Sabotage

I'm still not totally sure what Sabotage is about. I'm going to try to explain it as best as I can but.. I don't even know.

Sabotage is a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as "Breacher", the leader of a special operations DEA task force. This team is compiled of the most rag tag, tatted badasses in the DEA and they're all just assholes.

Seriously, I did not like any of these characters. You've got Schwarzenegger who I guess sees this as his new family, and yet he just overlooks a lot of shit that goes on, like a meth addiction, and everyone wanting to have sex with one of the team members who is also the wife of another team member.

You got a lot of big names actually in this team. Or big...ish. You've got Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Terrence Howard, Sawyer from Lost. And of course they fall into that stereotype of they're all so close that they're pretty much family.

At the beginning of the film, they're busting into a drug den and find a huge pile of money. They bust the place but not before hiding 10 million dollars in cash that they will split between them.

An investigation happens and because they're so close, nobody breaks and nobody ever figures out where the money went. Even the team members because the money suddenly vanishes before they can retrieve it.

Months later, Schwarzenegger is off probation, they're starting their job back up and then suddenly team members start to get brutally murdered one by one. This is where an FBI agent comes in (played by Olivia Williams) and she starts investigating the murders of these DEA agents.

The movie ends up being a whodunit and eventually the team start realizing that its actually a member of their team that is murdering everyone. Something that probably should have been obvious from the start and if they had focused on that from the beginning and not wasted my time thinking it was the cartel or something, this movie probably would have been at least a little bit more interesting.

Instead there's this convoluted plotline with the cartel and, the movie wants you to ask yourself, oh was it the cartel? But if you're smart, you probably already guessed it wasn't the cartel.

I don't know there's this whole deal about Arnold's family and how they were brutally murdered by the cartel. Its an important part of the film but its thrown in at the most inopportune times and it just doesn't flow with the rest of the movie. The parts where the movie was talking about Arnold's revenge on the cartel guys who killed his family seemed like a movie in itself. A movie that probably would have been more interesting than this mess of a crime mystery.

And then there's a point where they realize that it was somebody in the group and they basically say who it is... and they don't do anything. Its basically revealed who the bad guy is and they just let them drive away, like nothing happened. Its just a strange film with a lot of strange twists and turns that I suppose are trying to make the movie clever but in reality, its just a mess.

While you have a lot of big... ish names in this movie, its really not high caliber actors. I'll get to Arnold, but Sam Worthington I swear hit his peak at Avatar, I really don't think the man can do anything better than that movie. Joe M (I don't really want to spell out his entire last name) is good... ish, he's more of just a big guy that does action stunts. Mireille Enos plays Worthington's wife and she was just awful. Terrance Howard was in this movie! I used to think that man was talented but its shit like this that makes me question that idea. Olivia Williams plays the most uninterested police detective in the world. As bullets are flying she's got the same face of absolute calm, which I guess you could say she's collect under pressure, but there is literally no reaction from her on anything.

And then we have the Governor himself.

Schwarzenegger would probably be the first to tell you that he's probably not gonna be your choice for Shakespeare. The guy cannot act for shit. What he is good for is pulling off these action roles where he doesn't have to speak that much, he just needs to look cool shooting a gun, crack a one liner here and there, and kick ass.

The problem with this movie is that he's actually expected to show some emotion with this shit of a script. He's this guy whose family was brutally executed. He's suppose to be this ring leader, seeing his only true family murdered one by one. And of course, what does he do? He just gives that squint and give a blank stare. I'm sorry, maybe its a generational thing, but I've never understood why you would put Schwarzenegger as a main lead in a film. I'll talk more about this in my Total Recall review coming up, but I can see Schwarzenegger as the villain, or the badass mentor or something like that, but I've never understood him as a leading man.

And that German accent is still strong. As much as he wants us to believe that he is this badass American action hero, that god damn accent still haunts him and still kind of takes me out of it.

But let's be fair, Sabotage wasn't a film made to win Oscars, it was a chance to see these actors shoot a lot of bad guys and a lot of blood and gore to be spilled.

I guess it can be said that the action in this film is pretty good. Every once in a while you get these kind of cool shots and I suppose the action can be intense at times.

But honestly, many times, I just felt like this movie was a video game that I couldn't play. And without any real character development or any characters that I even really like and see as "the good guys", this movie just kind of falls flat and can be chalked up to a really bad shoot em' up film with little to no story. Plain and simple, this movie is just not good. The characters are dull and one dimensional. The acting is shit. The story is shit. The action, though sometimes fun, can be repetitive and become dull. The mystery is shit. The subplots are shit.

The thing that worries me about this film is that its directed by David Ayer.

David Ayer has a spotted track record. He directed Training Day which I personally think is one of the best crime thrillers out there. But then he did a movie like Street Kings. He did End of Watch which is a great film, I've heard great things about Fury...

And then he makes this movie...

The reason this worries me is because the guy is suppose to helm DC's Suicide Squad. Now I'm on pins and needles about all DC properties, especially Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman because they hold the future of the franchise in their hands.

I don't know if there's a lot to worry about with Ayer helming Suicide Squad but after watching this film it kind of makes me a little bit nervous. That worry is off set a little bit by the great names attached to the film, like Jared Leto, Will Smith, etc. Its just a little bit concerning... cause this movie was complete garbage.

It just worries me because I'm already iffy on a lot of the DC franchise being put into the hands of Zack Snyder who has a spotted track record himself and you have someone very similar to him that has made great films... but also made Sabotage.

Not a huge thing, I think I have faith in Ayer that he'll do it right. This movie is just a little concerning, that's all.

I don't wanna waste anymore time on this movie. Sabotage isn't a good film, at all. End of story.

What do you think? Comment and Discuss below! Or you can shoot me a tweet @cmhaugen24 and follow me on Twitter to get updates on movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. I'm going to be reviewing a couple of Schwarzenegger films, again Total Recall is coming, I just wish I could see this one. Enjoy!