So much average

A Masterpiece!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Eraser is a top notch Schwarzenegger vehicle, and in a year where the only other Arnie entry was the mind numbing Jingle All The Way, it supplies 1996 with that jolt of action from our favourite Austrian juggernaut. Here he's John Kruger, a US Marshal who specializes in an obscure wing of the witness protection program that literally wipes people's memories clean before replacement. The technology is naturally hoarded over by big old corporations which as we know aren't to be trusted in these type of films. During a routine mission to help beautiful client Vanessa Williams, Kruger begins to suspect his own colleagues of some shady shit involving the sale of high grade weapons, and before he knows it he in the crosshairs and on the run with Vanessa tagging along. It's all smarmy James Caan's fault really, who plays his devilish, treacherous superior officer at the WitSec agency, a classic case of ambition gone rogue, his villainous cackle trademark of someone you just shouldn't trust, even before his true colours are bared. The action is fast, furious and rooted in 90's sensibilities, with all manner of attack helicopter chases, massive artillery fired off at a whim and the the near SciFi concept frequently smothered by the shock and awe campaign of each set piece, which is fine in an Arnie flick really, I mean they can't all be Terminators and Total Recalls. There's a neat rogues gallery of character actors filling in the wings in addition to the big guy, Williams and Caan, including Olek Krupa, Patrick Kilpatrick, James Cromwell, Danny Nucci, Robert Pastorelli, Joe Viterelli, Mark Rolston, John Slattery, Roma Maffia, Tony Longo, Melora Walters, Camryn Mannheim, Skip Sudduth and Nick Chinlund as Caan's unwitting henchman. There's also a delightful cameo from James Coburn as the WitSet CEO, doing the same pleasant 'sort of a villain, but also sort of not' shtick he did in Payback. One of Arnie's more low key efforts, but still more than serviceable and a slam bang damn great time at the action races.

Well, you could do a lot worse than "Eraser", but it's not the best of Arnold's movies, or even his '90s output. There are some decent action scenes, but the brake pedal gets stomped in between. For all of his outlandish stunts, this is a surprisingly long movie.It's the supporting cast (James Caan, Robert Pastorelli, and the stunning Vanessa Williams) that make it as good as it is.Although more CGI crocs couldn't have hurt.6/10

A super-slick slice of action, starring the reliable Arnie. This fast-paced flick has a lot bigger budget than Arnie's '80s offerings but it's not quite as enjoyable, despite an eye-popping array of visual effects and non-stop action sequences. There's a clinical detachment to this film, mainly due to the 'seen it all before' feel, as nothing really proves memorable or fresh.However there are lots of reasons to watch. Arnie may look a little old these days but he's still as tough as ever, even more so than before as he has his hands and legs impaled by flying shrapnel (great scenes) and rips them out. Lots of baddies are killed and shot by Schwarzenegger, and it's great to see him return to a solid action role after the rather nauseating comedies like JUNIOR and JINGLE ALL THE WAY. Vanessa Williams is the female lead and remains competent, but being female she isn't really given much to do. James Caan enjoys himself in an over-the-top role as a sneering villain, much like Michael Caine in ON DEADLY GROUND. He makes a good adversary.The special effects are all outstanding in this film, the super guns being most memorable as they leave plasma rings in the air after a bullet (an effect used more extensively in THE MATRIX). There are also a number of outrageous stunts and action sequences, set pieces including Arnie jumping out of a plane to get his parachute and a fight in a zoo, where crocodiles eat a number of bad guys in a hilarious moment: just a shame about the extremely dodgy nature of the CGI effects. The BBFC outrageously cut close to four minutes of the violence on this film's UK release, and it's definitely worth tracking down the uncut version. The violence in this is pleasingly hard-hitting and old school, as Schwarzenegger doesn't shy away from taking out the bad guys – and some good guys too, if need be.

The 2-year gap between True Lies and Eraser forced some action fans into thinking that Big Arn had retired. He had delivered at least one action movie per year since Terminator. Eraser had an awesome trailer, to the tune of Enigma's wonderful "I Love You, I'll Kill You", that rocked my world in the summer of 1996. I saw virtually every blockbuster that year, and the Eraser trailer was attached to every one of them. It came out out in the UK in the very last week of summer (and my first week back at school). I saw it at the now demolished UCI cinema in Edinburgh with a sold-out audience, mostly filled with guys out for a "lad's night". The movie was rated 18, and even though I was 3 years below that mark, I still got in, which was fortunate since the cinema version is the only uncut version of the film that has ever been released in the UK. For its VHS and DVD release the mad BBFC saw fit to cut 4 minutes from Eraser, turning it into an incomprehensible mess. It capped-off an awesome summer season (or so my 15-year-old self thought), and put to rest any fears that Big Arn was slowing down (although he has only made 5 action movies, to date, since then).Arn is John Kruger (an amusing choice of name since director Chuck Russell also made the 3rd Nightmare on Elm Street Movie), a Witness Protection Program Agent who is tasked with 'erasing' and protecting a high-level informant who can prove that there are traitors within the US government who are selling weapons to Russian terrorists. Naturally the informant is the lovely, and wide-eyed, Vanessa Williams, who involves herself in a subdued romantic subplot with Kruger. James Caan and the always great James Coburn provide respectable support as Kruger's antagonist and mentor, but the best support is no doubt Robert Pastorelli (an actor who I really liked who died of a heroin overdose in 2004), who plays a previous witness who is eager to please Kruger in his latest, impossible quest.Overall, it's hardly revolutionary, but what makes Eraser stand out from the crowd is the utterly breathtaking (literally) scene in which Kruger escapes a jet, mid-flight, without the comfort of a parachute on his shoulders. It's definitely one of the best action scenes in the last 20 years and, let me tell you, when that scene climaxed in the cinema, the packed audience of 'lads' totally sucked the air out of the auditorium. A massively exciting, and completely exhilarating, scene that never fails to get your heart racing.Alan Silvestri's score is one of the film's more underrated features. Silvestri scored Big Arn's Predator, a famous score in its own right, and while Eraser is not as famous as Predator you should not rule out the integrity of the score. When separated from the movie it is still one of Silvestri's best efforts.I guess the only complaint I could have about Eraser is that it's kinda anti-climatic. The best scene occurs at the end of the second act, leaving the final act pale in comparison. There's no iconic imagery to the film and it seems kinda forgettable when compared to other Arn characters who have endured the test of time. Nonetheless, it's at the top of the bottom of Arn's best movies, but make sure you the version you watch has not been butchered by the BBFC.The Blu Ray is in 2.40:1 1080p with Dolby TrueHD sound. Extras are non-existent.