Last Action Hero (1993)

It feels like dog-piling to jump on something so universally considered a disaster, but never let it be said that I'm the bigger person.

The plot involves Danny, a 12 year old boy who idolizes the character Jack Slater, an on screen action hero portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, both in universe and here in the real world. After a break in at his apartment, he retreats to his favorite theater to get a special sneak preview of Jack Slater IV. Given a magic golden ticket once owned by Houdini for reasons that feel very extraneous, he is transported into the actual film. Once there, he has to convince Slater that he's in a movie, because... well, that's not really nailed down either. But in his exuberance, the bad guys are made aware of the ticket and use it to escape into the real world, where they discover that bad guys can win, until the movie needs to be over, in which case they can't.

Win It All (2017)

When Win It All appeared on my Netflix recommendations, I was already leery. Keegan-Michael Key’s face smiled from the title card, promising another comedy starring the sketch comic. Already tricked by Teacher of the Year, also advertised on Netflix as starring Key, who turned out to be a side character, I did not expect the best from this film, despite the trailer heavily featuring him. It was even worse than with Teacher of the Year. Key’s character appears for at most ten minutes of the film, as the audience stand in, asking “What the hell is wrong with you, Eddie?” before leaving the real main character to his own devices. Stop doing that Netflix.

Jake Johnson plays Eddie, a gambling addict with no source of income. He bums money from his friends and family, while petulantly stating that he doesn’t want a job, because that’s not what he wants to do with his life. A likable protagonist he is not. No indication is given how he’s paying rent on his dingy apartment or even getting the money he keeps gambling with. One would imagine his friends would have stopped giving him cash long ago, much the way you would with a drug addict. At the start of the film, down on his luck, he is given a task. A local enforcer named Michael (José Antonio García) wants him to hang onto a bag of evidence while he does a quick stint in prison, after which Eddie will receive $10,000 as payment. Eddie’s curiosity gets the better of him, and he discovers that the bag is full of money. And so begins his downfall, sort of.