Sabotage (Cinema Screening)

(Spoilers)

I am never one to turn down an Arnie action flick, although in recent years he may not have defined the perfect action movie he constantly delivers enjoyable movies full of one liners and explosions galore. Sabotage hasn’t performed that well in the cinemas and will no doubt be on its way out soon so I took the chance to see it while I still could!

Sabotage is a step away from the generic action movies that Arnie is generally involved in, this works both in it’s favour but also works against it. There is no doubt that what is on offer here is a step closer to a thriller than an action movie but it never really settles into one category, although who says it has to!? The action on offer is average and doesn’t really arrive until the finale however here it is exciting and provides some great sequences worth waiting for. The very final sequence is also really good however I genuinely think that it was unnecessary, I thought the film could have finished with Arnie just heading to Mexico implying that he was going to get his revenge without actually showing it, although this way we do get another kick-ass action scene. Up until this point we were given the more thriller side of things, with several of Arnie’s gang being hunted down – with some really gruesome results! I thought at times the gore was a bit overkill (no pun intended) but for the majority it did the job of creating suspense and horror!

Unfortunately one problem that Sabotage had was its characters, I found it hard to like any of them! Arnie’s character is likeable but only because it is Arnie playing him.  This provided a problem when the gang were hunted down as firstly we had hardly any time to get to know them and secondly you just really didn’t care about them. Terrance Howard was the only other really recognisable name cast here for me, he did a good job but was a little underused.  If Sabotage had of been able to get a few bigger names on board I think this would have helped.  The start of the film is slow too especially for a movie which has been branded as an all out action flick! This isn’t your usual Arnie flick so fans going for that may be left a little disappointed as I don’t recall Arnie rhyming off a single one-liner! Despite this I have to commend the movie as it does try really hard to get away from action cliches and become something more memorable. Potential is my one word review for Sabotage, it was going in the right direction but unfortunately just didn’t quite make it.

BIGGEST FLAW – Unlikeable characters

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Trying to be more than just an cliched action movie

Rating – 7.5/10