"'Damaged' Goods"
by Scott Mantz

"Collateral Damage"
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Francesca Neri
Directed by Andrew Davis

Welcome to the jungle! Arnold Schwarzenegger (with Francesca Neri) is back to terminate the terrorists in "Collateral Damage"

When Hollywood celebrities broke out their Sunday best at last month's ritzy, glitzy Golden Globes extravaganza, the word on the street was things were finally getting back to normal in Tinseltown after last September's devastating terrorist attacks on America. For the rest of the moviegoing public, the real test will come on February 8. That's when Arnold Schwarzenegger's long-delayed "Collateral Damage" finally hits theaters after being postponed from its original October 5 release date for fears that its terrorist-themed plot hit too close to home.

At the time, Hollywood was under strict orders to keep it light and sensitive, but when testosterone-fueled movies like "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Black Hawk Down" made a killing at the box office, the mood quickly turned gung-ho and patriotic. Suddenly, moviegoers were ready to face the music, and it was OK for Hollywood to pump up the volume and take on the bad guys at the cineplexes.

That said, the suits at Warner Bros. still faced an enormous challenge when it came to promoting "Collateral Damage." After all, how do you promote a film about one-dimensional terrorists when the nation is in the middle of an aggressive battle campaign against the real thing? Will sensitive moviegoers--even hard-core Schwarzenegger fans--be able to look past the film's gritty subject matter and embrace it as the purely action-packed form of escapist entertainment that it was originally intended to be? On the other hand, let's face it: when it comes to America's war on terrorism, who better to terminate the terrorists than the Terminator himself?

Timing is everything in Hollywood, but unfortunately for "Collateral Damage," the timing is off on just about everything. Despite the fact that it was filmed over a year ago, it's still too soon to embrace a movie about terrorism--especially one that trivializes it. In addition, even if the attacks on America had never happened, times have changed since Ah-nuld's big 80's "Predator-Commando-Terminator" heyday, and quite frankly, he's just not the box office draw that he used to be (his last movie, 2000's "The 6th Day," grossed a disappointing $34 million). Given these liabilities--not to mention lame action sequences, poor characterization, and a predictably contrived storyline--it's safe to say that Schwarzenegger's latest film is "damaged" goods.

Happily married Firefighter Gordy Brewer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is running late to meet his wife and son at an L.A. high-rise, but he shows up just in time to see them killed in a terrorist explosion. The Wolf (Cliff Curtis), a rebel leader in Colombia's long civil war, claims responsibility for the action, but Brewer can only stand by helplessly as the FBI drags its feet in its investigation of the incident. Brewer decides to take matters into his own hands, and against everyone's advice, he travels to the jungles of Colombia to single-handedly set his own trap for The Wolf. The odds are against him, and it may cost him his life, but he has one motivating factor in his favor: he's already lost everything, and there's nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.

"Collateral Damage" would have been right at home had it come out somewhere between "Commando" and "Predator" back in the 80's, but in the 21st Century, it's merely a sub-par, by-the-numbers Schwarzenegger vehicle that's past its prime. That's a shame, especially considering that it was directed by Andrew Davis, the man behind action-packed crowd-pleasers like "Under Siege" and the excellent "The Fugitive." Davis moves the film along at a lazy pace, and even a noble, but unnerving plot twist near the end is too obvious to pack the emotional wallop that it's aiming for.

Despite his best efforts to return to form, "Collateral Damage" is further proof that Schwarzenegger is in dire need of a makeover before he turns into a cinematic relic. That's easier said than done, especially when you consider what his options are. His attempt at comedy may have worked in lightweight fare like "Twins" and "Kindergarten Cop," but when the middling "Junior" was stillborn at the box office, that was the end of that. In addition, Schwarzenegger has never been one to flex his dramatic muscles, and nowhere better can that be seen when he fails to convey the devastation of losing his family. When he eventually reverts to his action hero persona, his hokey one-liners hit the ground with a resounding thud, and he ends up more like a caricature of the confident, over-the-top powerhouse that he used to be.

The supporting players are barely worth mentioning. Francesa Neri is much nicer to look at than she is to listen to, and as her terrorist husband, Cliff Curtis more or less plays the same bad-guy that he played in last year's "Blow." Elias Koteas brings some sleazy tactics to his role as the beleaguered FBI agent who's dragging his tails in the initial investigation, while John Turturro and John Leguizamo show up in glorified cameos to bring some much-needed comic relief to their brief appearances.

A year ago, everything was on track for "Collateral Damage" to be a run-of-the-mill action film. After September 11, the tide changed to put enormous weight on Schwarzenegger's shoulders--weight that even the 7-time Mr. Olympia could not bear. That's hardly his fault, and in that sense "Collateral Damage" has itself become collateral damage in the war on terrorism. Even on its own terms, the film falls short, but Schwarzenegger has one more chance to redeem himself with the long-awaited "Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines." That may seem like the box office equivalent of a sure thing, but you never know. Sure, Schwarzenegger will "be back," but it remains to be seen whether moviegoers will embrace him or say "hasta la vista, baby."

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