Sabotage (2024)

Sabotage

Isn’t it odd that a few names of movies can seem like self-fulfilling prophecies? That is to say, the general idea of the title soaks into the movie. Sabotage is just another dark and trashy Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick with a few name stars thrown in for good measure at least on the surface. It feels like it starts working against itself as it builds up to its crescendo though.

A special DEA operations task team infiltrate a drug cartel’s lair to steal and split $10 million; when the money goes missing they are picked off one by one as the authorities start closing in on “Breacher” (Schwarzenegger) and his team turns on each other as their circle of trust gets smaller.

It’s basically a trashier version of SWAT this tactical team isn’t clean-cut at all, acting more like a bunch of surly pirates with skull tattoos and army regalia. Their constant cursing, crass sense of humor, devil may care attitude, and blood lust makes them come off as bad guys but they’re killing for the good guys in a similar vent to Elite Squad.

End of Watch also seems to have rubbed off quite heavily on Sabotage but that’s not surprising considering both films have come from writer-director David Ayer’s mind who also wrote Training Day. The grisly kills, blood spattered action set pieces, and loose experimental camerawork hint at this but unfortunately no where near enough team chemistry is established.

The Ten Little Indians style mystery drives forward this clunky actioner however only self sabotage is happening; unfortunately that happens way too early. Just as Ayer reels us in for what has to be an interesting outcome all the cards get dumped on the table and devolves into one character’s obscured agenda which could have been a better perspective to start with.

Then it doesn’t know how to end so it decides to transplant the story into an almost entirely new scenario. Along the way suspense holds for this trashy action mystery thriller but it drifts into stagnant waters as it tries to make a few awkward gear shifts. Having names like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Terrence Howard, Mireille Enos and Olivia Williams adds considerable weight to the film but they don’t seem to add up to the sum of their muscle.

Schwarzenegger’s more serious than usual and doesn’t have that much of his typical wink-wink magic going on. But Sam Worthington and his facial hair work surprisingly well in this film though he does seem under played. Terrence Howard seems out of place here and throws in a by the way token performance but ironically the real machismo comes from Mireille Enos as the no make up bad-ass of the team and Olivia Williams as a no-frills married-to the job detective.

Sabotage isn’t terrible there are great ideas all over the place, some serious star power, a compelling bent copper story and is purposefully trashy. It does make for compelling viewing being such a genre mash-up with enough dumb fun in terms of dopamine-inducing gore violence & derogatory humour to appeal to our base instincts but it does start with promise and just doesn’t deliver anything at all really by the end.

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