Collateral Damage [2002]

Action

Director

Andrew Davis

Didn't the Arnold Schwarzenegger tough-guy role become outdated way back in the mid-90s? Aren't audiences tired of all this stuff by now? Collateral Damage would have you believe not. Within minutes we see the Austrian Oak in fire-fighter's uniform running to the rescue in cheesy slo-mo. Arnie's two-dimensional character seems a little archaic and so does the revenge-for-the-death-of-his-wife-and-child plot. Someone apparently thought that applying the politics of terrorism addressed in Proof of Life to the Arnie shootout genre was a good idea. Yet here even the Colombian bad guys' motivations seem muddled and hastily obscured under bullet-quick exposition. It's also no good trying to show the muscle man in a different light: so what if he mopes about with a tear in his eye for 20 minutes, we all know he's going to take the law into his hands soon enough. This he does with familiar gusto, of course. Fights and explosions ensue. Johns Leguizamo and Turturro provide comical cameos but add nothing more. The film's release was delayed so as not to offend anyone in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Who were they kidding? No-one ever took an Arnie movie seriously, least of all this one.

On the DVD: Collateral Damage on disc has a couple of documentaries that try to embellish the idea of Schwarzenegger's new on-screen persona, but neither succeed. The additional scenes deserved to be excised. The commentary from director Andrew Davis certainly hints at greater aspirations, but makes no apology for the lack of pay-off. There's supposed to be a DVD-ROM-only commentary from Schwarzenegger, too, but this reviewer couldn't find it anywhere. --Paul Tonks