SABOTAGE (3 out of 10) Directed by David Ayer; written by Skip Ward and David Ayer; starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Terrence Howard, Joe Manganiello, Mireille Enos, Josh Holloway, Olivia Williams, Harold Perrineau, Kevin Vance, Mike Martini; rated R (strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity and drug use); in general release; running time: 109 minutes.
For those hoping to see “Ahnold” return to form with a great action movie, you’ll have to keep waiting. Sabotage does its best to, well, sabotage itself with poor writing, bland characters, a special brand of offensive misogyny, and violence so over-the-top that it became a hindrance to the film.
The plot (if it can be called that) involves a crack team of DEA agents led by Schwarzenegger. On their last job, they decided to steal $10 million dollars from the cartel they were raiding, stashing it in the sewers below the compound. To complicate matters, the money goes missing before they can retrieve it. to complicate it more, the DEA knows about the missing $10 million and suspect the team. Then people start ending up dead and they have to figure out who is taking out their team members one by one.
That actually makes it sound a lot more interesting and cohesive than it is.
Let’s start with last things first. This thing is a bloody mess. If you’re a fan of gore and violence, you may find yourself entertained. But for most audiences, the exploitative, sadistic and over the top gore will be just too much. And not “too much” in a Tarantino or Eli Roth way. That can be fun. This is specifically joyless and neither fun, cool, nor does it serve any greater purpose in the film.
And if you can’t make violence fun, meaningful, or poignant in some way, why include it in a film?
Speaking of not fun, meaningful, nor poignant, we have the “script” for this turd. Penned by the same guy who brought us “X-Men: Origins: Wolverine” “Hitman” and “A Good Day to Die Hard,” we get a far worse film than any of those. Well, except maybe Hitman. That was truly terrible. Also co-written by the film’s director, David Ayer (Training Day, End of Watch, Street Kings) we should expect better. But this disappoints on every level.
The characters are all one-note and indistinguishable from each other. Oh, except the one female member of the team, who is constantly derided as a whore. But see, this misogyny is ok, because she dishes it right back, right? She’s just one of the guys, which totes makes it fine.</sarcasm> However, one of the only truly interesting choices made in the film was a likely unintentional send up of the “women in refrigerators” trope.
But these characters? One major problem I have with the film is I didn’t really care when they started dying. Oh noez! That one guy, indistinguishable from the other guys pretty much, is dead in a gruesome manner! How shocking and tragic! Wait, how many more of them are there? 7? 5? I’ve lost count. The characters are like the little green army men: yes, they’re technically different, but not enough to make them really distinguishable from one another.
And then there’s the man himself. The Governator. He’s still charismatic and even believable in an action role, even though he’s old enough to be collecting Social Security. But he’s just not used well here. The best things about Ahnold are the one-liners, and there’s none of those here. In fact, this entire film is almost entirely devoid of humor.
And for those hoping for a “Lost” reunion between Harold Perrineau and Josh Holloway, you’ll have to keep waiting. They literally do not share one scene together. Sorry.
Sabotage is a big, bloody mess. It takes itself too seriously, it thinks it’s smarter than it is, and I just don’t care about the fate of the characters. Unless you really have nothing better to do with 2 hours and $10 or are a Schwarzenegger completist, stay away from this film.
3 out of 10