Sabotage - Come on... it’s not THAT bad!

I’ve read a lot of reviews for ‘Sabotage’ and, judging by what I read, I was getting ready to endure the worst film I was going to watch all year.  Seriously... I know Arnie isn’t famous for making deep and meaningful pieces of cinematic art, but I’ve never seen one of his films get so many one star ratings.

I should point out that I’m a big fan of the ‘Governator.’ I spent a lot of the late eighties/early nineties watching Predator, T2 and Total Recall.  However, as he got older, his star lost its shine and his movies failed to capture the public’s attention the way they used to.  However, I still found something in each of his later outings.  Granted, they were not up to his ‘glory days,’ but they were still fun action romps.  And that was all I was hoping for with Sabotage.

Here, the big man plays the leader of a drug enforcement unit who is accused of stealing money from a cartel and find themselves being picked off one by one.  And, based on that brief summary, you’ll get whatever you expect from it.  I think a lot of people didn’t like how serious it was.  If you watched Arnie in Running Man or Commando then you may be expecting a wry pun thrown into the carnage to lighten the mood.  Here, there is no lightening of the mood.  It’s dark.  And bleak.  Arnie is not a happy man, but then his whole family were killed by drug lords, so I’d be surprised if he was constantly doing cartwheels of joy all over the place.

Also, a lot of people have criticised the film for having no likable characters.  Yeah, that’s probably a fait comment, but then I didn’t see much of a problem.  Most of them are there to be killed until Arnie and his cop lady-friend can work out who’s behind it.

Apparently, if you read the trivia behind the production, you’ll see it was originally meant to run for a massive three hours and be a murder-mystery.  However, the studio wanted an action flick, so it was cut down to highlight its shootouts etc.  So, if you’re looking for a dark, brooding gun fight with characters who don’t really appeal much, then you’ll get it here.  However, if you’re looking for your ‘traditional’ Arnie film with silly puns and over-the-top action, then you may feel a little short-changed.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that