MOVIE REVIEW :: Collateral Damage

TERRIORISM EASILY COMBATED IN REEL WORLD
Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a helluva career playing the same role in all of his movies. But at 54, his reign as the supreme action hero may be in jeopardy.

His last two outings, End of Days and the Sixth Day, the latter running in theaters about as long as the title suggests,were flops, and it looked as if the man best known as the cyborg in the Terminator series might soon be saying hasta la vista to Hollywood.

Then along comes Collateral Damage, which, you may recall, Warner Bros. pulled from its original October release date because the terrorist-themed action flick was deemed inappropriate after the events of Sept. 11.

Good call. And a lucky break for Arnold — the movie's received so much press it will surely be the blockbuster he's needed to break out of his box office slump.

Does it live up to the hype? Nah. But Collateral Damage is one of the star's better films.

Schwarzenegger plays L.A. firefighter Gordy Brewer, an otherwise peaceful man who becomes hell-bent on revenge after his wife and son die in the bombing of a downtown plaza. A Colombian rebel leader known as "The Wolf" (Cliff Curtis) claims responsibility for the attack, and, after the investigation is stalled in a mess of red tape, Gordy decides to head to Columbia and track down his family's murderer himself.

How he actually gets into war-torn Columbia is never explained, and, in a movie like this, why bother? Collateral Damage walks that fine line between fantasy and reality, and when you sacrifice one for the other, it throws the story off balance.

Are we to believe that an everyday firefighter can track down an elusive terrorist in the Columbian jungle when our own government, utilizing all of its agencies and armed forces, can't find an elusive terrorist in a cave in Afghanistan? It is a perfect example of the difference between the real world and the reel world.

But you can't take any Schwarzenegger flick too seriously, which means there is still some fun to be had. The action, which is the draw of any of his films, does not disappoint. From Arnold jumping into a river to avoid his assailants and then falling down a waterfall to the explosive ending in our nation's capitol, Collateral Damage definitely causes some, ummm, damage.

Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) wisely injects some humor during and in between action sequences so you don't quite care as much about all of the improbabilities that abound.

Probably the coolest thing about this movie, however, is the fact that the hero doesn't once use a gun. As a firefighter, Schwarzenegger cleverly employs axes, homemade bombs and flammable gases to take out his enemies.

But just because this is one of Arnold's better movies does not make it a good one. Unless you're a diehard Schwarzenegger fan, you would be better off renting Collateral Damage when it comes to video and wait for the release of Terminator 3, which is now in the works.