A bomb explodes outside of the Columbian consulate in L.A. Firefighter Gordon Brewer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) loses his wife and young son. The terrorist El Lobo who's real name is Claudio Perrini (Cliff Curtis) is responsible. A terrorist sympathizer calls Brewer's family collateral damage. CIA Columbia Chief Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas) is angered when senators terminates CIA operations and start peace talks. Brandt returns to CIA station Mompós while Brewer plans to sneak into the country. Brewer is hunted by all sides and is arrested. He is befriended by Canadian Sean Armstrong (John Turturro) and escapes with him when rebels breakout their comrades from jail. Using Armstrong's pass, Brewer infiltrates rebel territories to work for cocaine facility manager Felix Ramirez (John Leguizamo).Arnold faces a major problem. The story is too real and he's playing an everyman. The plan, such as it is, is too stupid. An American with terrible Spanish walks into the country to blindly wing it. It is too unbelievable and Arnold doesn't have the everyman persona anyways. The movie tries to be real except Arnold is too unreal and the situation is too unbelievable.

Hmm. As with all action films, especially those that feature one of the action heroes we grew up with, there will be supporters of even the most turgid of productions. Collateral Damage was the point where the truest and honest of Arnold Schwarzenegger's fans knew it was the end of an era. Famously held back from release for a year due to the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, the film pitches Schwarzenegger as a L.A. fireman, who after his wife and child are killed by an act of terrorism, decides to take the law into his own hands. The focus here is Colombia, and the big guy goes off to Colombia on a one man crusade to kill those responsible for his grief. Cue explosions, kinetic action, bad effects, bad dialogue, mucho posturing and hissing villains.It works on a very basic level for fans of such fare, in fact it's nice to see Arnie playing a vulnerable role where he quite often gets hurt - both physically and mentally. It's just that it feels tired, feels too long, while it wastes a cast that includes Elias Koteas, John Turturo and John Leguizamo. Decent enough as a time waster? Yes, just, but really if this wasn't on Schwarzenegger's CV then nobody would lose any sleep over it. 5/10

"Collateral Damage" is a predictable Arnold Schwartzenegger film form 002. It is currently available on NetFlix Instant Download Streaming. The writers are Ronald Roose and David Griffiths. The cast includes Arnold Schwartzenegger, Francesca Neri, Elias Kotaeas, Cliff Curtis and John Leguizamo. 'Collateral Damage' was, of course, one of those films whose original release date had to be postponed in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In this case, the sensitivity arose as a result of the film's storyline, which revolves around a group of Colombian terrorists determined to strike at targets on American soil. Schwarzenegger plays fireman Gordy Brewer, whose wife and child are killed in an explosion at the Colombian consulate in Los Angeles. Brewer, feeling that the U.S. government has little concern with exacting revenge from the terrorist leader responsible for the explosion, decides to mount a one-man crusade to see that justice is ultimately done. The film, obviously indifferent to its own need for plausibility, sends this virtually unarmed fireman into the unfamiliar jungles of South America to take on what appears to be the entire Colombian police force as well as the guerilla fighters whose actions resulted in the deaths of Brewer's family. Brewer, of course, despite his own inexperience and the formidable odds against him, manages to talk and/or fight his way out of every dire predicament before rescuing his nemesis' wife and their adopted son. I gave it only 5 stars. Dale Haufrect

I love Arnold he is one of the best action hero in the world specially in terminator series even commando is better then this any day i saw this film last year got disappointed there are several reasons for it too.First of all the film totally fails to excite the viewer in almost every way possible the pace is extremely slow the action comes too late in the climax but also lame the story is repeated many times the project could have been executed better but script does not have much depth this is where it falls short the characters are running wild.The Plot:Gordy Brewer is a firefighter who is coming to meet his family but an incident happens they get killed in bomb blast in the city he decides to go to Columbia & finish the bad guys who are responsible for it.The Cast:Arnold looks out of shape uninterested but still gives his best as for Farencesca Neri she is one hot lady that got me hooked long enough until the credits roll.This came out in 2002 but filmed earlier this is even below average level then a Steven Segal movie to be honest,Arnold can be seem in unnecessary explosions & a cheesy climax tunnels exploding plus a hilarious looking villain i wanted to turn this film off but kept watching only for Arnold i wonder why he did this collateral damage took itself way seriously then it was this is the most boring Arnold Schwarzenegger film i have ever seen Andrew Davis directed under siege 1992 but the sequel is much better other then that none of the films he directed later created a solid impact neither on critics or audience.Overall Collateral Damage 2002 is only for die hard Arnold fans nothing more my rating is 2/10:Skipp It