Eraser

For some people, summer is that special season for long sunny afternoons with iced drinks and natty straw hats. For others, it is the traditional time of the year for watching big Arnie blow things up on a budget busting scale. Since Schwarzenegger is the star of Eraser, you can guess which group this movie is designed for.

Not that there isn't an odd pleasure to be had from wallowing in another Schwarzenegger ode to mass destruction. The guy is good at what he does on the screen. But has anyone figured out what exactly it is that he does?

As U.S. Marshal John Kruger, Schwarzenegger spends his time single handedly slaying every imaginable threat to Western civilization. While most U.S. marshals merely clog the line at a Dunkin' Donut Shop, Kruger swats down jet airplanes for recreation and feeds thugs to alligators for entertainment.

Which is why he is called the Eraser. Technically, Kruger's job is to protect people on the Federal Witness Protection Program by erasing all traces of their past identity. Mostly, he erases the folks who are out to kill them. The man is a firm believer that the best defense is a brutal offense.

But even Kruger has problems with his new assignment. Her name is Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), an honest secretary who has discovered that her company is preparing to illegally sale a secret weapon into the hands of some foreign arms dealers. Since the weapon in question is a hand-held version of a hyper-velocity rail gun with an X-ray scope, Cullen's realizes that the bad guys are about to gain the hi-tech edge in a special effects fantasy movie.

Kruger only has his bulging muscles, crafty wits, and indescribable accent with which to save her. Since his own organization turns out to be thoroughly peppered with traitors, he also has to do all of the fighting on his own while his fellow U.S. marshals are chasing after him. Even worse, he has to confront stunt scenes so outrageous that even the computer-generated graphics in the movie nearly swoons from the excitement.

But it is Arnie who should be swooning. The rail gun rapidly becomes the main star of the movie. The weapon is not exactly a wild fantasy since large-scale prototypes already are stationed on some U.S. warships while eyewitness accounts from the U.S. invasion of Panama would strongly suggest that a smaller version was tested in a few combat zones (only the boys in Area 51 know for sure). Real or unreal, the rail gun is the liveliest element in Eraser.

Schwarzenegger himself has retreated to his old screen persona. On the plus side is the fact that he doesn't have to deliver any Junior-sounding bits of stupid dialogue ("Mein nipples, they are so sensitive"). Instead, he has returned to the implacable machine of destruction mode. As Kruger, he seemingly has no emotions. He can't be stopped. He feels no pain. He can't be killed. He's the Terminator with a badge.

Which begs an obvious question: if the guy is so limited, then why do so many of us dash out to see his films? The simple truth is that Schwarzenegger is still the best at unloading brainless, violent fun. The man is like a roller coaster ride without brakes. You know that the results are going to be loud and bloody, but the sheer mindless decadence of the spectacle makes for compulsive viewing.

Besides, how often do you see a Republican right-winger star in an action movie that tackles the IranContra scandal and presents an Oliver North clone as the main villain? About as often as you see the same man marry into the Kennedy family. Schwarzenegger knows how to cover his bases on both ends and still have time to run a movie into deficit spending.