Sabotage is a very hard film to review. It is a huge, scathing middle finger to the film's target audience, an incredibly stupid, poorly made action film and one of the better action films in the Arnold Schwarzenegger canon all for the same reason. This reason can be summed up as the fact that this film is so brutal and gratuitous it almost makes the Saw and Hostel films look like a Pixar film. This is not the kind of film that Schwarzenegger made back in the day with such films as Kindergarten Cop or Last Action Hero. This is also not an attempt at a revival of that type of film like last year's The Last Stand was. This is a film that literally features intestines being show on screen. I can't say that this is a good film or even one I really enjoyed. However, it does have an oddly charming audacity to it.
The film stars Schwarzenegger as DEA agent John 'Breacher' Warton, who upon robbing a safe house with his group of rag tag undercover agents, gets taken off the job when the money they stole mysteriously goes missing. However, he must take back his position as the leader of these low life agents to capture a mysterious figure who is killing them one by one. He must also get help from Caroline (Olivia Williams), a by the books investigator.
This is the type of film where the audience can literally smell the sleaze oozing out of the screen and into the theater. There is no character in this film that any sane person can actually call likable. Every character is either a scumbag, a deceitful maniac, an embezzle but most are all three. However, it's refreshing to see Schwarzenegger getting down and dirty and the supporting cast including Sam Worthington, Mireille Enos, Terence Howard and Harold Perrineau are all believably grimy in a way that works for the film.
However, the film starts to slow down significantly in the second half and the mystery lags as the already predictable reveal starts to become more and more obvious. Also...there is a final scene involving John that really makes no sense and did not to be in the film at all. This is also the type of film that's impossible to watch without losing a lot of brain cells. I even feel as if I'm getting stupider by the minute sitting here typing about this film so I'm going to have to wrap it up soon.
Sabotage is really, really, really, really, indescribably bad. However, there's also a hint of potential among all the incredible tediousness and ludicrous action. I can't in all good conscious recommend ever watching this film but it has some odd potential going on. As a typical action film, this is one of the worst. As a Schwarzenegger action film, however, this is nothing to sneeze at.
(1 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity and drug use)
No comments:
Post a Comment