Raw Deal

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Sam Wannamaker, Paul Shenar, Robert Davi, Ed Lauter, Darren McGavin
Directed by: John Irvin
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Thriller
1986

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A former FBI agent (Arnold Schwarzenegger) goes undercover to infiltrate the Chicago mafia.

Review:

Tim: Arnold Schwarzenegger has made many good movies throughout his career, but Raw Deal isn't one of them. I suppose it's not a terrible movie, but it's a generic, uninspired one. I really felt so little engagement throughout the film. The FBI are good, the mafia is bad, none of it makes much of an impact. This is a completely forgettable film.

Schwarzenegger has always come across as a better actor than he actually is. He's obviously physically impressive, but there was this spark in his eye, this unexpected charisma that made you like him. His performance in this early career role is pretty bad. There's too many moments where he comes up against the limitations of his talent. And yet, some of his charisma soaks through and you can't quite dislike him in the movie. It's one of his more basic roles and there's so little about his character that's noteworthy. Still, he comes across as decent. The supporting cast is a letdown. Robert Davi was decent, and Darren McGavin did some decent things, but the rest of the cast is pretty bad. It feels like a collection of subpar talent. I guess Kathryn Harrold was fine, but she doesn't do anything remarkable. As a whole, the cast is below average.

The script is really bad. I just watched the movie and I'd have trouble explaining it. Schwarzenegger's small town sheriff returns to the FBI and goes undercover to infiltrate the mafia because an old buddy of his suffered the loss of his son in a battle with the mafia forces. So, it starts out as revenge. I think there was some plot- the mafia were doing something, or wanted something? Wow, it really didn't stick. Maybe the whole thing was just to get revenge? The movie throws a bunch of characters at us, but they feel redundant and generic. The plot is that Schwarzenegger infiltrates the mafia to destroy it from within. His journey isn't one marked by momentum- scene after scene happens and the story just kind of washes over you. There's not a sense of his character making progress, it's just bewilderingly boring.

Eventually, we get some bigger action scenes towards the end. The scene at the rock quarry is far too short, but it's kind of cool. The equipment moves far slower than it should have, but there's a fairly entertaining sequence where a car gets crushed. The rest of it is shooting and over far too quickly. There's a big shootout at the end, but by this point, I didn't really care about the story. It feels like if Schwarzenegger was just going to shoot the place up, why didn't he do that at the beginning. Why all the focus on infiltration? I don't know, maybe if I watched it again I would follow the story more closely. The problem is that the movie never gives you a reason to care. I had to fight against overwhelming complacency from nearly the beginning.

Raw Deal isn't a bad movie, but it's so uninspired, so forgettable that it would be impossible for me to recommend it. Schwarzenegger has made a bunch of solid movies, see those instead.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Collateral Damage, Eraser, Last Action Hero