Same old story!  Same old action!  Same old Arnold!  Nothing new and nothing changed and THANK GOD!  THAT'S WHY WE GO TO SEE him and we are never disappointed.  We depend on this consistency and the payoff is always worth the time.

As usual, our hero (God bless Firefighters) is wronged in the beginning of the picture and he begins the chase that will leave blood, bones and somebody's ass in definite jeopardy.  We go in knowing that, we just want to see how.

THIS TIME, Arnold is a firefighter who witnesses his wife and son's murder at the hands of a Columbian Bastard Terrorist.  He is known as "El Lobo" and he should have died a thousand times during this picture.  He is a terrorist's terrorist and Arnold ain't havin' NONE of it!  He sees his face just before the bomb goes off and wants his (rightful) revenge.  When the Feds won't go after this low-life, our hero takes the law into his own hands and destroys half of Columbia.  With great cunning and stealth he makes his way into places even the Feds can't go and they begin to cheer him on.  At that point "The Twist" begins to surface (for those good enough to spot it) and the scene moves to Washington DC.   The action accelerates and the story comes to a fever pitch and.........that's all I'm gonna give you!

The action and special effects were the kind that we like and expect and even the story was pretty good.  John Turturro had a cameo as did John Leguizamo and both were exceptional.  Elias Koteas plays one of the best (worst?) terrorist yet and I hated him for the whole 105 minutes.

This picture is what I call "pure and raw".  No PCBS and no excuses!  We get LOTS of revenge and justice, the way it should be in the real world.  At least sometimes.  I liked it and hope it does well, especially in view of recent events.  We need this picture right now and I welcome it.

"The difference in you and me is I'm just going to kill YOU"!

RECOMMENDATION:  Yep, go see it.  Cheer for the guy and feel good!  It ain't everyday we get justice served up THIS raw!

TWO VENGEFUL BUT JUST THUMBS UP!

Movie Review © 2002 by Terry Anderson