Last Action Hero

Last Action Hero was expected to be 1993's number one blockbuster, but failed to attract huge crowds. The first previews were not good, and many aspects of the movies were changed. In the end, the movie looks shaky, too long, and does not seem to be able to choose between humour and action scenes.

We will remember the scenes shot on an awful 42nd street (although it is hard to imagine today a street with so many movie palaces, so close to one another), the visit inside a soon-to-close-down palace, and a crazy vision of Hollywood.

When the movie was shot, the neighborhood was already changing; all the movie theaters were closed, waiting for their uncertain future (some would reopen as legit theaters, others would be demolished). 42nd street was closed to traffic for a week. For the movie, all the signs were restored and given new lights, which made the street more beautiful and impressive as ever...

First pictures: the outside of the main theater; its name cannot be seen, but it is the Empire (to its left, the Liberty):

We now move inside the theater; the scenes (at least most of them) were shot in the l'Orpheum of Los Angeles. The theater is not doing really good, and is bound to close down soon. But it really is a beautiful movie palace:

The projection booth can also be seen (please be patient when the movie gets out of focus!):

Oustside the theater, on the right, the Liberty:

As Danny walks below the Liberty's sign, the sign of the Harris is seen (Candler Building, its lobby turned into a McDonald's restaurant), and on the left the sign of the Times Square:

Further away, the Cine 42 and the New Amsterdam:

On the other side of the street, the columns of the Times Square and its sign (the most on the left), and the one of the Lyric:

The sign of the Lyric, seen from the Times Square:

Next picture, the series of 42nd street palaces:

First theater at the nord end of 42nd street, the Harem:

Once again, the Liberty, left, and the Selwyn on the right; feel free to compare the first picture with a shot from Staying Alive:

The Olympic probably is the one near Broadway, in Los Angeles:

Something weird, the "Times Square Art Cinema":

The state-of-the-art modern theater used for the premiere of "Jack Slater 4" (a fake theater created for the movie?):

What happened to them?
Forty-second street has changed a lot in the past twenty years. Of all the movie theaters seen in the movie, only one still plays movies... on its twenty-five screens! Its beautiful façade saved the Empire, but it was moved fifty meters up the street in 1998, and an AMC multiplex was built above and around it (it opened in 2000). Most of the others were turned into legit theaters, except for the Liberty and the Times Square, both abandonned (since its lobby was turned into a huge Internet Café, the Liberty's only access on 42nd street is a small door in the food court (by the way, I really think the Liberty should be turn into the Empire's largest auditorium, which might turn it into the most beautiful multiplex auditorium in the world). As for the Lyric and the Apollo, their auditoriums were gutted and joined into a single theater, the Ford Centre for the performing arts, larger, more modern, but not as nice.

For those who think the good old times were better, it is fair to add that movie theaters in the area could be really dangerous, with drug traffic, mugging, and sometimes worse.

On Broadway, in Los Angeles, the Orpheum was the last movie theater to close down, in 2000. It might be in the process of being remodelled right now, to reopen later as a legit theater.

This part of 42nd street also appears in Staying Alive. The Lyric, the Cine 42, and, very briefly, the Times Square and the Harris, also appear in Taxi Driver. The Empire can be seen in Midnight Cowboy, as well as the New Amsterdam, the Liberty and the Harris.