The 1990s were a strange and transitional period for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career; he started the decade as one of the biggest and most bankable draws in the industry, but ended it facing accusations that his time at the top was starting to wind down.
With hindsight, it is fair to see how this latter assumption was achieved, when the successes of Total recall, kindergarten copand Terminator 2: Judgment Day were quickly followed by a number of disappointments like Last Action Hero, batman and robinand The end of time. 1996 effort Gum falls somewhere in the middle, but has since become a favorite among Schwarzenegger supporters.
The CGI looks incredibly dated when viewed through a modern lens, and it wasn’t exactly an acclaimed darling after earning 38% and 39% reviews and users respectively on Rotten Tomatoes, but it stands out from the crowd as arguably the last of the main man cheers to play the simple, square-jawed, happy hero.
As the title suggests, Arnold’s John Kruger clears high-level witnesses and gets them out of harm’s way and into custody, before his latest mission uncovers a plot that reaches to the top of his organization, the leaving unable to trust anyone.
Of course, it overcomes that hurdle by becoming a one-man army and decimating its enemies in a sufficiently over-the-top way, and it’s a ton of silly fun to watch it unfold. According to FlixPatrolPrime Video subscribers agree, with Gum currently ranked as one of the platform’s most-watched titles in the global charts.
