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COLLATERAL DAMAGE Send This Review to a Friend
There's no need for the U.S. armed forces to go abroad to fight terrorists. Just send Arnold Schwarzenegger. For insurance maybe let Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood tag along. But as Schwarzenegger demonstrates yet again in "Collateral Damage," he's a one-man army who can vanquish the bad guys, this time terrorists from Colombia.
What arouses Schwarzenegger's anger as fireman Gordy Brewer is an explosion in Los Angeles that kills his wife and son. The U.S. government doesn't want to mess up negotiations between the Colombian government and the rebels responsible for the bombing, and the C.I.A. has its own agenda. That leaves Brewer no choice but to go down there and take care of business on his own.
You get the picture. The mighty star has to battle his way with hand-to-hand combat, gunfire, surviving a plunge over a waterfall, capture, beatings--you fill in the gaps. Naturally, he saves the life of a woman along the way, Selena (Francesca Neri), wife of terrorist leader Claudio (Cliff Curtis). There's no romance, but Brewer has something to learn about her. She also has a young son, whom Brewer wants to protect. Before all is over the action shifts back to the U.S. with more terrorism in the works. But Brewer can be mighty on the home front as well as on hostile foreign terrain. The cast also includes Elias Koteas, John Leguizamo and John Turturro.
"Collateral Damage," scripted by David Griffiths and Peter Griffiths and directed by Andrew Davis, is no mind-blower but as these sort of action flicks go, it is serviceable. The muscular star still looks strong enough on screen for all the exploits, which of course, are thoroughly outlandish and not believable for a minute.
What gives the film a fortuitous bite is making the hero a fireman, which provides some timely zip in view of September 11. In fact, the film's opening was postponed because a release as originally scheduled was deemed too close to grim reality. Yet the very fact that an already completed film foresaw terrorist dangers on the horizon is an indication that government should have been more worried and at least as alert as Hollywood. A Warner Bros. release.
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