The Last Boy Scout *** (1991, Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans) – Classic Movie Review 3602

Director Tony Scott’s ultra-slick and exciting if repellently violent 1991 neo noir thriller / buddy-buddy action movie The Last Boy Scout stars Bruce Willis as cynical private eye Joe Hallenbeck who teams up with former football quarterback Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) to investigate the bad guy who has killed Willis’s partner and Wayans’s girlfriend. They find themselves trying to solve a murder case involving a pro football team and a politician.

Writer Shane Black’s routine detective yarn (story co-written by Greg Hicks) is spiced up with lashings of extreme violence, foul language (102 F-words), immorality and neglect of human life and decent values. Audiences who find people being killed or hurt funny or a cause for applause are catered for comprehensively. It’s very much in the same cynical groove as Scott’s True Romance, though not quite as good.

Director Scott delivers in top gear on this disreputable level, with gleeful lack of attention to plausibility or possibility, but with both eyes on speed and thrills, throwing in his trademark slow-motion cinematography, blasts of gun-fire and funny one-liners. Willis and Wayans strut their stuff amusingly, and the stunts and action are 1991 state of the art. Indeed, Scott and producer Joel Silver ensure that it is one very slick movie, with Ward Russell’s cinematography, Michael Kamen’s score, Al Di Sarbo’s special effects, Brian Morris’s production designs and Christiaan Wagener’s art direction.

Also in the cast are Chelsea Field, Noble Willingham, Taylor Negron, Danielle Harris, Halle Berry, Joe Santos, Chelcie Ross, Kim Coates and Bruce McGill.

The official American rating is R [UK 18] for intense sequences of strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use.

There are two versions, at 105 minutes and the 96 minute cut print.

Black became famous in the 80s and 90s for writing the hit buddy action movies Lethal Weapon (1987), The Last Boy Scout (1991), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) before going to make his impressive début as director on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) and be writer-director on Iron Man 3 (2013).

Tony Scott died on August 19 2012, aged 68.

Joe Santos died on March 18 2016, aged 84.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3602
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