Fubar review: Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in silly, comedy spy thriller that goes from bad to worse in no time

2/5

Story: CIA operative Luke Brunner (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is all set to embrace retired life, when he’s called in to extract an undercover agent, whose cover is all set to be blown. Turns out, the operative is none other than his daughter, who was also in the dark about her father being in the agency. Given their temperaments, the agency then thinks it’s a good idea to pair them together to track/capture/kill a criminal set on unleashing a nuclear war on the world.

Review: If you’ve seen Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis’ True Lies, you’d know how much fun the former can be as a CIA operative kicking terrorist ass. And if that’s the calling card that’s got you to check out Fubar, we’d say, ‘Run’. This one’s not as fun and here’s why.

Arnold is, perhaps, among the fittest 75-year-olds on the planet, but that’s no excuse to make it look like he’s got the reflexes and agility of someone at least 30 years younger. Hell, even his stunt double seems to be struggling. Thankfully, much of the action that he has in the eight-part series that is streaming on Netflix has him pumping bullets into the bad guys or slinking up from behind and slitting their throats vertically to have them bleed out quickly. But hey, let me not misguide you into believing that Fubar is an adrenaline-pumping action ride. It’s more focused on how Arnold as Luke spent 40 successful years at the agency, without his family ever getting whiff of his double life, which, however, cost him his marriage, and brought in some amount of resentment from his kids, especially Emma (Monica Barbaro), for not being around enough and emotionally hurting his wife.

On the brink of retirement, Luke wants to make amends and win back the love of his life, before it is too late, but then, is a life of peace really an option for one of the agency’s best operatives? This is, in essence, what Fubar is all about and what should have, ideally, been a movie with a run-time of about half that the series gets. The show is meant to be a more of a comedy than a serious spy thriller and Arnold, no doubt, has quite the funny bone, but Fubar is, honestly, way too low-brow even for him. It makes one wonder why he’d agree to be a part of the show. It is silly and gets progressively worse as the episodes go by. But I bet that Netflix is already making plans to greenlight a second season.

Verdict: For what it is worth, the makers picked a title that is absolutely apt for the show - Fubar, which is a popular army acronym for a situation that is ‘f***ed up beyond all repair’. They should have perhaps taken a hint right at the start and abandoned this project a long time ago, but now that it’s here, let’s hope that not many go down the road I did for Arnold. If you, like me, have enjoyed watching the man in movies like Twins, Kindergarten cop and, of course, True Lies, please do give them a re-watch. Safe to say, you are not missing much by skipping this one. It was torture even at 1.5 speed.