Rating: 
Summary: Not bad...but Terminator 2 was better
Review: Eraser was a good movie, but it's kinda got the same old plot. I don't want to ruin it by telling you exactly what happens, but there are some things tried out here that I've never seen before. My personal opinion is: rent it. END
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent action thriller!
Review: Austrian accented "Terminator" actor Arnold Schwarzenegger hits another home run in his career in the 1996 action thriller entitled "Eraser" and let me tell you, this movie is truly unsettling and not to mention will make you angry as such acts could in fact happen in real life as we know it although the items are a bit far-fetched with today's technologies. A special agent U.S. Marshall named John Kruger works for the Witness Protection Agency, an organization that takes witnesses of major crimes away, wipe out their identities, in order to shelter them from potential criminals who aim to kill those who witness their crimes. His latest mission is to protect a worker named Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams) who works for a corporation named Cyrez that produces top secret weapons but a massive scandal is brewing and Lee discovers what's really going on and aims to expose the scam to the FBI. However, high level government marshals who are crooks themselves aim to kill Lee and Kruger to attempt to stop the truth from coming out. The Cyrez corporation, under the leadership of a corrupt CEO, is involved in an illegal arms deal with a Russian Mafia hitman who has had a history of murder and terrorist acts against civilians. The arms deal involves trading extremely advanced weapons that don't use any conventional ammunition and instead use magnetic pulses to fire rounds of aluminum at nearly the speed of light and if the arms trade succeed it will bring forth a horrific new era of high-tech terrorism worldwide and John Kruger must stop the arms shipment before it's too late while also protecting lee from corrupt high-ranking officials participating the scam. If Lee Cullen and John Kruger are killed, then the FBI will lose any leads and/or evidence to bring the Cyrez officials to trial and to expose the scandal to the public. This movie sometimes makes me angry not because it is bad because it is a really great movie but it's the whole concept of high-ranking government officials actually being a part of the problem than as the people trying to fight the criminals committing these crimes. I sometimes wonder how one can be able to fight such acts of capitalist greed even if they're totally fictional events. The special effects while limited are really well done especially with the way the bullets create those smoke trails when speed through the air at speeds nearly that of light plus the action sequences are really awesome especially towards the climax. The high-tech weapons are really terrifying with not only the light-speed ammunition but also how they seemingly can scan through buildings and make out movements all around the immediate vicinity. One can't help but feel really paranoid when viewing the scenes where they scan the area when seeking their targets. Once again Arnold Schwarzenegger hits another home run right out of the ballpart playing the U.S. Marshall John Kruger. Arnold's action sequences are once again in top form as he fights against the crooks aiming to eliminate both Kruger and Lee. If you loves his "I'll Be Back" and/or "You've just been terminated" lines from the "Terminator" movies, then he comes up with another brilliant line which is "You've just been erased". God I love it. Vanessa Williams is also very good playing Lee Cullen as she tries to escape the assassins pursuit of her while trying to deliver the evidence of the crime to the FBI. In all honesty, Vanessa is far better when she's acting in movies and singing and releasing albums as opposed to wasting her time on these numerous bland commercials and infomercials!! My favorite though of the main characters was Star Trek actor James Caan. Man, his portrayal of the traitorous agent Degeurin is absolutely terrifying and truly vivid and brings the horrifically callous nature of the corrupt agent to 'life' on the movie. I just can't help but feel really sometimes ticked off at Deguerin because of his horrific acts against the country but I've got to admire Caan's incredible acting in this movie because he was perfect for the role of the bad guy and Deguerin is one of the greatest bad guys I had seen in many years at the time of this movie's release. While only a minor role, James Cromwell's performance as the CEO of the Cyrez corporation was also compelling and sometimes really scary. While not as bad as let's say Deguerin, Cromwell's character in this movie is just enough to make you upset at his callous nature. Other favorites are the late Joe Pastorelli as Johnny C. along with his mob crime family and some of the characters are really funny especially Johnny C. It's really sad that Pastorelli departed us so soon because he was a talented actor. I also thought that the late Joe Viterelli was phenomenal playing the pug-faced mafia gangster. :-( This movie is really very well done and delivers incredible action sequences, not to mention an original plot idea. The DVD as of this writing offers little of anything in the way of bonus material but is a grand improvement on the VHS.
Rating: 
Summary: Lesser Schwarzenegger
Review: Eraser features Arnold Schwarzenegger as a government operative who makes witnesses disappear or get "Erased" Unfortunately the only thing that needed to be "Erased" was the second half of the screenplay. Eraser devolves from an intriguing story about witness protection into a by the numbers action movie not worthy of Mr. Schwarzenegger's limited talents. This film belongs in the category of "Lesser Schwarzenegger, films those mediocre movies made after "True Lies" and before "Last action Hero"
I can't fault Arnold here. He plays his part of Jack the "Eraser" very well. The action in the opening scenes is tight. But Eraser's problems all come from the dull, by the numbers screenplay. It's so by-the predictable you have the whole movie figured out by the opening credits. The guy's name is Jack like every other action hero. He's a government agent. He's got to protect the pretty female who knows something that the bad guys don't want told. One of the guys Jack works with is a Rogue agent. Jack will spend the film trying to figure out who he is even though we knew a half hour ago. There will be explosions, deaths, and the top bad guy will get his in the end in a memorable fashion after Ah-nold spouts a cliché we're all supposed to remember.
There are some bright spots in this formulaic movie though. Vanessa Williams gives a solid performance as the witness Schwarzenegger is supposed to protect. She plays her part with intelligence and sophistication, making more out of her character than what was on the page. The former Miss America holds her own with Schwarzenegger, having great chemistry with him in all her scenes and keeps the film from falling apart. Robert Pastorelli from "Murphy Brown" is fun to watch as a mobster indebted to Jack. James Caan is well, James Caan. He's playing what he plays in most every movie he's in lately, the veteran government agent whose gone rogue. He's going to meet his in the end.
Eraser is an OK movie worth a rental on a rainy night. The actors keep this uninspired action movie from turning into Last Action Hero.
Rating:
Summary: Vanni Plays D-i-D, Caan is O-t-T-V, Arnold is the L-A-H....
Review: ....that is, Damsel in Distress, Over the Top Villianous, the Last Action Hero. It makes for good fun. Arnold plays another Jaw-boned Jack Somebody assigned to the special witness protection unit of some nebulous sub-adjunct to a goverment security agency. When he comes to treat you, forget the life you *thought* you had. He'll even fake your death to give you another identity so you can live free. Vanessa Williams is an IT employee of a multi-million dollar contractor to the government. This company's specialty? Weapons development. In fact, the folks at the government asks Vanni to download some well protected data regarding a few of these weapons and who's getting and giving the cash. But did they tell her the danger she's put herself in? No...and when Arnold shows up to do the Eraser treatment, he finds that his boss Jimmy Caan is in on trying to keep this information hidden. Caan and his crew starts bumping off the erased witnesses just to get to Vanni and the downloaded data, and Arnold, as he is free-falling from a jet and struggling with opening a parachute, finds that he and Vanni will get a lot of grief from Caan and the government. There are the classic Arnold scenes....Arnold and Vanni fight off mutant crocs, they break into the heavily guarded tech firm to see what's in these files, there's plenty of one handed hanging everywhere. And when Jelly from the Analyze movies appears, you can't help giving a chuckle or two. A great popcorner. See it with someone you love. (By the way, the Arnold/Vanni romantic scenes are treated like Bollywoodian trysts where the couple almost kisses, but no...here comes a tune. They almost kiss, but no...here comes an explosion.)
Rating:
Summary: It was a good comic book movie.
Review: Good escapist stuff. Kept my interest. Get a bowl of popcorn when you watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Real Good
Review: U.S. Marshall John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) erases the identities of people enrolled in the Witness Protection Program. His current assignment is to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), who's uncovered evidence that the weapons manufacturer she works for has been selling to terrorist groups. When Kruger discovers that there's a corrupt agent (James Caan) within the program, he must guard his own life while trying to protect Lee's.
Rating:
Summary: Action packed fun for the masses!
Review: ERASER, directed with frenetic passion by Charles Russell, is an exemplary Arnold movie. The big governor will never win any Oscars, but he always gives us what we expect: high octane action and great supporting characters. The scene in which Arnie jumps from the airplane is one heck of a suspenseful sequence. Likewise, the chase in the zoo and the climax are just what you expect---action movies dont' get a whole lot better than this.
Along with Arnie, we get James Caan as the weasle traitor, doing a fine, fine job; the lovely Vanessa Williams a likeable heroine we all root for; James Coburn as Arnie's boss with a stiff upper lip and great silver hair; the always dependable Robert Pastorelli, who steals every scene he's in--the ER sequence with Camryn Manheim is hilarious; in their short screen time, both James Cromwell as Williams' traitorous boss and Tony Longo as Little Mike are superb. The action never lets up; there's some great surprises and even if the CGI crocks don't look totally real, their presence is highly effective.
YOU HAVE BEEN ERASED may be Arnie's companion piece to I'LL BE BACK. Go gov go!!!
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