Collateral Damage 2002

Critics score:
19 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: Just as in real life, you don't see Collateral Damage, you suffer it. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Despite its action-in-a-can mentality, the movie's generic roots gain a new post-terror specificity that lend it an almost bombastic relevance it was never meant to have. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Turns out to be exactly what would be expected -- a formulaic action film. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It's the stuff of every mediocre action movie ever made and enough to make you wonder if it isn't finally time for the genre to die a quiet, dignified death. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [A] slick thriller with a couple of neat plot twists and a return to form for the fiftysomething Arnold. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: The movie straddles the fence between escapism and social commentary, and on both sides it falls short. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: An exhausted rehash of Mr. Schwarzenegger breaking through red tape to struggle against his nemesis of the moment. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Collateral Damage is, despite its alleged provocation post-9/11, an antique, in the end. As are its star, its attitude and its obliviousness. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A leaden, predictable action flick that would be of no interest to anyone but Schwarzenegger fans. Read more

Larry Aydlette, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ah-nuld's action hero days might be over. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The violence in Collateral Damage takes on a more disconcerting tone but ultimately it's business as usual for the action star. Read more

Houston Chronicle: Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Without September 11, Collateral Damage would have been just another bad movie. Now it's a bad, embarrassing movie. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The result is an 'action film' mired in stasis. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A competent, if choppy, example of thriller hokum that's more entertaining than either the director's or star's last few outings. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: A pretty decent action picture. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: The problem isn't that the movie hits so close to home so much as that it hits close to home while engaging in such silliness as that snake-down-the-throat business and the inevitable shot of Schwarzenegger outrunning a fireball. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: A stinker. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A glossy knock-off of a B-movie revenge flick. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A skillfully made example of your typical Schwarzenegger action film. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: There are many reasons to protest this Arnold Schwarzenegger flick about firemen and terrorists. The best one is that it's a bad movie. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Collateral Damage is trash, but it earns extra points by acting as if it weren't. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It will be remembered less for its generic content than for the real-life events that give it an eerie resonance. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Time Out: The film's less knee-jerk than it could have been. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's laughably unbelievable. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: This is the sort of burly action flick where one coincidence pummels another, narrative necessity is a drunken roundhouse, and whatever passes for logic is a factor of the last plot device left standing. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Head-scratchingly ordinary. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Schwarzenegger tries hard to act but in the end the foolishness of the thriller formula becomes ridiculous. Read more