Chase-the-bad-guy movies invariably contain a scene in which the chief villain reveals his true fiendishness by punishing a fumbling underling in a creatively cruel way. In “Collateral Damage,” a terrorist known as El Lobo (“or ‘The Wolf,’ ” as we’re told twice) rewards a henchman for his carelessness by propping open his mouth with steel clamps and dropping a snake all the way down his throat until the man’s eyes bulge in that fixed stare of movie death.
Unclear is whether El Lobo uses a different snake each time he metes out such punishment or whether the snake-retrieval scene will be included on the DVD.
“Collateral Damage,” you may recall, is the Arnold Schwarzenegger thriller that was pulled from release after Sept. 11, purportedly because such a terrorist-themed action flick would have rubbed salt into a nation’s gaping wounds. Watching “Collateral Damage” now, you can see why Warner Bros. delayed its release; you still can’t help but wince at a reference to “the first terrorist attack on our nation’s capital” as well as a terrorist’s televised threat to the American public: “We will bring the war home to you, and you will not feel safe in your own beds.”
But the problem isn’t that the movie hits so close to home so much as that it hits close to home while engaging in such silliness as that snake-down-the-throat business and the inevitable shot of Schwarzenegger outrunning a fireball. This is one of those would-be blockbusters that wants to have it both ways: It includes enough political commentary to have pretensions of seriousness, yet it’s engineered to satisfy the explosion cravings of Schwarzenegger action fans, if any are left.
Director Andrew Davis, who made “The Fugitive” and the inferior “Chain Reaction,” remains skilled at shooting action scenes and tracking multiple characters as they converge for climactic confrontations, but by now everyone knows the drill. You can admire Davis’ filming of Schwarzenegger plunging down a waterfall — and recall Harrison Ford’s high-water leap in “The Fugitive” — without your pulse ever accelerating beyond snooze level.
Sept. 11 may underscore both the movie’s relevance and ultimate triviality, but this formula had been played out even back when everyone thought exploding buildings were cool.
Schwarzenegger plays a Los Angeles firefighter, Gordy Brewer, who — here comes a big surprise — is introduced rescuing an elderly woman from a collapsing, burning building. Davis’ clumsy handling of the scene suggests the rescue perhaps is being dreamed by Gordy’s wife, Anne (Lindsay Frost), though her point of view becomes irrelevant given her quick exit from the film.
She and son Matt (Ethan Dampf) are about to be picked up by Gordy when a bomb planted by a Colombian rebel terrorist explodes in a building plaza, killing mother and child and others whose relatives apparently are less thirsty for justice than Gordy. (We never see them.) The grieving firefighter, in that squinty-eyed Schwarzeneggerian way, wants payback, but the CIA agent tracking El Lobo, Brandt (Elias Koteas), informs Gordy that political considerations have rendered busting the terrorist a low priority.
After the obligatory “You can’t take the law into your own hands” line is delivered, Gordy does his movie-hero duty and heads to Colombia while Brandt follows him in that no-nonsense, sympathetic antagonist manner that Tommy Lee Jones patented in “The Fugitive.” If Gordy leads the intelligence agents to El Lobo, all the better.
In the press notes, producer Steven Reuther has the gumption to suggest: “Since Sept. 11 `Collateral Damage’ has become a term that we’ve all had to digest. The journey that Gordon Brewer takes in this film has become more understandable for everyone.”
What’s to understand? As written by brothers David and Peter Griffiths, Gordy is the kind of vengeance-driven one-man wrecking crew that we’ve seen in countless movies.
Plus, every idea here is delivered with the subtlety of a Schwarzenegger right hook; when Gordy acts to protect a troubled mother and son in Colombia, Davis actually cuts to a flashback of Gordy’s own wife and son just in case we haven’t made the connection. A surprise twist near the end also is handled as if the audience is a bunch of morons.
Schwarzenegger’s performance keeps everything on the surface as well. He is exactly as you’d expect him to be, which at this point isn’t a good thing.
Koteas brings an edgy energy to his role, and the camera loves Italian actress Francesca Neri, who plays the rebel leader’s enigmatic wife, Selena. New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis manages a credible turn as the Colombian meanie Claudio/El Lobo, but he might as well be auditioning to play a Bond villain.
The movie also contains silly bit parts for John Leguizamo as a Colombian cocaine manufacturer who aspires to be a rapper and John Turturro as a wily Canadian who possesses a coveted pass to the rebel territory.
The movie pretends to be making some probing statements about, among other things, the contagious nature of revenge, yet ultimately it just wants you to cheer when Schwarzenegger blows up the bad guys real good. Even back when such scenarios could be considered escapism, “Collateral Damage” would have been too much to swallow, snake and all.
`Collateral Damage’
(star)1/2
Directed by Andrew Davis; written by David Griffiths & Peter Griffiths; photographed by Adam Greenberg; edited by Dennis Virkler, Dov Hoenig; production designed by Philip Rosenberg; music by Graeme Revell; produced by Steven Reuther, David Foster. A Warner Bros. Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:49. MPAA rating: R (violence and some language).
Gordy Brewer ………… Arnold Schwarzenegger
Selena ……………… Francesca Neri
Brandt ……………… Elias Koteas
Claudio …………….. Cliff Curtis
Felix ………………. John Leguizamo
Armstrong …………… John Turturro
