Plot
Running late to meet his wife and young son at a downtown high-rise, Gordy Brewer witnesses a catastrophic bomb blast that kills his family. The explosion is credited to "The Wolf," an infamous rebel leader in Colombia`s civil war. The intended targets were members of the Colombian consulate and American intelligence agents. Gordy`s wife and child are considered "collateral damage," innocent people who lost their lives for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gordy`s only consolation is the hope that justice will prevail for the loss of his family. When the official U.S. investigation into the Wolf`s whereabouts stalls, Gordy realises that bringing the terrorist to justice is no longer a priority to anyone but himself. Against the advice of friends and pointed warnings from the CIA and the FBI, Gordy heads to war-torn Colombia to track him down alone.

Analysis
After a decent run of features including End of Days and The 6th Day Schwarzenegger, the undisputed daddy of the action movie, has a lot to live up to. The tragic events that left most of the free world stunned on September 11th 2001 had a major impact on the films planned release date due to it's story of covert terrorism, a subject that was all too real for the people of New York and so ironically Collateral Damage fell victim to it's own titled premise. The result was a low key release in 2002 which gave the signals that Warner wanted to get this baby out in theatres with little publicity.

As unfortunate as this was for the film, the question still remains as to how entertaining it is. Well the first thing that hit me was just how old Arnie was looking these days. He still looks in great shape but he is standing on the threshold of the big 60 and it's anyone's guess just how long he intends to throw him self around in these big physical roles. His performance is again far from Shakespearian but he gets the job done with his usual relaxed acting style.

The action scenes are your usual mix of billowing explosions and bullet exchanges between good and bad guys but nothing seemed new or very original which is a shame as Arnie has been in some of the most pioneering action movies in the past. Director Andrew Davis started his career with small time action filx that featured now veteran brawlers such as Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris with probably his biggest hit to date being The Fugitive. He ensures that all the correct elements are poured into his project but like so many of his previous endeavors, he just falls short of creating a film that has enough spark to give people a reason to watch it again and for some, a reason to watch it at all.

One annoying story progression point was when Schwarzenegger's character, Gordy Brewer was being told the best method to infiltrate and navigate around Colombia. A mere minute or two had passed when we suddenly jump to Brewer running through the Columbian jungle without any explanation as to how he got there or just how he survived all the local resistance that he was supposed to meet. Star Trek technology I guess!!