Wolff rating: EVIL
Plot summary: Fireman has wife and child killed in terrorist attack, so he goes on a one-man vigilante mission.
Biased, pithy comments: This movie would be embarassingly bad before September 11th, and afterwards it seems only pathetic. Yes, a portrait of what kind of horror the combination of American politics and drug use have inflicted on Colombia is welcome, and if you can get to that through an action movie, more power to it. However, scarily enough, ``Clear and Present Danger'' deals with this in a clearer way (and Sayles' ``Men With Guns'' is actually good). With this movie, an aging Schwarzenegger (made even older-looking by his stubble that catches the light just wrong) basically ignores the question of what is right and wrong and simply rampages---blowing things up, killing people, and looking mopey. It is dumb and uninvolving; evil Colombian Curtis (a Maori from New Zealand who plays olive-skinned types of every ethnicity in different films) and his fellow bad people have a plot so convoluted that understanding it takes more mental effort than thwarting it. I was bored, and this is coming from a guy who liked ``The 6th Day.'' Skip.
Other Notes: SPOILERS---According to the voice-over, they were going to award him the Medgal of Freedom for his exploits. Do we normally decorate free-range assassins who get duped by their prey and endanger the capital city? Huh? Has Ahnold gotten so old that he has to beat up women now?
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Francesca Neri, Elias Koteas, Cliff Curtis.
Directed by: Andrew Davis