ERASER (1996)
A film review by B. Reitt
Copyright 1996 B. Reitt
"Welcome to American Cinema, may I take your order please?"
"Yes, I'll have a routine Violence Deluxe, a beefy Ahnold, a small order of unchallenging plot twists, and a damsel in distress. Oh, and make sure you hold the originality. I'm on an intelligence diet."
Is this the movie regimen America really wants to be on? A film like 'Eraser' may have been considered enjoyable and possibly even original in the pre-'Rambo' early 1980's, but American audiences (hopefully) are more discerning in their view toward action films in the mid 1990's, even those starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though we hardly expect an Ahnold picture to be revered as the next 'Citizen Kane,' our standards have risen in this post-'Total Recall', 'Terminator 2,' and 'True Lies' decade. Those films at least had a hint of inventiveness and plot texturing which was complemented by Ahnold's well-suited, though admittedly narrow-scoped, acting abilities.
'Eraser,' on the other hand, is thoroughly predictable and so overridden by the conventional bad guys with big guns chasing Ahnold through smoky warehouses as he struggles to protect the spunky heroine (played adequately by Vanessa Williams), that one feels as if they are watching a comically over-budgeted network television movie-of-the-week. A few fairly unimpressive special-effects, coupled with a not-so-bad bad guy (played not so adequately by James Caan), and Ahnold uttering the occasional camera-mugging witticism, just don't cut it anymore in today's competitive big-budget, big-screen world of action movies. Audiences weaned on 'Starsky And Hutch' are becoming jaded by good guys miraculously dodging bullets as they dive around corners and somersault their way to their next paycheck. In 'Eraser,' Ahnold portrays a U.S. Marshall working for the government' witness protection program whose job it is to "erase" and create new identities for federal witnesses targeted for extinction by the bad guys. When a female employee of a high-tech arms corporation (Williams) attempts to blow the cover off of a top-secret impending Iran-Contra-style arms deal, Ahnold is called in to protect her. Naturally, evil CIA and FBI flunkies who are taking their orders from someone high up in the government echelon attempt to thwart Ahnold's mission. Some silly sequences involving stereotyped mafiosos actually manage to offer a welcome respite as we impatiently wade through to the formulaic climax.
Today's audiences deserve quality over quantity; we've seen enough explosions, dead bodies and fancy guns. Only a handful of action films have delivered the wit, style, and character to make an indelible impression on our collective cinematic consciousness. And, while an Ahnold film may never fall into this category, we really should demand a better Ahnold for the buck. Otherwise, filmmakers may continue to erase content and leave us only with a blinding flash.
"A CANDY-COLORED CLOWN THEY CALL THE SANDMAN"
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