ERASER

"ERASER"
(1996) (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams) (R)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Minor	Moderate	Mild	Moderate	Extreme

Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Minor	Minor	Mild	None	Heavy

Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Minor	Moderate	None	Minor	Extreme

QUICK TAKE:: A U.S. Marshall goes to any means to protect his witness.

PLOT:: John Kruger (ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER) is a seasoned U.S. Marshall working for the Witness Protection Relocation Program. Trained by his mentor Robert Deguerin (JAMES CAAN), Kruger is the best at erasing the existence of witnesses he's assigned to protect. His newest witness is Lee Cullen (VANESSA WILLIAMS), who works for Cybez, a defense contractor. It appears she's come across an illegal arms sale of a top secret electromagnetic pulse rifle. Not only can it fire aluminum rounds at near the speed of light, it can also see through solid walls. Things begin to get hairy when former witnesses start turning up dead, so Kruger gets Lee on the run. He also gets help from a former witness, Johnny C. (ROBERT PASTORELLI), a "wise guy," who with his extended "organized" family, helps battle the bad guys. Kruger then goes to any means to protect Lee, expose the arms sale, and the federal agents behind it.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: The boys in your family most likely will, especially if they're fond of the other similar actions films Arnie's done.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R: For violent action throughout and some language.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:: ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER plays a character who's very good at his job. His job, however, allows him the discretion to do whatever it takes to protect his witnesses and thus he ends up killing or injuring many bad guys. In addition, he takes many risks that you wouldn't want your kids imitating. Thus, although he is the good guy, he isn't a particularly good role model.
JAMES CAAN plays the somewhat stereotypical agent who turns out to be a bad guy. He kills several of his own people as well as those he's entrusted to protect. He's not a good role model.
VANESSA WILLIAMS plays a character that isn't really that well developed, but doesn't have any bad traits.; JAMES CAAN plays the somewhat stereotypical agent who turns out to be a bad guy. He kills several of his own people as well as those he's entrusted to protect. He's not a good role model.
VANESSA WILLIAMS plays a character that isn't really that well developed, but doesn't have any bad traits.; VANESSA WILLIAMS plays a character that isn't really that well developed, but doesn't have any bad traits.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE: People are seen drinking in a drag bar.

BLOOD/ GORE: A man's face is bloody after being beaten by bad guys.
Kruger unzips two body bags revealing two corpses which are pretty gross looking.
Lee's boss commits suicide and some blood runs down from his mouth.
The remains of two agents are seen in their car and it's quite the bloody mess.
Kruger's hand is impaled by a screw like projectile that bores into the fridge door. Kruger must then rip his hand from the screw which results in a big spurt of blood.
Blood flows from Deguerin's elbow after Kruger has thrown a knife into it.
An alligator tears a guy's arm off and crunches another in his mouth during a scene in a reptile house at the zoo.
Kruger's leg is bloody from a piece of metal that pierced it.
Kruger is rather bloody by the end of the final fight scene.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE: Of course, all of the bad guys have bad attitudes, including the government officials who support the illegal weapons sale.
Deguerin shoots his own witness during her rescue, and then acts as if he's trying to revive her when he's really suffocating her with his own mouth.
Deguerin shoots and kills one of his own team members.

FRIGHTENING/TENSE SCENES: Viewers may find some or all of the action scenes as being tense or suspenseful. See "Violence" for details.

GUNS/WEAPONS: Handguns/Machine guns: Used throughout the movie to kill or injure many people. For details, refer to the "Violence" category.
Handgun: Used by Lee's boss to commit suicide.
Pulse rifle: Used to kill Lee's boyfriend and then fired repeatedly into Lee's home at Lee and Kruger. Also several of them are used at the end during the big shootout scene.
Handgun: Given to Lee by Kruger to protect herself, which she later uses to shoot a bad guy in the leg and to shoot at others.
Knife: Thrown into Deguerin's elbow by Kruger.
Hand grenades: Pins are pulled on two of them on a dead guy's belt right before Kruger pushes him into an elevator that then explodes, killing all of those inside.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR: Phrases: "Idiot," "Bitch," and "Piss him off."
Lee's boss pulls out a pistol, aims it at her, and then puts it in his own mouth and pulls the trigger (ie. Suicide).

JUMP SCENES: The alligator attacks might make some people jump.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE): Many of the tension filled action sequences are accompanied by similarly suspenseful music.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE): None.

PROFANITY: 11 "f" words, 17 "s" words, 15 hells, 8 "ass" words, 3 SOB's, 2 damns, 1 slang term for penis (the "d" word), and 5 uses of "God damn," and 5 uses total of "Jesus," "Christ," or "For Christ's Sake" as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY: Kruger enters a drag bar to see a former witness and there are several drag performers and gay men present.

SMOKING: Deguerin smokes throughout the movie.
Several of the federal agents smoke cigarettes.
People are seen smoking in a drag bar.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES: None.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT: The witness relocation program.

VIOLENCE: The opening sequence shows a couple, bound and gagged with duct tape, with some bad guys standing over them as another pours gasoline throughout their house. Kruger then comes to the rescue dispatching the bad guys. This sequence contains the following violence:
The husband is hit in the face.
A noose is lowered around a bad guy's neck and he's lifted from the ground.
The husband is threatened with a knife and then a pair of pliers is readied to pull his tongue out.
Kruger slams a bad guy's head in the freezer door, breaking his neck.
Kruger shoots several bad guys with his handgun.
Kruger breaks another guy's neck.
Kruger shoots into two corpses that he's placed on the floor (to fake the deaths of the people he's rescuing).
Kruger throws a flare into the house, which ignites the gasoline and the house explodes.
Lee's boss pulls out a pistol, aims it at her, and then puts it in his mouth and pulls the trigger.
The remains of two agents are seen in their car as something violent has passed through them and the car.
Lee's boyfriend is hit by the pulse rifle. Many shots from it are then fired into the house, ripping it to pieces as the targets, Lee and Kruger, duck, leap and jump out of the way.
Another weapon is fired into the house: A small grenade like device that floats into the air and then propels screw-like fragments everywhere. Kruger's hand is impaled into the fridge door and he must rip his hand from it.
Kruger rips out the natural gas line and sets the thermostat to spark an explosion that blows the house to bits, killing all of the bad guys inside. An outside survivor shoots his handgun at Kruger and Lee as they escape in a van.
There is talk that a newspaper reporter was killed and that she was "peeled like an onion."
Kruger, Deguerin and others arrive to rescue a relocated witness. A cat and mouse game ensues where they one by one find the bad guys and kill them. One is shot, another stabbed through a door, and another is shot with a shotgun. Deguerin shoots the bad guy holding the woman hostage. Another bad guy shows up firing a machine gun. Kruger ends up kicking this guy out a window where he falls to his death. Deguerin then shoots the witness and then covers it up to look as if he's trying to revive her when in reality he's suffocating her with his own mouth.
Deguerin shoots and kills the youngest member of his own team on their airplane.
Kruger throws a knife that sticks in Deguerin's elbow. Deguerin and others then open fire on Kruger who returns the fire. Kruger prepares to jump from the plane but first throws an object into one of the jet's engines that makes it explode. Kruger jumps from the plane, grabs a falling parachute, and then must deal with Deguerin turning the plane around (by holding a gun to the pilot's neck) and trying to run into Kruger. Kruger fires his gun at the cockpit which shatters the windshield and causes them to just miss him. He then gets wrapped up in his own parachute as he plummets to Earth and barely pulls out his reserve chute right before he lands on top of a car.
The bad guys rip Kruger's truck apart with machine gun fire, but he's not inside it.
Lee shoots a bad guy in the leg with her handgun inside a zoo. She then flees as more bad guys arrive and ends up trapped in the reptile house. She fires more rounds at the bad guys who fire back, but soon she runs out of bullets. Kruger then appears, fires some shots and fires his last shots into the alligator display. The alligators come pouring out and quickly chomp down on the bad guys. Kruger and Lee scramble for safety but are nearly grabbed by an alligator just before Kruger kills it with a shot in the mouth.
Deguerin threatens a Cybez employee with his gun and then, when confronted by one of his own men, threatens him with the gun while twisting his arm behind his back.
Kruger and Lee are confronted by more bad guys and shoot several of them. Kruger uses a dead man as a shield from the machine gun fire aimed at him. He then pulls the pins on two hand grenades attached to the dead guy's belt and throws him into the elevator with the shooters. It explodes.
Deguerin knocks Lee on the head with his gun.
Kruger breaks a guy's neck.
A man slaps Lee in the face.
Kruger breaks another guy's neck and then beats another guy up.
Kruger pulls out a piece of metal that impaled his leg and in turn, takes the metal and stabs a bad guy.
Lee smashes a coffee pot into a man's face and then kicks him in the face.
There is a sequence where the bad guys fire pulse rifles and machine guns at Kruger, Lee and Johnny C. and his men who also fire back and kill bad guys.
Deguerin holds his gun to Lee's head ordering Kruger to drop his weapons. He does and Deguerin then shoots him twice in the shoulder.
There is then the obligatory fist fight between Deguerin and Kruger when Kruger is beaten with a crow bar.
A van explodes.
A limo carrying the bad guys is stopped in the middle of some train tracks and is pulverized by the speeding train.

Reviewed June 21, 1996

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