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COLLATERAL
DAMAGE
With Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Leguizamo, John Turturro, Elias Koteas, Francesca Neri, Cliff Curtis
Directed by Andrew Davis
Arnold's back and it ain't no big thing. He's
Gordy Brewer, a firefighter whose wife and kid get killed in a terrorist bombing
attack (ominously stark in the shadow of September 11). "The Wolf", the Colombian
responsible for the devastation targeted his country's consulate and US agents
in response for the Yanks' involvement in their civil war (drugs at the heart
of it) - but he slips from their grasp. His slain family are considered collateral
damage (a term used frequently during US bombings of Afghan, Iraqi and other targets…).
What is
an Arnie to do? Besides take the law into his own hands! He scams his way into
the terrorist's country when his government fails to act and his difficult task
to meet out his own justice begins. Several action sequences do little to rewrite
the books while one particular escape sequence has our hero struggling in a river
and down a waterfall - the blue (or green) screen so damn obvious and the digital
Arnold going over the drop just too apparent. What ever happened to daring stuntmen?
How much longer do we have to wait for the 3rd Terminator flick? Hope it's soon so we don't have to be subjected to these action-by-numbers
"blockbusters".
Yet, you gotta love Arnie and missing one of his movies, no matter
how crap, tends to leave a gap in the movie year.
2 / B
- Paul Blom