The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Directed by Tony Scott. Starring Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Danielle Harris, Taylor Negron, Chelsea Field, Noble Willingham, Joe Santos, Halle Berry, Bruce McGill, Chelcie Ross. [R]

Disgraced ex-Secret Service agent Joe Hallenbeck now works as a private investigator and accepts a job as bodyguard for a stripper who got herself mixed up with the wrong people. When Hallenbeck’s business partner and the stripper get murdered, he teams up with her boyfriend (burdened by a troubled past of his own) and uncovers a conspiracy involving sports betting, the greedy owner of a pro football team, and the targeting of a scumbag senator. Willis and Wayans aren’t in the same class of mixed-race buddy action duos as Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy (48 Hrs.) or Mel Gibson and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), but they’re good enough; same goes for Shane Black’s self-aware screenplay, which may be formulaic and riddled with dumb plot holes, but it’s also alight with flavorful, profane dialogue, mostly of the tough-guy and wiseacre variety. As trashy entertainment, it’s more than good enough, overcoming the far-fetched plot and hostile feelings (particularly toward women and pre-teens) and delivering a slick, forceful mix of rowdy humor and ultraviolent action. In fact, it’s the best “pure action” movie outside of the Die Hard series on Willis’ résumé, and it kicked off director Tony Scott’s most fruitful period of his career, quality-wise (followed by True Romance and Crimson Tide). Bonus: the unlikely casting of flamboyant gay comic/actor Negron as a villain, which pays off with one of the genre’s most vicious sadists. Billy Blanks makes a rather unforgettable appearance in the opening sequence, and look for James Gandolfini and Eddie Griffin in bit parts as a henchman and DJ, respectively.

75/100