Prior to 1993, Arnold Schwarzenegger's career simply sailed along a smooth course of undistinguished excessively violent action pics punctuated by the occasional class project such as Terminator 2 or absurd "fish out of water" comedy like Kindergarten Cop or Twins. While some of these projects hadn't set the world on fire, nor had they completely failed to attract an audience, and Schwarzenegger seemed to be a veritable box office "sure thing."

All that changed in 1993 with the disastrous release of Last Action Hero. Both critically and financially, this thing was a flop of Ishtar or Heaven's Gate proportions; so great was its failure that Arnie's career actually seemed threatened. Thankfully for him, he rebounded the following year with the decently-successful True Lies.

However, in a way, Schwarzenegger's career still doesn't quite seem to have made it back from the depths brought about by Last Action Hero. For one, he appears to have tried to lower his profile, since he's only appeared in four films since summer, 1994's True Lies. Two of these were comedies (1994's Junior and 1996's Jingle All the Way) and one other (Batman and Robin) cast him in a supporting role. (Of course, that latter film didn't exactly help Arnie's career either, but George Clooney and director Joel Schumacher seem to have absorbed most of the damage.)

That means Schwarzenegger has appeared in exactly one of his trademark brainless blow-em-ups since 1993: 1996's Eraser. While Arnie appears ready to revive the action hero image of himself with the upcoming thriller End of Days, he certainly seems to have let that aspect of his career lapse.

Or then again, maybe the repercussions of Last Action Hero had no impact on Schwarzenegger's thinking at all. Maybe he's just gotten much more selective as he's gotten older. I mean, if a man whose film career was built on ridiculously exaggerated violence and mayhem can go all that time and only make one movie that fits those criteria, it's gotta be a good one, right?

Uh... maybe not. While Eraser certainly is a competent and occasionally exciting film, it's clearly nothing special. The premise is pretty cool: Arnie plays John Kruger, a federal agent who specializes in "erasing" members of the witness protection program (if their covers get blown, he comes in and starts all over again). His job is effectively set up through a scene in which he stages a number of deceptions to save a protected witness and his wife.

Unfortunately, clever premise aside, little about this film elevates it above the level of by-the-numbers action pic. Much of the movie shows Arnie as he simultaneously attempts to continue to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), his latest endangered witness, and also to get to the bottom of some deception within and outside his bureau. It's very standard action movie intrigue; nothing about the plot creates much interest in the viewer.

While the production of Eraser certainly was competent and professional, it also lacks any kind of spark that would have set it apart from other films in its genre. In fact, Eraser bears a strong resemblance to any of Schwarzenegger's interchangeable testosterone-fests from the 1980s. Yeah, it boasts a higher budget and better production values than his earlier efforts, but other than that, it easily fits in with those movies.

Ironically, although Eraser portrays no romantic involvement between Schwarzenegger and Williams, I can't decide if this is a step forward or backward. Yes, it's nice to see a movie that doesn't attempt to force artificial love interests down our throats. However, I can't help but be suspicious that in a film as clichéd and rote as Eraser, the romantic engagement that we would expect between these characters fails to occur mainly because of continued fear in Hollywood about showing interracial love affairs. Admittedly, that's just speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that's the case.

I found the utterly banal nature of Eraser to be a surprise when I saw it theatrically. Charles Russell, who also helmed moderately spiffy fare such as The Mask and Nightmare on Elm Street 3, directed Eraser, and I'd hoped he would bring similar flair to this project. Alas, it was not to be; he does a decent job with the fight scenes, but he makes no particular mark.

The same can be said for the actors. Outside of Schwarzenegger, this is a seriously "B"-level cast. I don't intend that as an insult to the actors involved; no, I simply mean to convey that for such a big budget, high profile effort, Eraser boasts a surprisingly cut rate cast.

Schwarzenegger plays the same role he's done a thousand other times. Kruger's a typical white hat, no flaws good guy; there's not a whole lot of depth to the role. That's probably good, because Arnie has yet to develop any ability to display even the remotest hint of nuance in his characters. It's not a mistake that his best work has come in the two Terminator films, roles that required him to play an emotionless automaton. Frankly, when Arnie attempts regular human emotions such as warmth or empathy, as he does occasionally during Eraser, the results continue to be embarrassing. He gets through his films simply because he cuts such an imposing and effective presence.

Like Schwarzenegger, Williams has little to offer her role other than her appearance. Vanessa's clearly quite beautiful, but she possesses almost as few acting talents as does Arnie. Granted, her role asks her to do little other than play the helpless victim and be rescued ad nauseum by Schwarzenegger, but nonetheless she remains a stiff and weightless presence.

James Caan provides a suitably crude and oily performance as our main villain, but he's simply not up to the level of other, more provocative baddies. Caan gets the job done, but like the film itself, he lacks any kind of distinguishing flair that would take his character to a higher level.

The DVD:

All in all, Eraser makes for a very competent but highly pedestrian film. Thankfully, the DVD does not follow suit. The first time I ever glimpsed this DVD was in the spring of 1998. As a long-time laserdisc loyalist, I resisted the urge to move over to DVD because I saw no point. From what I'd heard, it didn't provide picture quality that significantly improved upon LD, and those crummy Best Buy demos sure didn't alter that viewpoint.

Well, when I saw Eraser, it was at a local video store that specializes in high end gear and software. That meant their big screen TV actually was correctly calibrated, unlike the "plug and play" system at Best Buy. While I won't describe the experience as any kind of revelation - that's just too strong a term - let's just say that I was impressed; apparently DVD could look really damned good! That occasion didn't directly inspire me to get into DVD, but it certainly didn't hurt.

So now that I've more fully witnessed the charms of DVD, how does the transfer of Eraser hold up? Very nicely, thank you. It contains too many flaws to be called a reference quality picture - on rare occasions the picture seems mildly hazy and colors appear slightly oversaturated - but overall the image looks terrific. For the vast majority of the movie, focus remains crisp and well-defined, and the colors and contrast seem tremendously solid. It's a fine looking DVD.

Action films need active soundtracks, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for Eraser definitely doesn't disappoint. This track doesn't quite rank up there with all-stars like Twister, but it's nonetheless explosive and involving. Sounds come across as natural and life-like, too; despite the fact that much of the film must have required looping, dialogue rarely appears dubbed. No complaints on the audio front!

In fact, the only real grievance I have with the DVD of Eraser occurs because of its weak selection of supplemental materials. The DVD offers a theatrical trailer and briefer-than-usual cast and director bios. I indicate that the biographical information seems shorter than we ordinarily see because the producers of this DVD couldn't even be bothered to include all of the movies the various actors appeared in; their filmographies provide "highlights." Weak!

All told, Eraser makes for a solid DVD, although the paucity of extras knocks it down a peg or two. The movie's rarely more than just competent and it definitely never rivals the better films from the action genre, but it's solidly watchable and entertaining.