“Eraser: Reborn” is a direct-to-video reboot that makes for an entertaining popcorn action film. It’s definitely worth checking out, but outside of a few questionable CG scenes, I was entertained.
TITLE: Eraser: Reborn
FILM RELEASE: 2022
DURATION: 103 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Francais & Espanol, Subtitles: English SDH, Francais & Espanol, Digital Code for Movies Anywhere included
COMPANY: Warner Bros.
RATED: R (Violence Throughout and Language)
Release Date: June 7, 2022
Directed by John Pogue
Based on Characters Created by Tony Puryear, Walon Green and Michael S. Chernuchin
Written by Michael D. Weiss
Produced by Hunt Lowrly and Patty Reed
Co-Producer: Theuns De Wet
Associate Producer: Charles V. Bender
Music by Mark Kilian
Cinematography by Michael Swan
Edited by Glenn Garland
Casting by Harriet Greenspan, Bonnie Rodini
Set Decoration by Renee Filipova
Costume Design by Neil McClean
Starring:
Dominic Sherwood as U.S. Marshal Mason Pollard
Jacky Lai as Rina Kimura
McKinley Belcher III as Paul Whitlock
Eddie Ramos as Sugar Jax
Mampho Brescia as Marshall Rhodes
Soyama Mbashe as Felicia Galloway
Brandon October as Talon
Nathan Castle as Marco Sari
A U.S. Marshal “erases” a federal witness—faking her death to hide her deep in the witness protection program—only to have a breach within his own department that puts them both on the run.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray, which I am reviewing in this blog post.
The opinions I share are my own.
Back in 1996, the Arnold Schwarznegger action film “Eraser” was released. A film about a US Marshal for the Witness Security Protection Program (WITSEC) that erases high profile witnesses and faking their desks to protect them from anyone who tries to harm/kill them before they can give their testimony in court.
Fastforward to June 2022 and a modern reboot of the “Eraser” film will be released as direct-to-video and an action film is the next installment in the franchise, courtesy of Warner Bros.
The film is directed by writer John Pogue (known for writing “U.S. Marshals”, “The Skulls” and “Rollerball”) and the director of “Quarantine 2: Terminal” and “Deep Blue Sea 3” and written by Michael D. Weiss (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “The Butterfly Effect 2”).
The film stars Dominic Sherwood (“Shadowhunters”, “Don’t Sleep”, “Billionaire Ransom”), Jacky Lai (“V Wars”, “Shadowhunters”), McKinley Belcher III (“The Passage”, “Ozark”), Eddie Ramos (“Animal Kingdom”, “Teen Wolf”, “Lethal Weapon”), Nathan Castle (“Raised by Wolves 2”, “Slumber Party Massacre”) and more.
The film begins with a mysterious man taking out a group of thugs who were about to kill an individual, the mysterious man turns out to be U.S. Marshal Mason Pollard (portrayed by Dominic Sherwood) and the man he rescues is a thug named Sugar Jax who happens to be an informant to the government. Pollard tells the man that he has been erased (faking the individual’s death).
We learn that U.S. Marshal Mason Pollard is one of the best people in the field and trained by his mentor and fellow U.S. Marshall, Paul Whitlock (portrayed by McKinley Belcher III). And Paul jokes with Pollard that times are changing and the good people who they are protecting, are not really good people at all.
We are then introduced to Rina Kimura (portrayed by Jacky Lai), a wife of a crime boss who is working as an informant with the FBI. She is a woman that is led by greed and desperately wants to gain access to her husband’s cold storage (a term that is usually given to an offline wallet for cryptocurrency, may it be kept in a portable storage/device mean to be kept offline or codes on some object).
While working with the government, she is to retrieve steal something that can lead to her husband’s arrest but when she accidentally kills her husband, she escapes with the FBI and her husband’s second-in-command, Marco Sari (portrayed by Nathan Castle) will do anything to catch her, so he can get access to the cold storage that was stolen.
While Rina Kimura is held by FBI, hired to protect her is U.S. Marshal Mason Pollard. But when her location is discovered by Marco and many people lose their lives, and nearly Rina being kidnapped, Pollard who manages to save Rina has no choice but to erase her.
Rina’s fake death is made and she is taken to Cape Town, South Africa with a new name.
And while it was made to believed that Rina is dead, somehow Pollard and Rina are setup and now the two must survive the onslaught that awaits them.
“Eraser: Reborn” marks the reunion of “Shadowhunters” stars Dominic Sherwood and Jacky Lai for the modern reboot of “Eraser”.
Knowing that the film is direct-to-video, as long as the action is well-done and that the storyline is comprehensible, I figured I would give filmmaker John Pogue the benefit of the doubt. Because you can only do so much.
Also, knowing that they didn’t have a high budget, but at least they were allowed to film in Cape Town, South Africa (especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic) and had to do whatever was possible to make the film work, that includes utilizing CG.
And for the most part, I was entertained by “Eraser: Reborn”. Dominic Sherwood did a very good job in this action role as U.S. Marshal Mason Pollard which required a lot of fighting and for the most part, playing the action hero.
While Jacky Lai, does a solid job with her role as Rina Kimura. While she is a damsel in distress, she is also a person with her own action sequences that kicks ass! If anything, I’m glad they didn’t try to use race as a way to describe a crime family, otherwise if the film tried to say she was part of a Japanese crime family, when seeing the crime family not having one Japanese actor, then I would have been disappointed.
But for the most part, the theme of the film is easy to understand. Crime boss’s wife steals a cold wallet (which probably stores a lot of cryptocurrency), now the crime family wants it back by all means necessary. U.S. Marshall Pollard’s job is to make sure it doesn’t happen.
These two talents may not be as well-known to the masses, but both do well with the source material and I do believe that one should keep their eyes on these two up-and-coming actors in the near future.
As for the film, one should not expect big budget, nor someone should not expect a deep, complex storyline. It’s a popcorn action movie, nothing more and nothing less.
If anything, the setting at Cape Town, South Africa helped the film’s “you have been erased” feeling of being moved to an area that one can’t be found. Having the film shot in another location outside of the U.S. does help the film in not looking too much of a “low-budget” film and working with locals in the area was pretty cool.
The action choreography was solid, the storyline is interesting and I really do like the modern take of the film utilizing modern technology. Since a lot has changed in the world since the 1996 film.
So, I enjoyed this direct-to-video action film, but “Eraser: Reborn” does have its problems. Aside from some acting issues, that seem a bit off for some of the supporting talent, the film’s major problem is its use of bad CG execution.
Now, I can’t even discuss it without spoiling the film but if you do manage to see the film, one will think “how stupid” or “why did they include this scene”.
I wish there was adequate time to come up with an alternate plan instead of using these CG sequences but focusing on the fight choreography because there was so much focus on it, that the film’s battle between protagonist and antagonist should have ended with that.
Again, I am giving John Pogue the benefit of the doubt because even with “The Warrior and the Witness: Making Eraser: Reborn” special feature, he goes into having to create a film with what he was given and leaving it to those working on the CG to make it seem realistic. For the most part, a lot of the CG worked out well. But when it came to certain CG scenes, which I deem important for the film, not sure if budget ran out but it would have been best to have found a way out of doing that scene and shooting some alternate cut.
Overall, “Eraser: Reborn” is a direct-to-video reboot that makes for an entertaining popcorn action film. It’s definitely worth checking out, but outside of a few questionable CG scenes, I was entertained.