Eraser (1996)

"He will erase your past to protect your future."
John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is brought onboard the very moment when an employee located at one of the biggest weapon corporations in the country is ready to spill the truth on some rather nasty work of business that is about to go down, linking them up to international terrorists along with a groundbreaking high-tech rifle, known only as an EM gun. If this finds it way out to the papers, the damage will be beyond unrepairable, however it can be undone if a certain person is to be taken cared of.

Saw it last night on TV, and I think now it is only the the 4th or 5th time I have seen it, which makes it one of the Arnold movies made between 1980s and 1990s that I have seen the fewest times, and there is a reason to that, which I will come back to later on.
Eraser (1996) should have been just "another" big mid 90s Arnold Schwarzenegger hit, which I guess looking at the box-office numbers at the time it ended up as, however I cannot help but think of it as a slighly below the standard, at least compared to his other 90s movies (minus Junior) that he had done up till that point.
Anyway, the movie do do come with several fine actors involved such as James Caan, James Coburn, James Cromwell and of course the lovely Vanessa Williams, also having Robert Pastorelli playing the "typical" 90s action buddy-sidekick routine.

Still, somewhere in Eraser is lacking that extra fun filled bite which the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger films usually have, I mean when the most "memorable" attempts on a one-liner is the terrible delivery of "You're Luggage!" (After Arnie kills a huge crocodile or aligator in the New York Zoo) that or shortly beforehand when Arnie saves Vanessa and as he enters the scene she says: "You're late!" to which he replies with: "Traffic!". 
Boy, that sure was lots of "fun". When it comes to classic Arnold movies, in most cases one can almost "rate" the best from the not so good by the sheer amount of great and memorable one-liners and quotes, but in Eraser there are absolutely none of it, as the two above is the ones most likely to stick out and not in a good way.
They are just so damn generic and "random" delivered, like they were just thrown in at the very last minute, because the film suddenly was to be an Arnie product and not some other actors.
Beside the poor one-liners, you get the feeling that most of the film is very "rushed", with the typical Arnie lines such as "GEEEET DAAAAAOOOOWHHHN!", "GET AAAOUT!", "CAAAMOOOOHHHN!". 
That and the boring use of mid 90s heavy guitar riffs here and there, along with some anonymous little music "theme" which somehow reminds me of the parodies used so well in The Last Action Hero (1993), it all feels very uncreative and bland, not something which really stands out.

Of course it does not mean the film stinks but again, it is far away of being a great movie, even very good that is (or so I think). Following the disappoinment that is Junior (1994) this 1996 movie was a little toward the right direction, but if compared to True Lies (1994) it surely is of absolutely no match, as that one was a big, fun and hugely re-watchable action classic, while Eraser sadly has not hold up that well, and quality and entertainment wise it is not even close.
There are good moments in the film, I thought some of the scenes with Robert Pastorelli as the comedic sidekick worked rather well, and while he disappears for a while in the film, he also have some of the better attempts on comedy.
My main problem is that the chemistry between Arnie and Vanessa is just not there, I mean compare it to Arnie and Jamie Lee Curtis, and it is clear that the two just do not hit off that well. 
Another big problem is the lack of a real heavy villain/henchmen type. I like James Caan but here he is just not much of a threat againt Arnold (of course who would be) but still he never got to the point of becoming a memorable bad guy, which is a shame.