Director: Andrew Davis
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Turturro, Francesca Neri, Lindsay Frost, John Leguizamo, Cliff Curtis
Tagline: "Nothing is more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose."
Random Trivia: Due to 9/11 all advertising for the film was pulled. Terrorist El Lobo at one point dons a police officer's uniform which is identical to Robert Patrick's from Terminator 2.
Collateral Damage is one of those understated, underrated action flicks from the latter part of Schwarzenegger's career. It's his "anti-gun" phase (which, honestly, didn't last long once T3 came around) - he's never shown firing a gun on screen, same as with End of Days, another flick I liked from this era (the other one, The 6th Day, well...).
It's the story of Gordy Brewer (Arnie) - a firefighter, patriot, and all around good-guy, whose wife and son are killed in a vicious terrorist attack planned and executed by El Lobo ("The Wolf," played by Cliff Curtis), a Colombian terrorist more interested in blowing up Americans than shipping them blow, somewhat ironically. Actually, John Leguizamo gets that duty, as a drug manufacturer so westernized that he's looking for a hip-hop career before being blown away by...
Well at this point things are getting so damn muddled I'm not even sure. Brewer heads to Columbia looking for revenge, finds himself in jail with John Turturro as a perverted Canadian who works as a mechanic for the drug runners, gets his secret password, and heads up river. Have you ever noticed that, going up river, you always need a secret password?
Maybe it's the state I'm in but for a change Leguizamo isn't completely distracting.
Brewer eventually meets up with a local women and her son, saving their life, and oh, what a coincidence - it's the love of El Lobo's life! Arnie has saved their life where his own family, in the earlier attack, saw no such mercy.
I can poke fun at the plot quite a bit but in all honesty, Collateral Damage is actually pretty decent, and it did turn out to be one of the last times we saw Arnie on screen. Only Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines came after it, aside from the odd cameo.
Highlights:
- Leguizamo, surprisingly
- Arnie being Arnie
- Turturro in prison
- Old-school, simple action. No kung-fu fighting or overly bad CGI
I think, really looking at it, in an odd way, Collateral Damage reminds me a lot of Commando. Not Arnold's best, but solid action, solid entertainment. Nothing makes it stand out - but having sat through it, I have no complaints.
Overall Rating: Half-Baked (3 out of 5)
No comments:
Post a Comment