Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, John Turturro, Cliff Curtis, John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, Stacy Edwards, Gina Gershon

Director: Andrew Davis

Summary: In 'Collateral Damage' a fireman who loses his wife and child in an act of terrorism vows to track the culprit down himself. 'Swordfish' tells the story of a company which had shut down operations many years earlier and has let its money sit around generating substantial compound interest and is now worth almost ten billion dollars. An anti-terrorist group needs the money to fight terrorism but cannot get at it. 'Driven' is the story of a young ambitious driver racing in his first real championship.

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Didn't the Arnold Schwarzenegger tough-guy role become outdated way back in the mid-90s? Aren't audiences tired of all this stuff by now? Collateral Damage would have you believe not. Within minutes we see the Austrian Oak in fire-fighter's uniform running to the rescue in cheesy slo-mo. Arnie's two-dimensional character seems a little archaic and so does the revenge-for-the-death-of-his-wife-and-child plot. Someone apparently thought that applying the politics of terrorism addressed in Proof of Life to the Arnie shootout genre was a good idea. Yet here even the Colombian bad guys' motivations seem muddled and hastily obscured under bullet-quick exposition. It's also no good trying to show the muscle man in a different light: so what if he mopes about with a tear in his eye for 20 minutes, we all know he's going to take the law into his hands soon enough. This he does with familiar gusto, of course. Fights and explosions ensue. Johns Leguizamo and Turturro provide comical cameos but add nothing more. The film's release was delayed so as not to offend anyone in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Who were they kidding? No-one ever took an Arnie movie seriously, least of all this one.

On the DVD:Collateral Damage on disc has a couple of documentaries that try to embellish the idea of Schwarzenegger's new on-screen persona, but neither succeed. The additional scenes deserved to be excised. The commentary from director Andrew Davis certainly hints at greater aspirations, but makes no apology for the lack of pay-off. There's supposed to be a DVD-ROM-only commentary from Schwarzenegger, too, but this reviewer couldn't find it anywhere. --Paul Tonks

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	2002
Release Date:	September 8, 2003
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 027775
Keywords:	Action, Damage, General, Three, Driven, Adventure, Discs, Swordfish, Collateral
Genre:	Action/Adventure