Trailer Review: Sabotage (2014)

Sabotage is a gritty new action thriller starring Arnold Schwarzengger and directed by David Ayer. It’s a dream team combination as Arnie is obviously an action movie veteran and Ayer is well known for directing hard boiled cop movies. Ayer directed both End of Watch and Training Day so he definitely knows his onions.

The plot is routine and nothing new but it sounds interesting enough to make the film worth a look. Arnie plays a grizzled old DEA agent called John “Breacher” Wharton who is the commander of an elite squad of DEA operatives. The team is sent to bust up a safe house being used by a drug cartel but their real motives for going on the bust are rather shady. Wharton and his team want to steal the millions of dollars worth of loot stashed in the safe house by the cartel. They raid the safe house, steal the money found there and then hide it somewhere safe until the heat blows off. Unfortunately a mysterious assassin starts killing off the members of Wharton’s team who took part in the bust. The story has elements of Predator to it as Arnie tries to prevent his men from being killed by a mystery assailant.

Arnie looks well cast as Wharton in the trailer and the supporting cast is also excellent. It includes Sam Worthington, Terrence Howard, Mireille Enos, Josh Holloway and Olivia Williams in a surprising role as an investigator assigned to try and figure out who the killer is. Schwarzenegger can deliver a good performance in a serious film when he puts his mind to it. That’s probably why he looks so convincing as a DEA agent in the trailer and it is easy to believe he could be the leader of a rag-tag crew of operatives.

Apparently, the plot was loosely based on Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None otherwise known as Ten Little Indians. This influence gives the film a nice whodunit mystery element which is cool. The trailer has a nice balance of both action and mystery as Wharton tries to figure out who is trying to wipe out his crew. The editing is rapid as the trailer uses plenty of quick cuts and moves at a fast pace towards the end where more action is shown on-screen.

Arnie fans know what to expect from his films and he will usually always find a way to defeat the bad guys. Sabotage looks like it will follow that predictable formula where Arnie goes Rambo to avenge the deaths of his comrades. This is not a big deal though as a derivative plot  does not always ruin a film or make it less enjoyable.

Sabotage will be out on April 25th, check out the trailer and share your thoughts.