While I am sympathetic to the fact that Warner Brothers invested millions of dollars into this film, its release is still inappropriate for several reasons. First, five months is probably not a sufficient period of recovery time for Americans to mindlessly watch this popcorn movie. The film studio should have just given “Collateral Damage” a year later to corporate sister HBO for a smaller release. But even if the events of September 11th had never taken place, the premise of this film would be both offensive and ludicrous nonetheless.

The plot, for what it’s worth, is basically this: Gordy Brewer’s wife and son are killed when a bomb goes off outside the Colombian consulate in downtown Los Angeles. The perpetrators of this destruction are Columbian drug lords led by Claudio (Cliff Curtis), a cross between the late drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar and the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. The media refers to Claudio by the name of his mysterious alter ego, El Lobo (“The Wolf”).

El Lobo is angry because he wants to rid his country of the CIA and all American influence; however, when Brewer hears the deaths of his wife and son referred to as “collateral damage” by a Colombian spokesman, he becomes enraged. Washington’s reluctance to help his cause only augments his vindictiveness.

Since this is an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, what ensues is not surprising. Though he cannot speak a word of Spanish, Gordy Brewer goes to Colombia hoping to infiltrate the guerrillas’ heavily fortified headquarters and destroy all the bad guys. Along the way, he becomes infatuated with a woman with an adorable son and sees them as a surrogate family. Coincidentally, Selena (Francesca Neri) and Mauro are the wife and son of – tada -- El Lobo himself. Will mother and son stay with evil Claudio or will they defect to good guy Gordy? Does anybody care?

It is sad to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger become a parody of himself. He is a bit long in the tooth to play his customary one-man army role. Furthermore, the outrage of the Colombian community is clearly warranted, as every Colombian portrayed in the film is either a corrupt police officer, a drug dealer, or a kidnapper who wouldn’t think twice about slashing someone’s throat. Yes, every rotten stereotype is here. To make matters worse, the film’s two major Colombian leads, Claudio and Selena, are not even played by Hispanics. (Cliff Curtis and Francesca Neri are from New Zealand and Italy, respectively.) The only Colombian in “Collateral Damage” is John Leguizamo, who was born there but whose family left for Queens when he was six years old.

If you see this film, the only sizable collateral damage will be to your wallet and to your intelligence.