Explosive
Summary
Eraser is one of Arnie’s more underrated pictures; it has some fun action scenes, choice one-liners and James Caan at his scenery chewing best. I also adore Alan Silvestri’s heroic score which is at its most exciting during the action-packed finale. The 4K looks and sounds spectacular but is let down by having only 2 mildly interesting special features.
Plot: Schwarzenegger’s back and tougher than ever! As an elite marshal for the Federal Witness Protection Program, he faces the toughest challenge of his lifetime in the electrifying action thriller Eraser When Lee Cullen (pop music star Vanessa Williams–The Pick Up Artist) stumbles upon a scheme to deliver a new superweapon into the hands of a hostile foreign power, her life as she knows it ends. Enter John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger–The Terminator films), the only man who can protect her from conspirators who will go to any extreme to silence her. To secure her future, Kruger must “erase” her past even if he becomes the next target.
Review: I just got the new 4K Steelbook of Eraser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger which I’ve been looking forward to for a while. The packaging isn’t the most exciting, but this is worth picking up just for the film which I’ve always really enjoyed.
Eraser has a high bodycount, Arnold spewing one-liners and a great villain in James Caan. I would watch Caan read the sports page from a newspaper and it would still be fascinating as he has such screen presence. He is clearly relishing playing a bad guy and U.S. Marshal Robert DeGuerin is one of my favourite characters of his.
Vanessa Williams plays Lee, a witness who wants to take down Cyrez who are selling weapons to a foreign power. Lee is sympathetic and strong yet vulnerable; she knows she is in over her head but works with Kruger as she knows it’s the right thing to do.
The supporting cast includes Patrick Kilpatrick, James Coburn, James Cromwell, Robert Pastorelli and John Slattery. The performances are all solid and this is the kind of movie we just don’t see anymore; I do miss the age of the action hero and this is one of Arnie’s last GREAT movies.
Eraser also boasts one of my all-time favourite scores from Alan Silvestri which I am sure The Simpsons used anytime they were parodying action movies. It has epic electric guitars and one of the most heroic action themes to date.
Eraser has that sense of fun that the best Arnold movies have where it’s a wonderful escape from reality for a few hours. There are some spectacular action set-pieces including Kruger escaping from a plane and allegedly Schwarzenegger really did free-fall for about sixty-five feet. He was harnessed into a piece of stunt technology called a descender rig.
For me it’s all about that end sequence at the docks; Kruger literally smashes out of the wooden floorboards in slow motion, picks up the two rail guns and takes out the bad guys in true action hero fashion as he rescues Lee. The music is at its most heroic during this set-piece and the highlight of the entire movie. I also consider the rail gun one of coolest action movie weapons ever.
In terms of flaws, I thought there were a few moments where you could tell it was a double in the action scenes especially the opening when Kruger (wearing a balaclava rather conveniently) rescues a potential witness. He does some fast martial arts, and you can just tell by the way he moves that it clearly is not Arnold. There is also some rather unconvincing early CG with Arnie taking out an alligator while spouting the classic “You’re luggage” line, but the dialogue alone makes the scene awesome.
I remember it took a while for the film to come out and had various behind the scenes issues like the director Chuck Russell and Producer Arnold Kopelson barely spoke to each other, but because Arnie got along with both men he essentially acted as an intermediary to get the film completed.
The 4K has a whopping 2 special features:
• Reinventing the Modern Action Hero – The Evolution of Arnold (HD 6:00)
• ‘90s Action Thriller Reimagined (HD 8:35)
So, there aren’t even 20 minutes of extras which is very disappointing; I would have loved some deleted scenes, commentaries and new interviews with Arnold but alas this is all we get. The audio and picture are at least incredible and as I love the movie I don’t regret adding this to the collection.
Overall, Eraser remains a fun entry to Arnold’s filmography and he has some enjoyable one-liners; the action is slick, the score is epic and James Caan is at his villainous best. The 4K only has 2 brief special features which is disappointing however, the film looks and sounds amazing and is worth picking up for that alone.