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75My guess is that the average firefighter, like the average American moviegoer, might sort of enjoy the movie, which is a skillfully made example of your typical Schwarzenegger action film.
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75Efficient action thriller.
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70A pretty decent action picture.
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63Your heart will have you cheering Gordy on -- even as your brain complains that there are plot holes you could drive a truck bomb through.
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63The best that can be said about Collateral Damage is that it offers a fleeting fantasy of American invincibility at a time when we desperately crave the reality. It functions as a movie narcotic.
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63Schwarzenegger's mortality for the first time suits him.
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63Morally simple, action packed and explosive.
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60It's throwback, formula Ah-nuld all the way, a straightforward and simple revenge thriller.
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60I liked, too, some late plot reversals, sorely needed after the numbingly simple straight-ahead plunge of the first hour of the movie. Things aren't quite what they seem and the twists are neatly done.
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58It's about as convincing as any other Arnie musclefest, but has a little too much resonance with real world events and ultimately comes off as insultingly simplistic.
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50Schwarzenegger doesn't at all seem too old for the part; his bulging muscles still fill the action-hero's suit just fine. It's what he's doing that is tired and, maybe, played out.
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50What we get is simply another opportunity for Schwarzenegger -- who seems to be in perpetual Terminator mode -- to flex his muscles.
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50He's still big and burly, but, at age 54, Schwarzenegger is starting to look a little too old to be involved in this kind of stuff. Action films are the province of younger stars.
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50The result is an ''action film'' mired in stasis. The ending piles on the potboiler mayhem, but it's telling that Schwarzenegger's climactic catchphrase is down to one measly word. This time, he's the luggage.
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50In a way, Collateral Damage is redeemed by its implausibility, because the closer it comes to reality, the more disturbing it gets. For once, viewers have reason to be grateful for having their intelligence insulted.
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50Feels dated in the post-9/11 world. But it would have felt passé and unnecessary regardless; it's the sort of film Michael Dudikoff, Chuck Norris and their ilk cranked out on a near-monthly basis when Reagan was president.
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40Utterly predictable, noisy and stupid.
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40The film's political philosophy, as much as it has one, is of the "a plague on both your houses" variety, painting the rebels and the CIA as equally fixated on killing innocent civilians for their own nefarious ideological ends. We've seen it all before, and we'll likely see it all again.
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38This is one of those would-be blockbusters that wants to have it both ways: It includes enough political commentary to have pretensions of seriousness, yet it's engineered to satisfy the explosion cravings of Schwarzenegger action fans, if any are left.
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38A mind-numbing carnival of violence.
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30A stinker.
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30Intermittently, in attempts to articulate a coherent argument, Collateral Damage shifts from pulse-pounding mode to something more migraine-conducive.
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30It's another dumb vengeance picture -- "In the Bedroom" for meatheads.
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30Five months after Sept. 11, the movie inevitably echoes those events, but in a loud and extremely cheesy way.
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30Head-scratchingly ordinary, given Schwarzenegger's need to prove he's still a virile (i.e., non-aging) action hero.
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25There's nothing special about this movie -- it's just business as usual for today's debased action-movie genre.
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25Exploits and trivializes public anxiety for entertainment and commercial gain. They've been doing it for years. But this little piggie didn't get to the market in time.
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25Collateral Damage isn't jingoistic; it also isn't exciting. It's a depressed rabble-rouser.
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20Plays like a bad adolescent revenge fantasy on Ritalin, all jagged editorial edges and silly, pumped-up testosterone.
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20Quickly plunges into boggy terrain from which it can never extricate itself.
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20Manages to squeeze in several different endings — like a bad pop song that doesn't know when to fade out. But as Mr. Schwarzenegger's stature as an action figure diminishes, his effort to retain a piece of the market is touching.
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20Ludicrous revenge thriller.
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10Abort! Abort! It's that time of year when Hollywood releases movies it should never have made in the first place.
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10More than an embarrassment, it's an insult.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 14
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Mixed: 2 out of 14
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Negative: 6 out of 14
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