Sunday, 30 March 2014

Sabotage (2014) (English)

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a lead role was bound to generate some interest if not too much. His last huge role was T3. Bit movies since then such as The Last Stand (http://kartikr.blogspot.in/2013/01/the-last-stand-2013.html) and Escape Plan and a side role in Expendables.  However, what we get is a very flat movie in most aspects that we associate with Arnie dear. And I say so as a disappointed fan.

The story does make for interesting viewing but the execution is where David Ayer falls short by a few country miles. Jack "Breacher" is the leader of a Special Task Force created by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) and has a very solid team. Each one of them is a character in herself/himself. And they have several interesting nicknames to boot.

The least interesting nickname is Lizzie (Mirielle Enos) - only girl in the group. We have Lizzie's husband Monster (Sam Worthington), Sugar (Terence Howard), Grinder (Joe Manganiello), Neck (Josh Holloway), Pyro (Max Martini), Tripod (Kevin Vance) and Smoke (Mark Schlegel). The 9 of them are almost like family. Breacher is their "Big Daddy" and does everything to take care of them.

On a planned drug bust where nearly $800 million in cash is about to be recovered, they decide to siphon off $10 million. A plan set by Breacher and agreed to by the team. Only, when they get back to recover their stash from a sewer, they find that someone has got to it before. To make matters worse, the FBI catches on and grills them to hell and back.

Nothing comes out of the investigation because our heroes are tight lipped. But when they get back to the force, they start getting picked out by the cartel - who normally doesn't take kindly to money going missing. Loosely based on Agatha Christie's classic - 10 Little Niggers (aka - And then there were none), Sabotage provides for very weak entertainment in any department.

To begin with, in a movie that has Arnie in the lead, you should have at least 2-3 punchlines that the big man needs to deliver. Lines that at least come close to "I'll be baak". There is none. In fact, the dialogue is flat as a bottle of soda that someone opened 2 weeks back. There is no punch in any of the action sequences. The script is predictable and boring. To make matters worse, the narration is slower than a snail (and I'm not talking about Turbo).

I am not sure if the actors were over awed by the presence of Arnold but they all seemed lack lustre. All except Mirielle Enos who plays the role of the druggie DEA agent in a man's world with ease and punch. She is firecracker but a lot of it had to do with the meat in the role. Arnold looks and acts old. The rest of the cast is equally lack lustre. The below par action (I'm repeating myself because of the great disappointment) don't help.

Hard core Arnie and action fans will be disappointed with Sabotage. If you really want to catch up with this one, I suggest you wait for it to come on Satellite or Cable. The atrocious ticket prices (even PVR Mulund has raised to 150) are not justified for this one. 4 on 10 for a decent story and a fab performance from Mirielle Enos.

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