Collateral Damage

Although I actually find this to be an enjoyable throwback to the action film heyday of the eighties, many starring none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It has the standard revenge plot of an athletic, action oriented guy (in this case a firefighter) whose family/friends/lover is kidnapped/killed and has to go outside the law to get them back/avenge their deaths. And When it is looked at from that perspective, it succeeds in the best of ways. As far as the parrallels to 09/11/2001, please keep in mind it was filmed and edited before that horrible day and was only pushed back in response to the attacks.
The reason I call the subject collateral damage, was because of the damage to Arnold's career. It is not that bad of a movie and like I said it was done in the tradition of the best eighties action movies, but then again, this is isn't the eighties. The world is more complex now and the story arc is too familiar to way too many people today. It also pushed some stereotypes that don't fly very well in our world of political correctness. I am sure that nobody meant to offend but I am also sure that feelings were hurt on all sides.
This film's low box office take on the heels of the lack of financial and critical success of the sixth day hurt the earnings potential and star power of the star. It is a good thing he did T3, but if he hadn't of switched to politics, he might have been relegated to the direct to video world of other aging action stars like Steven Segal and Jean Claude Van Damme