It’s nice to know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing his part to keep the earth clean by recycling all of his old movies together into something disguised as being new and inventive.”Collateral Damage,” Arnold’s latest action fiasco, puts him in the role of the vengeful husband/father seeking retribution for the murder of his family.He plays Gordon Brewer, a firefighter who watches his wife and son die in a terrorist bombing, becoming the FBI’s only witness to get a glimpse at the bomber’s face.The FBI informs Gordon that the terrorist bomber who calls himself “The Wolf” (Cliff Curtis, “True Lies”) has returned to his secret hideout in Colombia.Against the best wishes of the FBI and CIA Agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas, “The Thin Red Line”), Gordon sneaks into Colombia and is immediately plunged into a chaotic struggle to exact his revenge.If you’ve seen any of Arnold’s old work, you don’t need to waste your cash on this scrap heap.For example, a scene in which Arnold slides down a hill in the jungle and lands in a turbulent waterfall closely resembles a scene from “Predator.”Once again, Arnold single-handedly fights off terrorism, a la “True Lies.” And just in case we weren’t able to grasp this complex plot the first time, the powers-that-be decided to re-cast Curtis in seemingly the same antagonist role he played in the aforementioned “True Lies.”Parallels can also be drawn between “Collateral Damage” and “Eraser,” for the simple fact that Arnold vows to protect someone if the person goes into protective custody.Director Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive”) seems to have lost his step in creating an exciting action movie.Everything Arnold does in the movie is so forced down the audience member’s throats that they have little or no time to care about his fate. Nothing in the movie comes off as thrilling or captivating.Even Arnold is slipping in his ripe old age. When dodging a big explosion or falling three stories down a waterfall, Arnold isn’t actually in the shot.It looked like he was standing in front of a blue screen and placed into the shot via PhotoShop. Not only does this appear fake, but cheesy as well.The villain is so one-dimensional that it’s laughable. Arnold needs a worthy opponent in his action films, not a poorly type-cast fellow who furrows his brow whenever he wants to look menacing.The mighty Arnold doesn’t even have a clever quip or colloquialism to spout out. There’s no “I’ll be back” or anything like that. The writers couldn’t even give the audience the satisfaction of having Arnold say something cool.Following “End of Days” and “The 6th Day,” Arnold’s latest offering completes a string of bad action movies that are sure to make audiences wonder if he can still make entertaining movies.If those three movies are any indication, Arnold will not be back any time soon.
(out of 5)
