200 Lucky Australians Got to see Sabotage in Theaters!

Arnold fans around the world were excited to hear after extended cameos in Expendables 2, brushing off the dust with The Last Stand and a more comedic involvement with Stallone in Escape Plan…that The KING was BACK in shape and ready to kick ass in an R-Rated action fest from the writers of Training Day.

This was the movie that was putting Arnold back on the map, prior to returning as The Terminator and there was plenty to look forward to. Arnold was in shape, lots of high caliber co-stars such as Sam Worthington, Terrace Howard, Josh Holloway and Joe Manganiello and the director End of Watch & Street Kings (both of which I loved).

Originally slated for January release in the US, then moved to April. Here in Australia, we were excited as it had been over a year since Last Stand hit theatres and Escape Plan didn’t get a theatrical release (except for my fan-organized showings). After huge success with the Escape Plan showings, Australia’s largest cinema chain, Hoyts, asked me if I would like to have the first screening for fans and of course, I jumped at the opportunity!

So here I was again, hiring out a theatre (at considerable expense) and aiming to fill it with 150 fans from Melbourne and a few HARDCORE fans that flew from interstate such as Sydney and Brisbane (Hi Callum & Anya). With the support of Nutrition Warehouse, Studio Canal Australia, Simon & Schuster Australia, The Arnold Collection and of course TheArnoldFans…we sold out the theatre in 2 weeks! I had giveaways such as Arnold’s autobiography Total Recall, Joe’s new book Evolution, Supplements, Movie Posters, Arnold Posters – it was going to be a great night.

Then the movie opened in the US to soft numbers, softer than Escape Plan and ended its run in the US with $11 million… I asked the Australian distributor if they were still planning to open Sabotage nationwide around Australia and sadly, the fate was not what I had hoped. It was decided, like Escape Plan, that Sabotage would now go direct to dvd in a few months. Luckily for 150 fans who wanted to see it FIRST on the big screen they were now to be the ONLY ones seeing it on the big screen.

Friday April 25^th in Australia is Anzac Day, a national holiday, it is the day on which we remember Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. It seemed appropriate to watch a movie about a man defending his team, his family and his honor on such a day. (More about this though in my review of the film).

So the screening was Sold Out, I had prizes & giveaways galore and a few local celebrities attending – one a Pro Bodybuilder Scott and another an Aussie Action Icon – Richard Norton that made 20 PLUS films in the 70s, 80s and 90s with Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Cynthia Rothrock, Michael Dudikoff and will soon be seen in the upcoming Mad Max reboot with Tom Hardy. My brother and I along with a couple of action mates in school (grew up on Richard’s films, so it was an honor to have him in attendance).

One of the benefits of Escape Plan going DTV in Australia was organizing the screenings we had and meeting so many other hardcore Stallone & Schwarzenegger fans, a few of which I now call good mates and speak to regularly…So this screening was like a family reunion, many of which were long time family, friends, new friends and so on. We were all there for 1 reason – SCHWARZENEGGER.

The cinema was full, everyone was excited, we had fans, celebs, friends all in attendance. Many were dressed up as Terminators, Commandos, Muscle Beach chicks, TAF's own Steve Miller looked awesome as BREACHER himself and we even had a Joseph P. Brenner from Raw Deal (luckily he didn’t drink & bake).

I always start the screenings with a welcome and a thank you for all the fans making the effort and putting down their money to attend, then we do some fun giveaways such as Nutrition Warehouse show bags and then we do a quiz (all Arnold related of course) and giveaway some more prizes! We also had our usual best Arnold impersonations and there were some great ones! Graeme did one from Predator (CIA got you pushing too many pencils), Chris and my own father in law – Tom - jumped up and gave us a brilliant “GET TO THE CHOPPA”. Mike won the best dressed, although a little man Reece did a great job of dressing up as Dutch from Predator. He reminds me of myself at 10 years old obsessed with Arnold! Such a cool kid. Studio Canal Australia also gave me a poster signed from the director David Ayer and Joe Manganiello and I decided to auction it off for Charity. We got $200 from Adam Britten who elected the funds to go to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne! I will definitely do more charity auctions at future events!

The crowd loved the prizes, quiz, impersonations…they had their photos taken with the celebs and the Sabotage display our front…The time had come – lights down, credits up time to leave No Loose Ends with Breacher!

Special Thanks to Sponsors: Nutrition Warehouse, Simon & Schuster Australia, Studio Canal Australia, Richard Norton, Ky Furneaux,  IFBB Pro Scott Goble, The Arnold Collection, Hoyts and TheArnoldFans!

Thanks to my assistants on the night: Mike Ski, Steve Miller, Rowan, Paigey, and my wife Karen.

My Review of the Film Itself!

With Arnold films so few and far between and fans starved for content in between releases, I find myself trawling the net for articles, pictures, interviews and so on. Luckily we have TheArnoldFans and social media to interact with like-minded obsessed Schwarzenegger AND action fans!

So when a trailer or footage came up for Sabotage, I couldn’t help it, I watched the trailers over, saved all the pictures in my “Arnold” folder on my desktop and couldn’t wait for the release. I loved the talent involved in front of the screen and behind the camera. I loved the clips released leading up to the screening, Arnold & Joe were everywhere promoting it and the chemistry between them was undeniable.

The bickering between the team members and the nonstop swearing (particularly the first 45-50 minutes) was really off-putting. I am all for realism and language if it is called for, but to enhance the story and to make the scene and situations realistic…but not IN PLACE of good script. Some of the twists were good, others made absolutely no sense…With those elements in front of AND behind the camera I was expecting a movie that was a GRITTY, URBAN, REVENGE movie with heaps of action, violence and a bit swearing. What I got was a murder mystery who dunnit it with heaps of swearing, gore and a bit of action. Will I buy it on blu ray the first day it is released? Of course I will, that’s what Arnold fans do…I may love it more upon repeat reviewing now that I know what the film is about and my expectations of the story & content have been adjusted. But for me, since Arnold’s return I had the most fun with The Last Stand and I would say Sabotage is in second with Escape Plan in a close a third.  7/10 . Bring on Maggie, Expendables 3 and Terminator Genesis!

What did I think in the end? First thing I thought was, wow, those trailers were probably the most misleading trailers I have ever seen. How did the trailer make the film look?  Fairly generic revenge movie – Arnold leads special ops team and fights drug cartels, drug cartel takes his family, Arnold and his team get revenge while they are being killed off one at a time… What was the actual story line? Without spoiling it, the film is nothing like this and isn’t your typical revenge film. Does that make it bad? No, it doesn’t make it bad, it just doesn’t serve you what you were expecting to go into the theatre to see. It is more of a “who dunnit murder mystery of who took the money and who is killing off the team?” It is violent, gory and FULL of swearing… How would I describe it? A combination of Se7en and The Usual Suspects….but not as well crafted as either of those. It has spurts of action but it is SO dark it could have used MORE of Arnold’s humour and one-liners…one Arnold classic line about bodyfat got a HUGE laugh from our audience and the scenes where Arnold was chopping on the cigar and firing the weapons at the end got massive applause. I enjoyed it and Arnold clearly is enjoying getting into films in more of a Clint Eastwood role that is more age appropriate – that’s what I loved about The Last Stand.