Collateral Damage (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Ronald Roose, David Griffiths & Peter Griffiths
Directed by Andrew Davis
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, Francesca Neri, Cliff Curtis, Miguel Sandoval, John Turturro and John Leguizamo

Features:

• Feature Length Commentary with Director Andrew Davis
  
• Behind the Scenes Documentary
  
• The Hero in a New Era
  
• Additional Scenes
  
• Cast/Director Film Highlights
  
• Theatrical Trailer
  
• DVD-ROM: Web Events, Web Site/Chat Room Access
  

Gordon Brewer (Schwarzenegger) is a firefighter. He has just gotten back from a night of rescuing people from burning buildings and is enjoying his time with his family. His wife and he work out their schedules to take their son to the doctor, but for some unknown reason, Brewer is running late. It just so happens that a terrorist had chosen that building as a target, and the bomb goes off. Brewer's wife and son are killed in the blast. Having lost it all (and being fed up with the government trying to negotiate with the terrorists), he decides to track the bomber, a man called "The Wolf" (Curtis), to Colombia and take out his vengeance personally. To make matters more difficult, he also gets involved in a deadly relationship with "The Wife of the Wolf" (Neri).

This movie was okay. It could have been worse, I suppose. Unfortunately, it got a lot of hype because of the decision to push back the theatrical release because of the events of September 11. I believe, this was a very noble gesture on the part of the production company, but it wound up being a bad idea for the response that this film garnered upon its release. Anyway, the writing is a little better than you would expect for a typical Schwarzenegger film, but it is not any less predictable. The wronged Schwarzenegger goes on a mission to kill the man who wronged him: surprises are sparse. I have to admit, however, that it was nice to see "Ahhnold" have to go through at least a little bit of character development. There was a montage of scenes were he was shown grieving for his wife and son, but it quickly turned into planning the death of the terrorist. Back to the point, you can expect the expected: inept bad guys who can't hit a stationary target after unloading several magazines of ammo into its general direction, a hero who can outsmart and outwit his opponents with no military training whatsoever, and a hero who can survive a fall off of a 500-plus foot waterfall without a scratch...well, you get the picture. It is interesting to point out that our hero made his way through this movie without ever picking up a gun. He used his knowledge of fires to build bombs and booby-traps to kill his opponents. Oh yeah, not to gloat or anything, but there was a "surprise twist" in the story that I saw coming a mile away. The reason I say I'm not gloating is that the eggplant that happened to be sitting on my coffee table when I watched the film saw it coming as well. The characters are beyond archetypal by now and the actors who portray them seem to know that, and don't try to futz with the formula that (apparently) works for maximum box office payout.

Okay, they had to reference 9/11 in the special features of this DVD. They really had no choice. But what they did have a choice about was taking this film too seriously in its connection with the terrorist act that took so many lives. There is a 15-20 minute interview segment with Schwarzenegger and director Davis where they talk about how their film was What People Needed to help deal with the national tragedy. I'm sorry, the film is okay as a piece of entertainment, but Saving Private Ryan it ain't. In fact, I think the reason the film doesn't work either as an action movie or as a "healing movie" is that they try too hard to do both. The behind the scenes featurette is a little better because it deals mostly with the film itself and not with recent world events. It's your standard Hollywood making-of vignette with video clips behind the scenes on set interspersed with little mini-interviews with some of the cast members. This is the first time that I have seen a collection of alternate scenes on a DVD where I agreed so strongly with the choice to make the changes that were in the final cut of the film. These alternates are horrible! They do nothing but cloud the story.

There is a major problem with the director's commentary track. Anytime Davis stops talking, they boost the volume on the soundtrack of the film. This wouldn't be so bad if Davis didn't talk so damn quietly: you wind up having to ride the volume controls the whole way though. Other than that, there's really nothing special about Davis' commentary. He introduces almost every actor in the story no matter how small the part, which I guess is pretty cool, but other than that, there's really not a lot to it.

Surprisingly enough, I think they actually got it kind of right with the DVD-ROM content on this one. Even though you have to load the "Interactual Player" to access it, there is actually some pretty neat stuff going on when you get it installed, the best of which is the information about Colombia and the drug war. The information seems relevant (to the film at least) and it was interesting to read. The other stuff is pretty simple; more screenshots, the trailer is online (as well as on the special features menu on the DVD), there is desktop wallpaper to download, etc. However, from a DVDophile's perspective, I found it of interest that they decided to put their "production notes" and story board segments online rather than on the DVD. No doubt they're looking for extra page views, but ah, who isn't?

On the whole, I would say it's worth renting to see how they treated the DVD-ROM content if you are a DVDophile like myself, or if you just need a decent Arnold fix.