ERASER
A film review by Chad Polenz
Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz
**1/2 (out of 4 = OK) 1996, R, 115 minutes [1 hour, 55 minutes] [action] starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger (John Kruger - "The Eraser"), James Caan (Robert Deguerin), Vanessa Williams (Lee), Robert Pastorelli (Johnny C.), produced by Arnold and Anne Kopelson, written by Tony Paryear, Waylon Green, directed by Charles Russell.
"Eraser" may be the most generic Schwarzenegger flick yet, because it has a little bit from every film he's ever done: super high-tech/sci-fi stuff; double crosses; cartoony bad guys; amazing stunts; lots of explosions and violence; a cute, innocent woman; and a sarcastic buddy to provide for one liners and lightheartedness. This isn't one of Schwarzenegger's best movies, but it's far from his worst.
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as U.S. Marshall John Kruger - "The Eraser," who protects people in the Witness Protection Program by "killing" them. He makes clones of their bodies and makes it seem as if these clones are the people that way the mob thinks they're dead. The way we learn about this is through a standard gun shooting and fist fight scene somewhere in suburbia, which is strange, clever, and silly all at the same time.
The story moves rather quickly, we get bits and pieces of some kind of a plot, but clarity and storytelling is not the point of this movie. We meet Lee (Williams), a sexy woman who is trying to turn in her company for selling high-tech weapons to terrorists. Of course she is sort of caught and The Eraser must protect her. But the plot and the characters are really just excuses for lots of cool violence (maybe I shouldn't refer to violence as "cool," but I can't think of any other way to describe it).
James Caan co-stars as the nemesis Robert Deguerin, a traitor who wants our heroes dead. Caan is not convincing here, mostly because it's difficult to tell what's going on, so we can't tell what his motives are.
Throughout this picture I kept asking myself where I'd seen it all before, and it hit me: Bugs Bunny cartoons! There are individual scenes that are suppo sed to be serious but are just so unbelievable and cliche there's no way this could have any plausibility. Even the characters are cartoons, like Johnny C. (Pastorelli), who was "erased" only to find himself teaming up with The Eraser. Of course, he just happens to have Mafia ties who help them blow away the even badder bad guys.
"Eraser" doesn't quite know what it wants to be: a suspenseful, intense movie about government espionage, or a typical action flick, or maybe even sci-fi? Still, this film is interesting to watch even though you know it's fake. If this is the direction the action genre is headed I won't mind... that much. (8/31/96) (1/18/97) (6/11/97) [see also: "Bulletproof," "The Rock," "True Lies"]
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