Review of Collateral Damage (2002) by Jayson H — 09 Jun 2007

Firstly, let us dispel all the rumors shall we? ?Collateral Damage? was conceived and shot well before the 9/11 tragedy, and Warner Brothers or director Andrew Davis had absolutely no intentions of capitalizing on the fall-out; it was just rotten luck that everything happened when it did, is all. Andrew Davis, does, however, try to cash in on the old and tired story of a generic action character?s loss of loved one; said character inevitably swears vengeance, and then exacts revenge on all those who have victimized him. With the model so neatly laid-out, all one has left to do is inject one of Hollywood?s action stars a la Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren or Jean-Claude Van Damme, and voila! A new action movie is born.

The simplistic story is this: Gordon Brewer, a fireman, witnesses the deaths of his wife and child. Upon the realization that the government isn?t serious about tracking down the bomber that murdered his family, he takes matters into his own hands. Up to this point the story is for the most part plausible with it?s bomber?s motivation stemming from the United States unjust actions in his homeland, Columbia which is pretty similar to the reasons stemming from the 9/11 incident: Al Qaeda attacked the United States on because they felt that the Americans were meddling too much in Middle Eastern affairs.

It?s really quite a shame that ?Collateral Damage? decides to cop-out and in the doing places itself into official B movie territory. After Gordy Brewer concludes that he will never see justice for his late wife and child, he decides to take on the international division of the Columbia cartel in their own back yard; now if Gordy Brewer were marine, or even Vietnam veteran, I could believe it. Fact is, he?s nothing more than a simple fireman, and let?s face it: a fireman does not a black ops operative make. Gordy Brewer (the fireman), with his knowledge of South America, via the Internet, somehow sneaks into Columbia, through the Panama, all by his lonesome. I mean the least the writers could have done is attempted to write-in some other character who would know how to accomplish this, help Brewer, and then later-on die, thus shifting the focus back to Brewer. This was done in ?Executive Decision? with Steven Seagal and Kurt Russell in 1996 and it was achieved?at least better so than in this case.

Ignoring that gaping sinkhole in the plot, for the time being, Brewer then trudges until he finds his way even more deeply into the tight network of Columbian drug lords. Yet again, the hero fireman miraculously ends up in a prison cell along with the only guy in all of Columbia that has the means to help him further infiltrate the cartel. The guy, of all people, is a pervert, a smart-ass, a mechanical genius, and, of course, a Canadian citizen. Being a Canadian and all, I can?t help but wonder what people must now think of us just because John Turturro happens to play a pretty convincing Canadian sleazebag. It?s really unfortunate writing for Turturro, whose character makes a final appearance by simply saying something along the lines of ?you?re bigger than I am, so here?s my drug cartel river pass? to Brewer. Not the elegant departure from camera that one would hope for, but then again, we are talking about a cheesy Arnie action film in which firemen have the knowledge and capacity, not to mention the drive to bring down international drug trades.

Without spoiling the actual few good parts in the story, Brewer ultimately meets up with the CIA and gets back to the United States, only to find out that another Colombian bomb is now en route to Washington. It is truly disappointing that the end of ?Collateral Damage? was crafted so masterfully whereas so little attention was paid to its plot and development. The writers of ?Collateral Damage? must have come up with the idea as follows:

Writer #1: ?Wouldn?t it be cool if a movie ended this way??

Writer #2: ?You bet! Let?s call it ?Collateral Damage? and see if Arnold Schwarzenegger is available.?

Writer #1: ?What about the rest of the story??

Writer #2: ?We?ll figure it out once we?re on the set; it?s the director?s problem, anyway.?

Though my bark is often worse than my bite, ?Collateral Damage? is absolutely nowhere near worth a $10.00 downtown Toronto movie ticket. It does, however, warrant a rental screening if you have exhausted all other new release choices at Blockbuster. For an evening of the usual Arnie one liners and a decent explosion or two, then pick up ?Collateral Damage,? and ask for it with a thick Austrian accent, it?s much funnier that way: ??Collateral Damage,? number one box-office smash hit!?