Arnie - action hero of the noughties? (Collateral Damage (DVD))

Member Name: sunmeilan

Product:	Collateral Damage (DVD)
Date:	05/04/08 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It gallops along, some good action scenes

Disadvantages: A flawed plot, not that gripping

Gordon Brewer is a New York fire fighter and used to being able to save people's lives. This makes it even harder for him to cope when his wife and son are killed in a bombing just a few metres from where he stood (they are the collateral damage of the title). The bombing is credited to Claudio Perrini, a Colombian terrorist, known as 'The Wolf'. Unfortunately, the US government don't seem inclined to do anything to hunt The Wolf down and so Brewer decides to seek his own revenge for the death of his family. This leads him to Colombia, where he inadvertently saves the life of a young woman and her son and becomes attached to them. But then he discovers she is linked to The Wolf. Will he risk her life to reach his target? Or will he walk away without his prey?

I watched most of the Arnold Schwarzenegger films that came out in the eighties and early nineties and thoroughly enjoyed them for what they were - good action films without much in the way of plot or characterisation. Slipping Collateral Damage into the DVD player, I therefore had a very good idea of what to expect from this film. And to a certain extent, it doesn't disappoint. If you want action, that's exactly what you'll get. It's just a shame that someone hadn't gone to a little more trouble over the plot...

I've read a number of reviews that point out that Arnie's age is not on his side here. It is certainly true that he is not the (enormous) slip of a lad that he used to be. However, I think he still looks good, and in some ways, his maturity makes his character seem more realistic. And he can still kick and punch just like he used to, whether he is helped along by body doubles and slick camera shots or not. Unfortunately, that is where the pluses end. Perhaps it is because I am older, perhaps because the screenwriter hasn't done a good enough job of the characterisation, but I just didn't find Gordon Brewer very convincing. He is supposed to be more than just a one man fighting machine, he is an intelligent man who can think on his feet - but Arnie just doesn't really do intelligent. I feel a bit mean saying that - he obviously is to have got as far in life as he has - but the moments where he stares into space as if he is thinking hard are more laughable than anything else!

Selena, the young woman that Brewer rescues, is played by Francesca Neri. Her acting skills are passable. Unfortunately, she appears to have had a collagen injection in her top lip and it is not a natural look (many apologies to her if it is her natural lip!) I hate to make personal comments about someone, but I found this so distracting that I wasn't really listening to what she was saying. I certainly couldn't take her seriously. 'The Wolf', played by Cliff Curtis, was also passable. He certainly looked evil.

Action makes up the majority of the film; there is barely time to rest and I struggled to find a convenient time to stop the DVD so I could go to the loo! And some of the action scenes are good, if not exactly credible. The best one comes right at the end when Arnie and the baddies are chasing each other through a series of corridors with different mediums getting in their way - including fire, gas, motorbikes and guns. I never had any doubt who was going to win, but it was fun watching him get to that point. There is a 15 rating for relentless violence and some swearing - but what else would you expect from an Arnie action film. I found the most distressing part was seeing a series of dead bodies following a guerilla attack in Colombia.

However, there were flaws in the plot that preyed on my mind while watching, and it was these flaws that ultimately made this film weak. The main problem is the jump from firefighter and family man to a one man anti-terrorist fighting machine. Now I realise that this is fiction, but if I am not convinced that what I am watching is realistic, then it puts me right off. And I just couldn't see how Brewer would decide to go to a country about which he knows nothing to hunt down a dangerous terrorist. If he had been a CIA or FBI agent or something like that, then it might have been more believable. As it was, I just couldn't suspend disbelief and this made the film very difficult to watch.

This isn't a terrible film. It entertained me for a couple of hours, and the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger is in it, despite my reservations about his performance, certainly livened it up for me. However, I would suggest that anyone watching it starts off with low expectations, because the film doesn't really go anywhere - it is just action fluff. Recommended, but with reservations.

The DVD is available from play.com for £4.99.

Classification: 15

Running time: 108 minutes

Summary: It's Arnie, but not as we know him