Dommage collatéral

I chose to rent this movie for a simple reason: I was in the mood for something nice and stupid - a no-brainer action flick starring Arnie would perfectly fit that mood. What I got was something else.

The story: Firefighter loses family in terrorist attack, goes on revenge mission to Columbia to find and kill terrorist. Sounds pretty dumb to me - and, let's face it, a lot of aspects of the movie are incredibly dumb. (Mostly those parts of the movie concerned with Arnie getting to Columbia, travelling through Columbia and getting into the rebel camp)

But, and here's the catch, some are not. What starts out a simple movie with linear plot evolves slowly. After the rage comes a period of reflection. There are twists and turns in the plot, and the first half is full of time-filling minutes spent getting to know yet-another-comedic sidekick, who will disappear entirely from the movie within minutes (couldn't they have stuck with one sidekick? Or not bothered at all?), but then, as the plot turns around, the audience is suddenly faced with an interesting moment (which is later ruined by cheesy dialogue). Well, this being an action movie, the smart bits can last only so long, and then it all goes to pieces in a desperate attempt to have a traditional climactic good vs bad battle. So the end is a big let-down.

Still, the movie IS entertaining (apart from a few minutes of boredom and confusion in the Columbia part) and, surprisingly, well-acted. Arnie is no character actor, and the mess he made of End of Days was embarrassing. Sixth Day brought some more flexing of acting muscles, and I actually liked his performance in that movie. Collateral Damage takes all he learnt and puts it to the test. He will never manage a Bruce-Willis alike 6th Sense / Unbreakable career turnaround, but he acted his role well, and was convincing. Mostly, at least. The support cast, filled with aforementioned comedic sidekicks, a CIA agent, a FBI agent and the terrorist and a Columbian woman - all do their jobs well. I kept wondering where I'd seen Cliff Curtis before, until I looked it up on IMDB - he was the charismatic leader of the Iraqi resistance in Three Kings. Here, he manages to dominate the screen just as well and once again is a show-stealer. Definitely the most memorable character of the movie.

So, we have good acting, good entertainment, stupid action, a stupid end and some reasonably intelligent bit somewhere along the way. The body count is high, but surprisingly, Arnold does not actually kill many people (you can count his victims on the fingers of one hand). There is a gruesome scene involving a snake, which is basically pointless, but that did not reduce my enjoyment of the movie. All in all, a good movie to watch. Not brilliant, but not as bad as some people may think either.

I remember a time, in the not too distant past, when any new movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was treated as an event. Nowadays, his films slip in and out of town with nary a person even noticing. What's happened? The sad but obvious explanation is that, as he's aged, Arnold has had to make way for younger, more dynamic action stars, leaving him stuck with leftover crumbs like `Collateral Damage,' a dull, lackluster action film that manages to kick itself into high gear only in its final half hour or so.

`Collateral Damage' was, of course, one of those films whose original release date had to be postponed in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In this case, the sensitivity arose as a result of the film's storyline, which revolves around a group of Colombian terrorists determined to strike at targets on American soil. Schwarzenegger plays fireman Gordy Brewer, whose wife and child are killed in an explosion at the Colombian consulate in Los Angeles. Brewer, feeling that the U.S. government has little concern with exacting revenge from the terrorist leader responsible for the explosion, decides to mount a one-man crusade to see that justice is ultimately done. The film, obviously indifferent to its own need for plausibility, sends this virtually unarmed fireman into the unfamiliar jungles of South America to take on what appears to be the entire Colombian police force as well as the guerilla fighters whose actions resulted in the deaths of Brewer's family. Brewer, of course, despite his own inexperience and the formidable odds against him, manages to talk and/or fight his way out of every dire predicament before rescuing his nemesis' wife and their adopted son.

There isn't much to say about `Collateral Damage' except to report that the film does achieve a certain tension in the closing stretches, when Brewer returns to Washington D.C. to help foil a plot to detonate a bomb in that city. Thanks to a few nice plot twists, the film ends up not being a total loss when all is finally said and done.

It's never much fun to have to witness an actor in the sunset of his career. But if Schwarzenegger's films don't start improving soon, he may well have to switch to that career in politics he has reportedly been looking into between films.

OK, here is the premise. A fireman's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) wife and son get blown up when a terrorist (Cliff Curtis) is trying to destroy some target. He googles "terrorist" on his home computer, finds out who is responsible, and goes off into the jungle to capture him. He escapes. In the meantime, he hooks up with the terrorist's wife (Francesca Neri), wins her to his side, and they go off back to the States to catch him. If that is not the most unbelievable plot you can imagine, then there are some twists and turns that are even more incredible.

But, who cares? This is the Governator kicking some major butt like he did in True Lies, Commando, and many other movies that you and I watch over and over.

Italian actress Neri (Live Flesh) is hot, Curtis (Whale Rider) makes a perfect terrorist, and one of my favorites, John Leguizamo (Land of the Dead), plays a great part. Even Monk's agoraphobic brother, John Turturro, is here. Wow! But, it's all about the damage, collateral and otherwise, that draws you to the movie. The fireman turned terminator turns up the heat (red, of course) and proceeds to erase the terrorist.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

It's easy to see why this was postponed because of September 11 (even the terrorist group in the film ALC only needs IADA put on the end of it).What's hard to understand is how Collateral Damage got released at all.It's hard to believe this film is directed by Andrew Davis,the director of such action greats as The Fugitive,Under Siege and Nico.Ageing action man Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Gordy Brewer ,the most ridiculously named action character ever,who goes to Columbia to seek revenge on El Lobo,the terrorist mastermind who killed his wife and child with a bomb blast on the Anti-Terrorism Agency in New York.The story is poor (how can a fireman have so much knowledge on how to locate and take out master terrorists?)as is the character development,and in fact,so is the action.Truly run-of-the-mill stuff and nothing that hasn't been done to better and much more impacting effect in previous films of this type.For this,54 year old Arnie still has impressive biceps,and things do heat up a bit at the end.But overall,on the basis of this and his previous films,one thinks the Arn ought to think about retiring from film and trying harder to become mayor of California.**

The Goveranator, "On the Loose, with Dr. Seuss!" When I lived in Colombia, people would say to me: "I never go to those Hollywood movies, always projecting such a lousy image of Colombia!" Hard to refute that, eh! And how about this one? Is it worth seeing AH-NULD one more time? Must answer YES....and NO! Despite having seen a constant decline in the quality of his final films, they are still a cut above a lot of the action movies produced in Hollywood today. So, if the ACTION genre is your thing...The answer is "YES". For everyone else, I think the words "I "YO PASO" are the most apropos.

"Collateral", filmed BEFORE 9/11, with its Colombian terrorists detonating bombs on U. S. soil, passes from the category of Fiction to that of Fairy Tale! The bad guy here is a narco-guerrilla/terrorist named Claudio Perini, willing to sacrifice it ALL...for the "Cause".(All the Colombians I know named Perini are UP-STANDING law-abiding citizens) The most chilling aspect of this film, is a mother so perverse and diabolic, she sacrifices her only son, with the dispassionate air of someone taking out the trash!

Thusly, Hollywood serves up a distorted and grotesque image of Colombia in this movie. Seems to me like the ones experiencing the most "Collateral Damage" are the viewers of the film itself! 5.5*, rounded DOWN to 5*.