Disc Reviews
The Last Boy Scout 4K Review
It’s hard to look back at The Last Boy Scout and realise that it wasn’t a hit. You were there, I was there, and yet the rest of the audience wasn’t. So how did everyone involved still go on to so many more projects if this failed so hard? How did Shane Black command a 7-figure salary after this was such a failure? Who knows! Because we don’t get such answers on this disc. A disc that does feature the best-looking version of the film we have had yet to date. An overdue crisp 4 K transfer.
The film kicks off with an engaging credits sequence featuring a raspy old codger singing about “Friday night” being a great night for football whilst surrounded by cheerleaders. The old geezer is Bill Medley, who also worked wonders on audiences having “The time of his life” dueting with Jennifer Warren for Dirty Dancing a few years earlier. The film then gets right to the action as we see the state of the game, the coked-up players and the effect gambling and gangsters are having on the game.
Enter half-alive private detective Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis), scraping by on meagre errands, and currently in a marriage that has fallen apart at the seams and an erratic teenage daughter to boot. Joe, it seems, used to have a better life until he was dealt some bad luck whilst doing the right thing. Pretty quickly though, he’s stuck in the middle of the murder of a young woman (Halle Berry) and saddled with an unwanted partner in the guise of her boyfriend and ex-football player Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans). The two naturally don’t see eye to eye at first, but with the common goal in mind to find the girl’s killer, an uneasy alliance is formed and soon the two barrel headfirst into one action set piece after another as they are confronted by more and more aggressive goons sent by the bad guys!
Shane Black’s razor-sharp script is full of some of his best dialogue, and the film is unrelenting in its dark and morose tones. Keeping it lively, aside from the constant barrage of jokes, is Tony Scott’s smoky but energetic direction. Willis and Wayans play off each other very effectively, but it’s Willis’s movie at the end of the day. The Last Boy Scout is Willis off the hinges and not having to play his good guy as a nice guy. Joe is an unrelenting bastard at times, and even he would admit: And then some!
Sadly, Tony Scott, it seems, did not get round to doing a commentary for this film like he did a few of his other features before his untimely passing. In lieu of that, we get a critic’s commentary instead. It’s okay, but you really want a producer or even the writer to show up for that. Someone really needs to hunt down Joel Silver and make him talk!
Shane Black, to be fair, does show up for a lengthy interview, but you can tell he would clearly have so much more to say had more time and questions been thrown at him. Danielle Harris also shows up for a genuinely interesting interview about her experience on the film. There are a couple of other extra little bits, but this seems like a film that should have had at least an hour-long making-of featuring as many people as they could get to talk about it. So, what we get is appreciated; just not as loaded as you would hope it would be. But the film is looking great, and that’s merit and reason enough to snap it up!
Steven Hurst
SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films approved by director of photography Ward Russell
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original restored lossless stereo audio, plus DTS-HD MA 5.1 and new Dolby Atmos audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by film critics Josh Nelson and Martyn Pedler
- And Then Some, a newly filmed interview with screenwriter Shane Black
- The Daughter of the Last Boy Scout, a newly filmed interview with actress Danielle Harris
- The Art of Tony Scott, a newly filmed appreciation by film historian Stéphane Moïssakis, editor of Tony Scott: The Style and the Substance
- Shane Black at the American Cinematheque, an on-stage interview from Beyond Fest 2025 in which the celebrated screenwriter discusses his career with film historian Jim Hemphill
- Extended & Alternate Scenes, a selection of scenes from a pre-release workprint version of the film
- Theatrical trailers
- Image galleries
- Original screenplay
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley
- Collectors’ booklet containing new writing on the film by critics Jedidiah Ayres, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Justin LaLiberty, Andrew Male and Priscilla Page
The Last Boy Scout is released on 12th October