Directed by:
David AyerCinematography:
Bruce McCleeryComposer:
David SardyCast:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Harold Perrineau, Josh Holloway, Terrence Howard, Olivia Williams, Mireille Enos, Gary Grubbs (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
John "Breacher" Wharton (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the head of an elite Drug Enforcement Administration task force, leads his agents in a drug bust that yields millions of dollars. They pocket the loot that they confiscate, believing that their secret is safe. However, when a mysterious assassin starts assassinating the task force members one by one, he believes it's one of his own team and sets out to find who it is and bring them to justice. (QED International)
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Reviews (8)
A film as ridiculous as Schwarzenegger's acting and feigned toughness. Otherwise, nothing against Arnold, I like him in his older and time-tested films where he isn't limited by his narrow acting range, but he doesn't have the acting chops for a complex character haunted by demons and the frustration of his beloved wife's death. Moreover, with his fading physiognomy, he looks like a fist in the eye among those young, horny wolves (and one very wild "bitch" played by – unusual for her – Mireille Enos). The B-movie script, which makes less and less sense as it goes on, doesn't help things either. The result is a kind of sweaty play on a raw thriller, with a lot of plot filler and deaf spots, where even the wannabe badass lines feel forced and the violence is gratuitous.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to shoot some interesting movies after returning from his Governor office. And I must admit that he’s doing pretty well. Because Ayer is a very interesting director who can make him stand out in his movies. Sabotage doesn’t really have a difficult story. Arnie’s in charge of a band of queers, where one is more idiotic than the next guy. Let’s say they’re all complete idiots. And this unit is apparently one of the best anti-drug unit in America. But what happens if all of them start dying in a strange way? Being the “big guy”, Arnie immediately starts investigating it and amidst all those torn-apart bodies, he also finds a way to make the movie likeable for me. For once, I didn’t really have a problem with this level of realism, because from that point on, it turns into a solid crime investigation movie where Arnold’s enjoying himself to the fullest and it made me wonder whether I started to like this movie. The action scenes aren’t bad at all. What’s worse are the actors; the only one I liked at all was Arnold. It was only thanks to him that it turned into a solid four-star affair. I like him a lot and this movie outright depends on him, which was great.
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I didn't really enjoy it. Action movies about special ops are one of my least favourites because even here we don't get to build any kind of relationship with the characters, so we have absolutely no sympathy for someone who dies. There is plenty of blood, but that's it, it felt like a cheap video movie at times. A generic story, little action, Arnie didn't work for me here, and at times it’s boring, so average. 55%.
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Ayer is once again digging into the nastiness of the guardians of the American dream in a way no one wants to see, except with more stones in his path than he's used to. The fact that Schwarzenegger hits his acting limits just by saying hello is simply a problem with a character who is basically unparalleled in his career to date due to his character layering, and it's not helped by the writing hand of Skip Woods, whose B-movie mentality occasionally kicks the ball well out of reality and we have to wait quite a while before it lands where it's supposed to again. An interesting aspect of Ayer is his high and unforced emancipated attitudes, which few would expect from a specialist in police themes. The women here are not the parents and bearers of liberal values in a humdrum world of drug cartels and rotten cops, but the movers of the plot, equivalent to the men, and sources of moments of surprise. As a result, the wider audience suffers too, unable to come to terms with the fact that there’s no instant sex symbol, just the insane butch Mireille Enos and the ironic investigator Olivia Williams, both excellently played.
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Michael Mann loves tough guys, hardcore action, and raw military feeling, just like David Ayer. Both of them have seen, studied and experienced and know how to create a realistic atmosphere, but they approach it from opposite ends. Mann comes from the upper echelons of society (drug barons, professional thieves, undercover cops in Ferraris), while Ayer comes from the lower ones (losers, aimless goons), and handles action brilliantly, no doubt about it. We haven't seen raw shootouts full of bullets and destruction for a while, but we have seen all the rest in his other movies, so it’s not impressive, and his groundbreaking steady cam and FPS shots are nothing new either. It would still be a decent ride if it weren't for the dumb screenplay. Arnold is alright. The nerve is there, it's just shooting, so okay.
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