‘Sabotage’ proves that for Arnold, the third time is not a charm

Sabotage (2014)

Directed by David Ayer

3/10

For Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Sabotage” is just another flop in the bucket. His third straight action blunder (after “The Last Stand” and “Escape Plan”) gives audiences no takeaway. None at all. The appeal of nearly every action movie is its action, right? We can forgive lousy scripts and subpar acting if we get guns and bombs and fists and car chases. “Sabotage” fails to provide even the most basic of action movie thrills.

Members of an elite DEA special ops team (Sam Worthington, Terrence Howard, Mirielle Enos and others) led by a big-shot officer nicknamed Breacher (Schwarzenegger) are tired of Uncle Sam getting all the money from their huge drug busts. So they skim the top off of a huge pile of cash they find in the basement of a drug cartel leader. Problem is, when they go back for their cut it’s gone. $10 million, gone. Who took it? Well, only a few people knew its location. When members of the team are killed, suspicion only heightens that someone within the tight-knit group is playing dirty.

Sounds like something you could get emotionally invested in, but “Sabotage” builds more apathy than empathy. This is the type of movie you walk out of. I just had no interest in seeing how it ended, even though the huge finale is supposed to be a shocking climax. They went for shock and awe, but got mock and yawn. It’s snore-worthy, mundane, blah. I have never, and will never, judge the quality of a movie by something as shallow as the attractiveness of its women. But when it comes to action movies, guy flicks with nudity and cursing, you’ve come to expect it. “Sabotage” is so bad, it doesn’t even deliver that. Personally, I don’t care. But did they even have their audience in mind? It’s just a failure on every level.

Old man, Ahnold is awful. His attempts at wit have always irritated me, but this time he hits new lows. Is his accent getting thicker with age? Anyway, his one-liners are at their absolute worst. It boggles me to think this was co-written (and directed) by David Ayer, who wrote the fantastic action drama “Training Day.” That said, the team’s chemistry is actually somewhat buyable…but only for the few scenes in which they all appear together.

I never expected that “Sabotage” would be great. But it was even worse than I expected it to be. That’s saying a lot.