Review: ‘Sabotage’

“Sabotage” is a particularly brutal and bleak movie from David Ayers, who is coming off his very well liked “End of Watch” and decided the best way to follow up that success would be with a morally murky, ultra violent tale of a questionable DEA agent and his run in with a Mexican DTO (drug trafficking organization, because apparently the DEA does not like the world cartel anymore). A fun action movie? Nope. A good time at the movies? Un-uh. Escapist entertainment? Only if you want to escape to a land of cruel murder and betrayal and moral ambiguity.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is Breacher, a DEA agent and leader of a small elite task force of the best undercover drug agents out there, and of course this a rogue group of agents, all of them just a little insane, partying hard in their off time, being total dicks to everyone, and just pretty much living the lifestyle they promote, that of the hard living, dangerous, over the top, gung ho alpha males (and single alpha female), and of course they blur the lines between the good guys and the bad guys, using their authority to do some questionable things, and even when they are taking out bad guys, it is in a brutal, hard way that is hard to look past.

The story pretty much starts with Breacher’s team taking down a drug cartel’s operation and destroying a huge pile of their cash money. In the process, however, the tried to steal about $10 million of that stash, but the stolen money got stolen from them, and that sets off a chain of events that pretty much ends with Breacher’s team under investigation and then being picked off one by one, in increasingly violent fashion. The plot gets a little twisty-turny as the murder investigations of these picked off agents uncovers some mysteries and questions, and as the movie goes on, the waters get murkier and murkier, until everyone is dirty at the end and you aren’t even sure if there is actually a hero in this thing.

Schwarzenegger’s character of Breacher is pretty much the lead, though this is a bit of an ensemble with him being surrounded by Terrence Howard, Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Olivia Williams and more throughout the whole thing, but that does not make Breacher out hero. He is even given a damn good reason to do some of the terrible things he feels compelled to do in this story, but you still have to sit back and wonder if what he does it “right” or “worth it,” especially when it comes to the loss of life in this movie.

And yes, this is a rather violent movie, which really adds to the film’s overall bleakness and brutality. When people die in this movie, they die hard, and I mean fucking HARD. There is an unfortunate abundance of CGI blood in this thing, but they seem to balance that out with some over the top violent imagery, and gross depictions of some of the aftermath of violent acts, which is actually something that usually gets glossed over in most movies and pieces of entertainment that like to traffic in this kind of balance. When people get shot, there is a lot of blood, and it covers the walls and soaks the floors and it is gross and visceral and a stark reminder of the fragility of life and the brutality of what these characters are doing. The violence is not sanitized at all, but may be a little too over the top in some instances. Like when one guy gets hit by a train, and not even directly but while inside a camper, the aftermath is just horrific, with pieces of meat scattered everywhere, and it is just gross to look at, so be careful what you wish for, I guess? When people get shot or get into accidents and die, it is a tough thing to see, and maybe that’s how violence like this should always be seen, because it ain’t glamorous, that’s for sure. It’s just harsh.

It’s a pretty decently made movie, nothing too special in terms of presentation, and it doesn’t have the same cohesiveness of Ayers’ best work, but with Schwarzenegger holding it all down in the middle of this thing with a strong performance that can be argued to be one of his best in years, the movie gets a little elevated above what it would have been with someone else in the role. With Schwarzenegger comes a history of roles as an unquestionable good guy (original “Terminator” aside), and you go into this movie thinking that once again he is the hero 100%, and by the end of the movie you don’t even know if there are any heroes in this whole thing at all, let alone what’s the deal with this Breacher character.

So the movie is interesting but really it isn’t for everyone because of the brutality mixed with the ambiguity will leave a lot of people unsatisfied. It’s a solid film with, again, a great Arnold performance in the middle of it all, so some people will enjoy it and how it all goes down, but some of you will feel like this movie just kicked your ass for ultimately no reason. All depends on what you are trying to get out of your Arnold-led action movies. Pure escapism? Not here, buddy. Not here.