A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Collateral Damage

Date Viewed: 2/17/02

Details:

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Elias Koteas

Francesca Neri

Cliff Curtis

John Leguizamo

John Turturro

Tyler Posey

Director: Andrew Davis

Score: 0

The Review: Arnold plays an heroic fireman -- we know he's heroic from the very beginning because he performs stupid solo stunts (more myomeres than neurons) in a burning building to rescue someone. He first loses his family, through the careless collateral damage of a slimy Columbian terrorist (Curtis), then treks off into the wilds of Panama and Columbia on a quest for revenge. Overly serious action-adventure tries (unsuccessfully) to tug at one's ethical heartstrings with hollow blatherings ("what's the difference between you and me?" asks the terrorist, "we both want to kill."), and family parallels.

Has many of the typical features of revenge movies, past and present, strung together with minimal grace: the pursuit of family honor as in Princess Bride ("My name is Iniyo Montoya; you killed my father; prepare to die.") but with a negligible sense of humor; or the wounded warrior who has witnessed the tragic debris of his family, returning to battle in a personal vendetta as in Gladiator (but without Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott, and a host of other rather big "without"s); and so on.

Not totally unredeeming, considering that it has lots of action, explosions and special fireman tricks, but not overly engrossing either. Neri is pretty good as the terrorist's wife.

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