Review of Sabotage (2014) by Farah R — 30 Mar 2016

SABOTAGE is a film that, put simply, is totally out of control and unhinged from pretty much its first moments. It's kind of the action flick equivalent of a slasher movie, with a group of characters slowly picked off one-by-one for mysterious and shadowy reasons, and like a slasher movie, it comes packed with copious amount of gruesome violence; the carnage is almost gleefully unpleasant, to the point that it becomes incredibly silly.

In some ways, the movie feels like a throwback to some of the hyper-violent and gory 1980s action films, but in a far nastier, grimier way, and it's the sort of movie that makes you feel like you need to take a shower after watching it.

It's also a weird film from a tonal standpoint (alternating between bouts of shocking bloodletting and witty workplace semi-repartee) and most of its primary characters are incredibly problematic; our motley crew of "heroes" are so disgusting and gross - both morally and physically - that it's almost unbelievable.

Only Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is given any kind of depth (including a tragic backstory), and he therefore gets the most material to chew on. He's legitimately great here, a tired and grizzled presence that counterbalances - to a degree - the trashy sort of the flavor most of the rest of the characters seem to embody.

The film is an incredibly entertaining watch, but I'm not sure intentionally so; the movie, make no mistake, is SUPER sleazy in a way that's truly hard to fathom if you're not experiencing it for yourself (there's a climactic chase that is so full of distasteful and bizarre beats that I was genuinely laughing myself sick at the insanity unfolding).

I don't think SABOTAGE is in any way a good movie, but I had an absolute blast watching it.