When one thinks of Arnold Schwarzenegger, what comes to mind is intense action films with witty one-liners and a high body count.
Recently, though, Schwarzenegger has strayed from this formula, and the results have been poor -- take "Last Action Hero" and "Junior," for example.
But with his latest film, "Eraser," Schwarzenegger has returned to doing what he does best: blowing up the bad guys and making the world a safer place, all while keeping the audience amused.
With "Eraser," Schwarzenegger and Director Chuck Russell have produced a pretty entertaining film -- though at times some subpar writing may leave audiences laughing at it, not with it.
The premise of the movie is fairly simple.
Schwarzenegger starts as United States Federal Marshal John Kruger, a member of the elite WITSEC (Witness Security) Protection Program, charged with guarding witnesses so they can testify on the government's behalf at high-profile criminal trials.
Kruger doesn't just protect his witnesses -- he "erases" them, or eradicates any evidence they ever existed. When the witness is assumed dead, Kruger assigns him or her a new identity, which usually makes it virtually impossible for the bad guys to track the witness down.
But lately even the best-protected witnesses have been turning up dead, and that leads Kruger and his fellow marshal/mentor Robert Deguerin (James Caan) to suspect there is a sinister mole within WITSEC.
So, Kruger must try to track down the mole, and at the same time guard Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams) -- perhaps the most important witness he has ever protected.
Cullen possesses evidence that could blow the lid off an arms sale conspiracy that apparently involves high-ranking government officials and foreign terrorists. And the figures behind the conspiracy want her dead at any cost.
Of course, this film is reminiscent of many of Schwarzenegger's earlier films -- "The Running Man" and "Total Recall" come to mind -- in that it features a one-man army taking on the forces of evil and battling the long odds to see that justice is served.
Schwarzenegger gives a vintage performance that, after a brief hiatus, should reestablish him as one of the foremost superstars of the action film genre.
Williams, still a relative newcomer to the big screen, gives a decent performance as the witness that everyone but Kruger would rather see dead.
And there are also strong supporting roles from Caan as Marshal Deguerin, Kruger's mentor-turned ruthless adversary, and Robert Pastorelli, who plays Jimmy C, one of Kruger's former protectees who helps him gather the evidence he needs to uncover the conspiracy.
But the real stars of this film are the fireballs and laser beams that keep reducing buildings and the like to nothing more than heaps of rubble.
Much like the plot-challenged "Twister," which was carried by those amazing tornadoes, "Eraser" gets a big boost from its special effects -- in the form of explosions, explosions and more explosions.
Perhaps the most amusing sequence of the film is when Schwarzenegger blows the forces of evil to smithereens with the biggest, baddest assault weapon you ever saw.
There are also some wonderful stunts, like, when Schwarzenegger hangs from a plane, and then jumps from the plane into a free-fall to catch his parachute pack in midair.
At times, "Eraser" seems quite implausible, and some of the script is almost laughable, but the combination of the explosions, the gunfights, and the well-placed one-liners -- some of Schwarzenegger's best in years -- make "Eraser" worth $6.25 (not including popcorn).
"Eraser" is probably not the best action film of 1996, but it may very well be the most fun.
And more than that, it is probably Schwarzenegger's best film in five years, dating all the way back to "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."