Page 32 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 9, 2014 Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in tale of vengeance by Dennis Seuling “Sabotage” is the latest action picture from Arnold Schwarzenegger. This time, he plays John “Breacher” Wharton, the head of a DEA Special Operations Team, a gang of colorful men and one woman (Mireille Enos). You wouldn’t want these folks at your next dinner party or, for that matter, anywhere close. They are foul-mouthed thugs who dote on the violence that is their everyday way of life. The film opens with the team blasting its way into a drug lord’s Atlanta estate to rob him. Their plan goes awry when the stolen money disappears and the individual members of the team are interrogated, but no one is charged. Soon after, one by one, the team members meet unpleasant deaths. A local detective (Olivia Williams) is assigned to investigate. This puts her into great danger. Breacher suspects the Mexican drug cartels are picking off his team to avenge the robbery. “Sabotage” is a very violent movie with little to rec- ommend it. Yes, there is action aplenty, with loads of automatic weapons spitting out bullets and some grue- some close-ups of the aftermath, but the movie is like ingesting calories with no real nutrition. There is nothing wrong with the former California governor resuming his movie career now that his politi- cal career is over, but the roles should be age-appropriate. Never known for his acting prowess, Schwarzenegger Joe Manganiello and Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Sabotage.’ made his name in action flicks. Many of those movies were very good, such as “The Terminator” and “Total Recall,” but time has moved on, and accepting a 66- year-old as an action hero is a strain of credibility that undermines the entire picture. Given minimal dialogue, Schwarzenegger is reduced to scowling and firing ridic- ulously huge weapons while trying to pass as the con- science of the group he leads. The script wants it both ways: It longs for the “I’ll Be Back” sensation of the ‘70s and ‘80s, yet hopes to infuse his rough-and-tumble character with empathy. This fails disastrously. For all its hoopla and mayhem, “Sabotage” is a tired movie — the kind that used to find itself on double bills in grind-houses. The acting is pedestrian, with direc- tor David Ayer (“End of Watch”) allowing his actors to flaunt their testosterone-driven energy without giving them individual distinction. With nicknames like Mon- ster (Sam Worthington), Sugar (Terrence Howard), Grinder (Joe Manganiello), Tripod (Kevin Vance), Pyro (Max MartinI), and Smoke (Mark Schlegal), the charac- ters are merely expendable caricatures — larger-than-life comic book illustrations that have come to life only to die in grisly ways. Do we care? Not really, since viewers never believe them as real people. Enos’ Lizzy, the only female member of this male- dominated group, attempts to match her colleagues’ brash bravado, hard drinking, and blunt sexual talk. Though she is not pleasant, at least she is an interesting element in the frenetic chaos. This movie is rated R — a hard R — for bloody gore, lots of strong language (much of it gratuitous), nudity, and drug use. Given how plentiful action pictures are, it is essential that any new one stand apart from the crowd. Unfortunately, “Sabotage” is just an undistinguished attempt to exploit a once huge box office star in a sadly routine shoot ‘em up.