Extras: Commentary with director Andrew Davis, Behind the Scenes
featurette, The Hero in a New Era documentary, additinal scenes,
theatrical trailer, cast & crew highlights.
Director:
Andrew Davis
Screenplay:
David Griffiths
Cast:
Gordy Brewer: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Selena: Francesca Neri
Brandt: Elias Koteas
Felix: John Leguizamo
Armstrong: John Turturro
Collateral Damage's
history is an awkward one. Originally set for
release on October 5th last year, it was postponed due to the tragic events
of September 11th. It was then screened in November where audiences understood why
it was postponed. You will too. Right off the bat we're in a burning
building, not a terrorist attack but still, then eight minutes later a
car bomb kills nine people. With 9/11 still painfully fresh in my mind
it felt uneasy to watch. Nothing of that magnitude or anything but it
just seems so familiar. The film even later takes us to a familiar place
that was also in the news around that time. Whoa, I usually tell all
the above stuff in the next paragraph. Alright well, let's get to the
story for those who are interested.
Collateral Damage tells the story of firefighter Gordy Brewer
(Schwarzenegger) whose wife and son are killed in a bombing. The bad
thing was that he was late - if he had only been a few minutes earlier,
they would have been fine. Gordy even talked with the terrorist, himself,
who was disguised as a cop and Gordy told him he was just
picking up his kid. Haunted by the man's face, Gordy sneaks into the
Columbias (the home of his enemy) and goes on a revenge mission to
avenge his family. When he realises he is becoming more and more like
his enemy he later shifts gears until the shocking ending. I say
shocking because it was a twist I didn't see coming and you might not
either.
I respect Arnold still. Even though the last movie of his that I
really enjoyed was
Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
or True Lies, you have to
respect him for not giving up. But this movie is pretty bad. It's SO bad
that there is a scene (67 minutes into the movie) where Gordy
bites the ear off a captor and spits it out! Huh? I thought only Mike
Tyson was qualified for something like that. However, I also thought it was the
highlight of the film, Arnold, sick and tired of his movies, just takes
a chunk out of a goon. Classic. At least he's getting back to his roots
in Terminator 3 (due out on July 2nd, 2003), a Conan sequel and True
Lies 2. Collateral Damage is worse than
The 6th Day and better than
End of Days
(did you notice how many movies he has been in with Day in the
title?). And Arnold fans are sure to be dissapointed. I read a report
recently that he was thinking about firing his agent because of all the
bad movies he's been doing. I totally agree. Now if only we could get
him to do a third Predator movie. (DVDfever Ed: I
actually preferred the Arnie-free Predator 2 to the original")
Into the disc. The video is a decent effort from Warner. Matted at
1.85:1, most of the colors are sharp including flesh tones. One thing I
noticed a lot of was compression artifacts. Mostly in the beginning of
the movie on walls and jackets. There was so much I began to think it
was my TV doing it. The outdoor scens look great though - very sharp. Not
a terrible transfer but there are a few problems.
The sound is every bit as decent as the video. In the few action
scenes that are here, the explosions and gunfire are booming. Often
times though the speech seemed muffled compared to the sounds around
them. A little disappointing but the dialogue is laughable anyway.
The extras weren't going to be great anyway since this movie didn't do
too well at the box office. A documentary is presented which approaches
the fact that this movie has a lot to do with 9/11, which I thought was
good that they made mention of it, then a behind the scenes feature is included.
Rounding these out is a commentary track, theatrical trailer, and some
deleted scenes. Kind of pithy if you ask me.
Overall, I could only recommend this movie to Arnold fans. Definitely
a rent-only and not a buy. One year from now we'll all have seen the
movie we've been waiting for since 1992, T3. Don't worry Arnold, we're
not leaving you yet.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
