Collateral Damage (2002) Warner Bros./Action RT: 109 minutes Rated R (violence, language, drugs) Director: Andrew Davis Screenplay: David Griffiths and Ronald Roose Music: Graeme Revell Cinematography: Adam Greenberg Release date: February 8, 2002 (US) Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Francesca Neri, Elias Koteas, Cliff Curtis, John Leguizamo, John Turturro, Miguel Sandoval, Harry Lennix, Jsu Garcia (Nick Corri), Tyler Garcia Posey, Michael Milhoan, Rick Worthy, Raymond Cruz, Lindsay Frost, Ethan Dampf, Jorge Zepeda, Todd Allen, Jane Lynch. Box Office: $40M (US)/$78.3M (World)
Rating: ** ½
The Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Collateral Damage was originally scheduled to be released on October 5, 2001, but got postponed to February following the tragic events of 9/11. Studio executives at Warner felt it would be insensitive to release an action movie dealing with terrorism so soon after the tragedy. That it features an attack on a government building made it all the worse for a nation dealing with the aftereffects of a horrific act of violence and cowardice.
Now here’s the rub. February is a notorious dump month for films deemed inferior by their studios. Is it mere coincidence then that Collateral Damage ended up on the February release schedule? Despite a great pedigree including director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), it’s not that good of a film. It’s one of Ah-nuld’s lesser action movies. It tries, but it doesn’t come close to attaining the level of greatness of The Terminator, Commando, Predator, Red Heat and Eraser. It’s certainly not terrible; it simply doesn’t measure up.
Collateral Damage stars Schwarzenegger as Gordy Brewer, a Los Angeles firefighter who witnesses his wife Anne (Frost, Dead Heat) and young son Matt (Dampf, American Dreams) die in an explosion outside the Colombian Consulate building. It’s the work of a terrorist who calls himself “El Lobo” (Curtis, Live Free or Die Hard). In a video he sends to the media, he explains the attack was made in retaliation for America’s oppression of Colombia.
While recovering from his injuries in the hospital, Gordy realizes he saw the face of the terrorist just before the explosion. He was disguised as a motorcycle cop and the bomb was in a stolen police cycle. He brings the information to CIA headquarters where Special Agent Peter Brandt (Koteas, Let Me In) assures him they will capture El Lobo (real name: Claudio Perrini) and make him pay for his crimes. Unfortunately, a Senate Oversight Committee orders Brandt to shut down all operations in Colombia immediately. The two governments are going to attempt a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the South American country. That’s when Gordy decides to take matters into his own hands and deal with El Lobo himself. What else would an angry grieving dad do?
What Gordy doesn’t know is that Brandt is planning an off-the-books op to blow up El Lobo’s entire drug operation. When Gordy is captured by Lobo, it becomes a rescue mission. Surely, that will pass muster with the CIA bosses back home. Lobo wants to hold Gordy for ransom. He figures it’s the best way to cover up what he really has planned for America, another terrorist attack, this time in Washington D.C.
Audiences know what to expect from a Schwarzenegger action movie. They want to see their favorite action hero get his mitts on a huge arsenal of automatic weapons and make Swiss cheese of his enemies. Sadly, that’s not what happens in Collateral Damage. I can get past the fact that he’s a firefighter with no training in jungle survival or combat. His character is supposed to be an ordinary guy who got pushed too far by terrorists and government bureaucrats. If that’s the case, why cast Schwarzenegger? He’s most definitely NOT an ordinary guy. He’s a one-man army, an unstoppable killing machine who won’t quit until the last bad guy is down. Davis doesn’t lean into his star’s image like he should. Instead, we mostly get scenes of Gordy running around trying to avoid being caught by Lobo’s men or the local police. However, there is one scene I like. After a member of some Colombian revolutionary support organization refers to Gordy’s family as “collateral damage” on national TV, he shows up at their headquarters and smashes up the place. That’s classic Schwarzenegger. I wish there had been more moments like that in Collateral Damage.
Schwarzenegger is starting to look old and tired. He’s starting to slow down here. It’s getting more difficult to believe he’s doing such things as jumping into a raging river, being pulled along by strong currents, going down waterfalls and hitting rocks. He was about 54 when he made Collateral Damage which isn’t really all that old. Look at Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. They were still doing their thing when they were in their 60s and 70s. Clint was almost 80 when he did Gran Torino (2008). Nonetheless, Ah-nuld does his best to try and sell it. He nearly succeeds, but not quite.
Italian actress Francesca Neri (Hannibal) co-stars as Selena, a mother who becomes indebted to Gordy after he saves her life and that of her young son. She ends up helping him escape from captivity. I don’t want to say too much about her character except she’s more important to the story than I’ve let on. She delivers a decent but unexceptional performance. Curtis, on the other hands, delivers what can only be described as an underperformance. He plays an unmemorable villain who never once conveys a sense of danger or menace. He’s actually a bore which is another one of the film’s failings. An action movie is only as good as its villain and El Lobo isn’t. The only time he does something even remotely heinous is when he forces open the mouth of a soldier who made some sort of mistake and lets a poisonous snake slither down the man’s throat all the way into his intestines.
John Leguizamo (Romeo + Juliet) and John Turturro (The Big Lebowski) make brief appearances as a drug supplier associated with Lobo and a crooked Canadian guy who helps Gordy. They add some much-needed life into the tired proceedings. I wish they stuck around longer.
Like I said, Collateral Damage is NOT a personal best for either its star or its director. They’ve both done better. It’s a standard, predictable revenge movie with a few decent action scenes, but none that are particularly memorable. That’s the best way to describe the movie, unmemorable. There’s a reason why I don’t revisit it as often as Arnold’s earlier films. It’s just not that great. Here’s hoping he’ll make good on the promise he’s made several times, the one about being back.
