agrees, and things get wild from here. Joe and Jimmy escape death numerous times trying to get to the root of the case, with Joe's daughter Darian (played by Danielle Harris) even getting involved! (Keeping it kind of vague, I don't want to spoil the surprises.)

Damon Wayans and Bruce Willis make a great team! They are so good together!

The Last Boy Scout is one dark movie! Bruce Willis plays Joe as a guy who completely hates himself, and doesn't care about anything anymore. He has marital problems, and his daughter absolutely hates him! Despite all of this, we (the audience) still like him and care what happens to him. Though Joe is a good guy, he is very flawed. Damon Wayans as Jimmy is also very flawed, but we also see that he is a good guy deep down. The chemistry between Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans is excellent on screen (which is why it's so surprising that they hated each other off screen). Their characters respect each other, though the reveal is pretty surprising!

Things are dark and grimy (the football scenes at the start of the movie are amazing in how they are filmed), there are a lot of bastards in this movie, the violence is brutal, yet...this movie is hilarious! The Monday Night Football parody song/music video at the start of the movie is great! Bruce Willis as Joe says some of the funniest things in this movie! Damon Wayans is hilarious as well, as expected. A lot of unexpected comedy, too! Not only does Damon have great chemistry with Bruce Willis, but he has great chemistry with Danielle Harris as well. I guess you could classify this movie as a dark comedy because the jokes happen during some messed up situations sometimes!

The action is high octane! Some stuff you have to see to believe!

As said before, the action is pretty brutal. The football scene is a classic! Great to see Billy Blanks in a big Hollywood movie like this...though what happens to his character is pretty chilling. This movie mainly has gunplay as the main mode of combat, and it pretty good! You can tell that it was influenced by Hong Kong action movies. Bruce Willis shoots two guns at the same time in one scene, Chow Yun-Fat/John Woo style, and this was in 1991! There are big explosions as well, with the heroes narrowly escaping them. The climactic battle involves a sniper rifle and good old fisticuffs. The person Bruce Willis fights with has a pretty grisly end (you've got to see that scene)!

The Last Boy Scout is an underrated action movie, I feel. Tony Scott really knows how to make stylish action movies as well. The cinematography is beautiful in this. I highly recommend this movie! To think, the last time I saw this movie was in the early 90s, and I was way to young to be watching it as well! It always stuck with me, though. Great dialogue, great characters, interesting story, moody cinematography, fun action, plus it's funny? You can't go wrong watching this movie! Check it out!

Reviewed by David Williams