The Action Hero's Guide to Saving Lives (2009)

Short Film The Action Hero's Guide to Saving Lives (2009) - Action Hero Swimming In The Ocean of Cliche

Patrick Warburton (Rules of Engagement, Seinfeld, The Venture Brothers) plays Ace Mulligan, the kind of action hero that unfortunately went out of style in the early 90's. Played perfectly deadpan, he tries to rescue a hostage from a criminal mastermind with more bravado than planning.

The short takes this approach and uses it to play with the conventions of the action movie to show clichéd things going wrong if the hero doesn't do it right first time and it is pretty funny in the way it does it. It runs a little longer than it needed to but it does have some good laughs in here along the way and certainly fans of the action genre will get more from it as its targets are generally on the money. The whole production never quite gets the feel of a full Hollywood movie but it does not far short by very much and generally it fits the material even if the constraints do show. Otherwise it is smartly written and well delivered to the screen. Warburton (best known for Seinfeld I guess) is well cast in the role as he has the macho slowness of the old-school films and again this fits with the spoofing of the genre.

Directed by Justin Lutsky
Starring: Patrick Warburton, Sean Naughton, Brett Simmons, Andrea Bogart.