{"id":6068,"date":"2024-10-14T23:58:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6068"},"modified":"2024-10-14T23:58:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:58:32","slug":"eraser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/14\/eraser\/","title":{"rendered":"Eraser"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Eraser <\/strong>(1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chuck Russell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tony Puryear and Walon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alan Silvestri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Adam Greenberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 21, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, Robert Pastorelli, James Cromwell, Danny Nucci, Andy Romano, Nick Chinlund, Michael Papajohn, Joe Viterelli, Mark Rolston, John Slattery, Robert Miranda, Roma Maffia, Tony Longo, Gerry Becker, John Snyder, Melora Walters, Olek Krupa, Cylk Cozart, K. Todd Freeman, Rocco Sisto, Ismael “East” Carlo, Patrick Kilpatrick, Camryn Manheim, Skipp Sudduth, Vic Polizos.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $101.2M (US)\/$242.2M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0As a teen, I always got giddy with excitement when a new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie came out. It\u2019s a feeling that followed me into young adulthood. It wasn\u2019t even lessened by the clunky but fun Last Action Hero. Eraser<\/strong> is the type of actioner he used to make in the 80s, but with high-tech 90s stuff thrown into the mix. It\u2019s dumb, implausible and makes less sense if you stop and think about it (I advise against it), but it has a ton of action, a high body count and one-liners by Ah-nuld. In short, I like it!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Schwarzenegger plays John Kruger, a government operative from the Federal Witness Security Protection Program (WITSEC) whose specialty is \u201cerasing\u201d people. He makes federal witnesses disappear by faking their deaths and giving them brand new identities, effectively erasing them from existence. He\u2019s assigned to protect Lee Cullen (Williams, Soul Food), a senior executive at a defense contracting firm who stumbles across a conspiracy involving some powerful high-level people to sell high-tech weapons that aren\u2019t even supposed to exist to the highest bidder. She agrees to help the FBI obtain proof by copying files onto a computer disc. Unfortunately, they figure out what she\u2019s up to and try to silence her permanently. After arriving in the nick of time to save her hide, Kruger promises to keep the understandably freaked-out Lee safe until the trial. This entails going on the run from the bad guys which include a mole in Kruger\u2019s own department. BTW, it isn\u2019t too hard to pick out said mole.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It doesn’t take a genius to follow Eraser<\/strong>, especially since it\u2019s basically one action set-piece after another. Its plot is only a plot in the academic sense. It\u2019s the thread that ties said action scenes together. Of course, not one of them comes close to being believable. Suspension of disbelief is definitely required. Director Charles Russell (The Mask) brings it on in a big way with scenes like the one involving Kruger jumping from a burning airplane with a malfunctioning parachute. Come on, who could possibly survive a fall like that without at least a few broken bones? Not only that, he gets into a mid-air game of chicken with the plane when the villain orders the pilot to make him go splat on the windshield. It doesn\u2019t faze Kruger; he just pulls a gun and fires at the plane. Then there\u2019s Kruger\u2019s fight with an alligator during a shoot-out at the New York Zoo. It happens right after the killer reptile makes short work of three hired killers with guns. What does our brave hero do? He shoots the gator in the head and says, \u201cYou\u2019re luggage.\u201d LOL! Only in a Schwarzenegger movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0None of what I said in the preceding paragraph is a criticism of Eraser<\/strong>. On the contrary, it\u2019s the very reason the movie works as well as it does. Obviously, Russell isn\u2019t going for plausibility or any form of verisimilitude here. Look at the high-tech weapons in question. They\u2019re big ray guns that fire electromagnetic pulses at a velocity just below the speed of light. They\u2019re like something from a sci-fi movie. I can\u2019t believe something like this exists in real life, but I\u2019m not privy to what the DOD may or may not have in their secret arsenal. Either way, it\u2019s all part of the movie\u2019s goofball appeal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That being said, Eraser<\/strong> is a very decent action movie that boasts a great supporting cast that includes James Caan (Thief) as Kruger\u2019s direct supervisor, James Coburn (The Magnificent Seven) as the agency head and Robert Pastorelli (Murphy Brown) as a former mobster in debt to Kruger after he erased him and saved his bacon. His family ties prove quite useful to Kruger\u2019s mission. His mobster uncle \u201cTony Two-Toes\u201d (Viterelli, Analyze This) oversees operations at the docks where the deal is set to go down. Uncle Tony and his associates frown on non-union labor at his docks. You can probably see where this is going, so let\u2019s move on. James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential) is good as Lee\u2019s corrupt boss even though he\u2019s only in it for a few minutes. The same goes for Roma Maffia (Nick of Time) as a reporter friend of Lee\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Russell doesn’t hold back at all with Eraser<\/strong>. He gives Schwarzenegger free rein and lets him do his thing. This includes dropping his customary one-liners after dispatching bad guys. I\u2019m certain that \u201cYou\u2019re luggage\u201d will be the one everybody remembers, but let\u2019s not dismiss \u201cYou\u2019ve just been erased.\u201d I think that\u2019s the one the makers want fans to remember. Russell imbues Eraser<\/strong> with a sense of humor too. Read what is says on the back of Kruger\u2019s jacket when he shows up at Lee\u2019s house disguised as a delivery guy. Fans of the actor will surely know where it\u2019s from. Williams is good as Lee. She too has fun with her role. She\u2019s not bad with a gun either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eraser<\/strong> is an enjoyable movie. It\u2019s an example of a good Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick. As always, he\u2019s presented as an indestructible action hero. A spike through the hand doesn\u2019t slow him down at all. In fact, he appears to recover rather quickly. Same goes for getting shot in the shoulder. He\u2019s still able to support the weight of his co-star and himself when they\u2019re hanging from a large shipping container on a huge crane. As you can see, Eraser<\/strong> is silly. It probably wouldn\u2019t hold up in a film school screenwriting class either. WHO CARES? It\u2019s Schwarzenegger doing what he does best. Movie Teen 24\/7 would put it on his top 10 list for the year. I can\u2019t think of a better endorsement than that.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eraser (1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chuck Russell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tony Puryear and Walon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alan Silvestri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Adam Greenberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 21, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, Robert Pastorelli, James Cromwell, Danny Nucci, Andy Romano, Nick Chinlund, Michael Papajohn, Joe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Eraser-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6068"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6191,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6068\/revisions\/6191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}