Imagine a biker gang (minus the bikes) knocks on your door loaded with enough artillery to blow up your entire block. Scared? You shouldn’t be—unless your house is a secret meth lab or you are harboring members of a drug cartel—because these men could be an undercover DEA squad. To be fair, you would be scared nonetheless.
Sabotage is (yet) another Schwarzenegger comeback wagon in which he portrays the leader of an unusual DEA undercover team. The movie begins with an explosive raid at a cartel safe house, where the DEA squad hides ten million dollars—a mere chunk of the actual find—inside a toilet outlet (sick) and then blows up the place to cover up their heist. Later, when they visit the drain to recover their loot, they discover that it was swiped away and they have no clue who stole it. The robbery somehow comes under the eye of DEA senior officials who decide to suspend and investigate the team. After a long trial and months of inquiry, the case is closed. After receiving their badges, the team tries to get back on track with some training and just when things seem to get better for them, someone starts hunting them one at a time.
Despite a few explosions, the movie has a very slow start and makes you wonder what a director like David Ayer (End of Watch) is doing with a bunch a recognizable faces and a bland story. But the movie grabs your attention when one team member, Pyro, is brutally murdered. This is when the story starts to build with a police officer duo investigating the death which later turns into series of planned killings. The movie offers a fair share of twists that keep you wondering the real reason behind the deaths and the intentions of outlandish DEA agents who start to mistrust each other.
Sabotage hails an acceptable story that banks on guns, explosives, blood and guts in addition to a set of surprise cards in its stack. The movie has intermittent dialogues that pack a punch and a hoard of familiar faces that don’t have an individual impact but convincingly play along as a rebellious team, which only Schwarzenegger can control. If you enjoy thrills from an action flick and can overlook a few plot holes, Sabotage makes for a decent weekend watch.
Grade: B
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