Arnie may be a naturalised American citizen (who displays his patriotic credentials by drinking from a Stars and Stripes mug here), but such are the limits of his acting talent - inversely proportional to the size of his muscles, I'd guess - he still hasn't been able to shake that guttural Teutonic accent. Still, it helped out in this piece of flag-waving schmaltz, in which he feigns being a German engineer in order to infiltrate a Colombian terrorist/drug baron's stronghold to seek revenge for the murder of his wife and kid.
This film is rubbish. Whichever bright Hollywood spark pulled it for re-editing post 9/11 should have had the courage of his convictions and abandoned it lock, stock and barrel. The movie's feeble attempts at political contextualisation are an insult to the real victims of terrorism, and Arnie's even feebler attempts at evoking grief equally so. There's quite an irony in that the revenge motivation underpinning the ludicrous storyline illustrates in microcosm "President" George W. Bush's own campaign against the perceived phantom "axis of terror". As in End of Days, Arnie affects the conscience he misplaced in Predator, Commando, Red Heat and all those other gunfests earlier in his career, but it just doesn't wash. The bad guy - and gal - still get taken out with sadistic relish, a disgraceful pandering to the basest audience instincts.
Read some of the approving comments posted here and weep: for Arnie, for the movies, for democracy.
This film is rubbish. Whichever bright Hollywood spark pulled it for re-editing post 9/11 should have had the courage of his convictions and abandoned it lock, stock and barrel. The movie's feeble attempts at political contextualisation are an insult to the real victims of terrorism, and Arnie's even feebler attempts at evoking grief equally so. There's quite an irony in that the revenge motivation underpinning the ludicrous storyline illustrates in microcosm "President" George W. Bush's own campaign against the perceived phantom "axis of terror". As in End of Days, Arnie affects the conscience he misplaced in Predator, Commando, Red Heat and all those other gunfests earlier in his career, but it just doesn't wash. The bad guy - and gal - still get taken out with sadistic relish, a disgraceful pandering to the basest audience instincts.
Read some of the approving comments posted here and weep: for Arnie, for the movies, for democracy.