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Once Arnold Schwarzenegger strode through the screen, as a god. Never an actor, but always icon Schwarzenegger presence of such a command that even his critics were forced to take notice. Part of charisma, swagger part, it would kick in and multiplexers, as a force of nature, dispatching bad guys with flexible spitting his biceps while one of the lines with panache. Nobody who went to the cinema at the end of’80-s or s nachale’90 will never forget: “I will come back” or “Hasta la vista, baby”. Everything end, but even in the reign of Action gods. Sylvester Stallone tried (without much success) to advance to the more serious actions. Bruce Willis has turned his back on the wisecracking heroes as John McClane. Automated and instigators of problems related to drugs, Jean-Claude Van Damme in lost sight of the public. Only Schwarzenegger, unmovable as “Atlas”, “the fight against the advancing years, and times change. This is a battle he could not win.

Collateral damage is the third film to Schwarzenegger after his late-’90 s heart surgery. Like the previous two (End of Days and The Sixth Day), which were cashier’s office disappointments, this one has a downbeat tone. In Schwarzenegger charisma off. One of the greatest attributes of stars during his heyday in the fact that he never took himself too seriously. But, by its nature, Collateral Damage does not allow levity. No flip one-liners. No sly winks at the audience. This is a grim, humorless affair, and Schwarzenegger is a lifeless machine. Arnold has a screen presence, but he can not act. Attempts to shape it in all kinds of action hero - one with dark motives and deep internal conflicts - are doomed to failure. In the wreckage Collateral Damage offers ample proof of that. She comes across as glossy knock out one of the B-movie revenge flick.

Much has been written about the movie, release date delayed. It was the most high profile pictures of victims of 11 September attacks. Originally scheduled for early October 2001 release, the producers felt that the wound on the American psyche is too fresh to the movie-going public gastric movie that concerns the terrorist attacks on American soil. Four months later, the climate has changed. Now, Warner Brothers felt we in the mood to see Arnold hit some terrorist butt (despite the fact that terrorists are in Collateral Damage Colombia, and not the Arabs).

Gordon Brewer (Schwarzenegger) is a Los Angeles firefighter - a man who risks his life every day to save others. On a loving wife and young son, and so liked and respected in the community. He seems to be an ideal life - until the day when a terrorist bomb killed nine people, including Gordon, wife and child. Name of terrorists is the “wolf” (Cliff Curtis) - and Gordon is the only person to see him. On his way to meet his family, Gordon found a policeman who was actually disguised Wolf. Now Gordon wants revenge. So he heads to Colombia, where Wolf and his lair, with the aim of tracking and killing of Rights. Meanwhile, the CIA agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas), Gordon decides to use as a weapon in its war against drugs.

One of the problems with Collateral damage is that, for an action film, the pace is sluggish. Much of the first hour is devoted to the installation and exposition, and when, finally, the action comes, it is not unique or energetically to meet the expectations. This is mainly Arnold shredding at its enemies until they are subdued. There is a bit disconcerting about watching him in these scenes struggle. He was still big and burly, but, at the age of 54, Schwarzenegger is beginning to look too old to participate in this kind of thing. Effects of movies province of young stars.

The plot is classic. It follows a predictable path, and a “large” would not be an unexpected surprise to those who paid attention. There are many opportunities to be sent to leave things interesting directions, but director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Chain Reaction), and his scripts are not confused. Instead, we are fed easily recognizable sequence of actions with a number of themes time-honored clich s with, including the villain-who-doesn’t-die, and the man-outracing-a-fireball. It will be a monumental effort for the average viewer to sit through this film, not hindering, at least one yawn.

There are two key components of any good revenge flick. The first is that the hero should be just cause. Collateral damage is of such. The second is that the villain must be so totally, totally evil that the audience will be salivating for the hero to kick the hell of it, grind it, and feed it still bloody vultures. Collateral damage is not so. How bad guys go, the Wolf is bland. Worse, the script makes a weak attempt to humanize him, giving him his wife and son and to provide an explanation of their actions. None of us is weeping with sympathy for Wolf, but it was not our fuel hatred and resentment. So, we care less than they should, and when he gets his inevitable vzbuchka, he hardly deserves shrug.

The film is a grace of salvation - a delightfully quirky performance of John Turturro in a small role Gordon cellmate in the Colombian prison. Tuturro not around long, but when he is, he simply steals every scene from the film and more highly paid stars. Indeed, the only time when Schwarzenegger appeared to be live when he shares the screen with Turturro. After considering these two together for about five minutes, I can foresee a good buddy movie. Unfortunately, this is not that film has in mind. Later, Schwarzenegger briefly paired with John Leguizamo with a much less satisfactory results.

For Arnold Schwarzenegger, it may represent the end of the line. He has several implications queue - Terminator 3, True Lies 2, Konan-3 - but the more it will be for them than Schwarzenegger addressed. They certainly will be successful, but not just because it is in them. I beckon policy. Like Ronald Reagan, Schwarzenegger wanted to draw his attention to making a run for the governorship of California. Ultimately, the challenge may appeal to him more than an attempt to regain their place in the minds of a fickle movie-going population, which now views it as a fossil.

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