Helmed and co-written by David Ayer, Sabotage is a testosterone filled, high-body-count romp of an action flick that seeks to remind us what we liked about the undisputed badass of biceps. While not taking center stage, Arnold Schwarzenegger dishes out what we expect of him, plus a bit of nastiness we haven’t seen since Terminator. A little grey around the temples and a wider girth that comes from too much gemütlichkeit, Arnie plays cigar-chomping DEA agent John “Breacher” Wharton.
Mileaged by hard drinking and years of unappreciated police work, Breacher’s still got the chops and cojones to head up a team of neo misfits with colorful names like “Monster” (Sam Worthington), “Grinder” (Joe Manganiello), “Sugar” (Terrence Howard), “Neck” (Josh Holloway), “Tripod” (Max Martini), “Smoke” (Mark Schlegel) and “Lizzy” (Mirelle Enos). Their mission: raid a cartel safe house to rip off $10 million in drug stash. Trouble is, the cash disappears and the top DEA brass smell a rat, but they have no proof so they re-instate the entire team.
Turning on a dime, the plot kicks into high gear as Arnie’s compadres get snuffed out in ways that remind us of the Hostel flicks. Is it the cartel? A mole in the team? When we discover who it is, we also learn a dark secret that prompted them to steal the cash. If you can follow the pretzel storyline and forgive the thin narrative and occasional “Jumping the Shark’ action scenes, this popcorn flick is what it is—an E-ticket ride.
While the script won’t win an academy award, it does dole out some drinking-buddy barroom one-liners that have proven indispensible in Arnie action flicks. And even though his motely crew are a tad on the cardboard side, burying themselves in their respective roles, Sabotage does “square peg” everyone where they should be as cast. One thing to keep in mind is that the blood and gore flow pretty freely in this film.
Alex A. Kecskes is a published author of "Healer a Novel" and "The Search for Dr. Noble"—both now available on Amazon. He has written hundreds of film reviews and celebrity interviews for a wide variety of online and print outlets. He has covered red carpet premieres and Comic-Con events for major films and independent releases.
