Eraser: Reborn (2022)

(On Cable TV, December 2022) What’s with the recent spate of cheap made-for-streaming sequels to long-ago commercial successes? Well, I suppose this question answers itself, but it doesn’t make for rewarding viewing. The latest victim is the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller Eraser, which gets updated to a no-name cast, low production budget and vastly less ambitious set-pieces in Eraser: Reborn. Dominic Sherwood sleepwalks through the titular role—it was probably intended to be a portrayal of a dour neurodivergent character, but he just comes across as a bad actor. The story itself is a blend of stale clichés: the protagonist whose organization wants him dead, the strained relationship between the two leads, the chase sequences, and the shootouts. Sounds intriguing but really isn’t—there’s a laboriousness to the proceedings that suggest that director John Pogue either wasn’t interested or wasn’t capable of doing any better. Some of the action sequences are almost competent, which is an improvement on the rest of the film. While Eraser: Reborn may fill up a boring evening, there’s really nothing to recommend in it. The joke about the film being better when erased comes up by itself.