Collateral Damage

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Collateral Damage
Distributed by
Warner Bros

    Cover

  • Cert: R
  • Cat.no: 21324
  • Running time: 109 minutes
  • Year: 2001
  • Pressing: 2002
  • Region(s): 1, NTSC
  • Chapters: 32
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Languages: English, French
  • Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: No
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Price: $26.98
  • Extras: Commentary with director Andrew Davis, Behind the Scenesfeaturette, 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‘shistory is an awkward one. Originally set forrelease on October 5th last year, it was postponed due to the tragic eventsof September 11th. It was then screened in November where audiences understood whyit was postponed. You will too. Right off the bat we’re in a burningbuilding, not a terrorist attack but still, then eight minutes later acar bomb kills nine people. With 9/11 still painfully fresh in my mindit felt uneasy to watch. Nothing of that magnitude or anything but itjust seems so familiar. The film even later takes us to a familiar placethat was also in the news around that time. Whoa, I usually tell allthe above stuff in the next paragraph. Alright well, let’s get to thestory 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 badthing 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 justpicking up his kid. Haunted by the man’s face, Gordy sneaks into theColumbias (the home of his enemy) and goes on a revenge mission toavenge his family. When he realises he is becoming more and more likehis enemy he later shifts gears until the shocking ending. I sayshocking because it was a twist I didn’t see coming and you might noteither.

I respect Arnold still. Even though the last movie of his that Ireally enjoyed wasTerminator 2: Judgment Day.or True Lies, you have torespect him for not giving up. But this movie is pretty bad. It’s SO badthat there is a scene (67 minutes into the movie) where Gordybites the ear off a captor and spits it out! Huh? I thought only MikeTyson was qualified for something like that. However, I also thought it was thehighlight of the film, Arnold, sick and tired of his movies, just takesa chunk out of a goon. Classic. At least he’s getting back to his rootsin Terminator 3 (due out on July 2nd, 2003), a Conan sequel and TrueLies 2. Collateral Damage is worse thanThe 6th Day and better thanEnd of Days(did you notice how many movies he has been in with Day in thetitle?). And Arnold fans are sure to be dissapointed. I read a reportrecently that he was thinking about firing his agent because of all thebad movies he’s been doing. I totally agree. Now if only we could gethim to do a third Predator movie. (DVDfever Ed: Iactually preferred the Arnie-free Predator 2 to the original”)

Into the disc. The video is a decent effort from Warner. Matted at1.85:1, most of the colors are sharp including flesh tones. One thing Inoticed a lot of was compression artifacts. Mostly in the beginning ofthe movie on walls and jackets. There was so much I began to think itwas my TV doing it. The outdoor scens look great though – very sharp. Nota terrible transfer but there are a few problems.

The sound is every bit as decent as the video. In the few actionscenes that are here, the explosions and gunfire are booming. Oftentimes though the speech seemed muffled compared to the sounds aroundthem. A little disappointing but the dialogue is laughable anyway.

The extras weren’t going to be great anyway since this movie didn’t dotoo well at the box office. A documentary is presented which approachesthe fact that this movie has a lot to do with 9/11, which I thought wasgood that they made mention of it, then a behind the scenes feature is included.Rounding these out is a commentary track, theatrical trailer, and somedeleted scenes. Kind of pithy if you ask me.

Overall, I could only recommend this movie to Arnold fans. Definitelya rent-only and not a buy. One year from now we’ll all have seen themovie we’ve been waiting for since 1992, T3. Don’t worry Arnold, we’renot leaving you yet.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Traveta, 2002.

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