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“McBain: The Movie” AKA “Eraser” (1996)
A twentieth anniversary viewing of this… production, for me. I actually went to see this in the cinema all those years ago for reasons I still can’t explain and which are even more baffling to me today.
They managed to, one assumes, bribe or threaten the families of Vanessa Williams, James Coburn and James Caan into starring in this. Arnold is as reliably naff as ever and there’s a bit with some 90’s CG alligators that had me snorting my tea out my nose.
It successfully stereotypes Russians, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Hispanics, Homosexuals AND has a good go at white collar management (every last one of them is corrupt!) so at least it’s not discriminating!
The total disregard for the laws of physics, how computers work (was that Windows 95 in a government lab?), how firearms function and most egregiously, how aeroplanes fly is laughable in a film that plays things as straight and “realistic” as it can.
The bad guy’s name is Deguerin, and given that he’s essentially a gunrunner, that’s about as clever as this waste of everybody’s money gets.
If this had been animated with Rainier Wolfcastle starring it would have been a genuine classic.
I give it a hugely generous 1 and a half “you-survived-that-fall-and-all-you-need-is-a-walking-stick?!”'s out of 5.