Sabotage

From TRAINING DAY (2001), DARK BLUE (2002), HARSH TIMES (2005), STREET KINGS (2008) and END OF WATCH (2012) at which he either writes, directs or doing both duties, David Ayer has crafted quite a career for himself as the go-to guy when comes to movie that explores the dark side of a law enforcement. This year is no different as Ayer explores the same territory again with SABOTAGE. But what's really interesting about his latest effort is his first-time collaboration with the former '80s and '90s king of big action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the kind of role unlike anything fans have seen him before... well, at least not since 1984's THE TERMINATOR or to certain extent, 1997's BATMAN AND ROBIN.

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

Following a successful drug raid to steal US$10 million from the cartel's money, John "Breacher" Wharton (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his rugged team of undercover DEA task force -- James "Monster" Murray (Sam Worthington) and wife Lizzy (Mireille Enos), Joe "Grinder" Phillips (Joe Manganiello), Julius "Sugar" Edmonds (Terrence Howard), Eddie "Neck" Jordan (Josh Holloway), Tom "Pyro" Roberts (Max Martini), and Bryce "Tripod" McNeely (Kevin Vance) -- are happy to collect it later where they hide it in the sewer pipes. However, they return to discover that the drug money has gone missing. They are eventually held for investigation and everyone ends up suspended from duty. But after the authorities fail to land hard evidence against them, their superior (Martin Donovan) put them back into action. Then, one by one from Breacher's team members ends up dead in gory fashion. While trying to find out the culprit, Breacher is subsequently working with homicide investigator Caroline Brentwood (Olivia Williams) and realizes that the murders as well as the stolen drug money is actually involving one of them.

THE GOOD STUFF

As with other Ayer's movies, the action is brutal and gripping enough to capture your attention. Together with cinematographer Bruce McCleery, Ayer also manages to create some creative shots including the one where he utilizes small digital cameras from the tip of a gun barrel's point-of-view during a shootout.

The overall cast here is engaging, with Schwarzenegger gives a daring performance as the cigar-chomping John "Breacher" Wharton with a dark past. It's certainly nice to see him willing enough to change his usual larger-than-life action image for something radically different. As the emotionally-confused and relentless Caroline Brentwood, Olivia Williams plays her role with enough gravitas to stand out on her own. The rest of the supporting actors, including Sam Worthington (sporting a shaved head and braided goatee) and Joe Manganiello (looking good with a cornrow hairstyle), are equally adequate with their respective roles but it was Mireille Enos who steals the show in SABOTAGE. Here, Enos brings an uncompromisingly fearless performance as the tortured Lizzy who is addicted to drugs.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT(S)

For all the blood, sex and profanities that showcased throughout the movie, I can't singled out a moment worth placing here.

THE BAD STUFF

It's a pity that the story here is major disappointment. Written by David Ayer and Skip Woods, SABOTAGE does look promising with a nifty concept that mixes Ayer's trademark gritty cop thriller with Agatha Christie-like whodunit structure (particularly her famous novel of And Then There Were None). However, the execution is rather poor or should I say, lazily constructed, as the whodunit doesn't look interesting at all. And worst, the story drags a lot throughout the movie.

As exceptionally good as Schwarzenegger has put into his character, there's a nagging feeling that he looks wooden when he is required to deliver more stilted dialogues than usual. As the soft-spoken Sugar, Terrence Howard does little to make his performance worthwhile in the movie.

As much as Ayer loves to showcase a lot of grits in his movie, his penchant for shaky camera-work feels rather annoying, particularly when he loves to do a lot of tight close-ups. Another flaw here is Ayer's over-the-top display of gore and violence that somehow works better for a hardcore horror movie than a gritty cop thriller.

FINAL WORDS

While SABOTAGE is far from both Ayer's and Schwarzenegger's best efforts, the movie remains quite a jolting cinematic experience.

This kind of movie is David Ayer's bread & butter, and he has a good cast to work with including Schwarzenegger, Worthington, Howard and Enos. The problem is that the script isn't tight enough and I didn't believe some of the actions of the characters. Worth a watch if you are fans of the genre or the actors, otherwise skip it.

the aim of any actor is to have something different and to have charisma.You don't have to be great looking you don't even have to be great physically...you just have to have something that people want to watch.

For some unknown reason Arnie has that something...an extra thing that so many wanna be's don't have.An individual dirty harry frank sinatra dean martin, grace kelly ZING.

Anyway, the movie has that thing that makes you start watching and also want to see what happens.It has a 80's video schlock thriller feel but that just adds rather than takes away.The actors are attempting that blokey locker room stuff you do when you play sport with your buddies but at game time they all put in a team performance.

Good work Arnie you still got it.

A lot of people left disappointed by the movie and for a very good reason: it was marketed (I just rewatched the trailer now to make sure) as an action revenge flick. You expect some good old fashioned Arnold bashing of bad guys and instead you get a "10 Little N!ggers" like mystery thriller with extra blood and gun violence. I mean, when I saw that Martini's character died, I thought "the team" would wreak havoc on those murderous cartels. I even made a mental note to title the review "No Martini, no party", but the movie was not about that at all.

Yet that is not enough to make it a bad movie, right? Certainly if it would have been a well done film, it would have stood on its own, marketing be damned. However the silly dialogues, the wooden acting, the random bunch of TV series actors (plus Sam Worthington) and the confusing editing of reality with imagined scenes, it all spoiled it for me.

And it's too bad. The actors in the cast are good actors and they deserved a better script. The story in itself is not bad either and I could enjoy some parts of the movie. Bottom line: big budget failure. The worse of it is that the action scenes were actually pretty stupid, too. The action scenes!!

Why did this flop, and why is it rated to low!? I don't quite get that. No, it is not the only movie you ever need to see, but it is pretty darn entertaining, I'll tell ya.

Yeah, it totally overdoes the we-are-such-a-tight-group-of-bros-(and-a- sis)-and-we-joke-in-a-rough-way, but it doesn't really get too annoying. Arnold is good, this is not his usual role, and that's pretty neat. Olivia Williams is also pretty good.

Now, the action. This has some intense action sequences, and it is bru-tal! I mean, this is an R-rating if I ever saw one! Blood is flowing. I saw a you-tube review of this, he though it was to violent, it's not. I like me a really brutal movie now and then!

It has a couple twists and turns, action is good, acting is decent, (I dare you to recognize Sam Worthington!) it is, *drumroll* entertaining!

People saying this is a bad movie, well, they obviously haven't seen The legend of Hercules. Sabotage is one of several Arnold comeback-movies, and it is definitely a good one.

As I've said, it isn't a classic, it tries to be a little better than it really is, but it does not make it that bad at all.