Fubar: Arnold Schwarzenegger proves he still has some firepower in ...

26 May 2023
Fubar

Netflix

Fubar is now available to stream on Netflix.

REVIEW: Best known in the TV world for replacing Donald Trump on The Apprentice, Arnold Schwarzenegger is aiming to prove he’s still an action master in his first-ever proper foray into small-screen storytelling.

In the eight-part Fubar (now available to stream on Netflix), the 75-year-old Austrian and 38th Governor of California plays veteran CIA operative Luke Brunner.

Having managed to hide his real day (and night) job from his family for his entire career (to them, he’s the co-owner of Merry Fitness), he’s looking forward to retirement.

Decades of stopping human traffickers and thwarting ne’er-do-wells though has not only taken a physical toll on him, it also cost Luke his marriage. That’s why the first item on his post-agency agenda is “Operation Life-With-Wife”, attempting to win Tally (Fabiana Udenio) back with the promise of sailing around the world on a yacht he helped confiscate long ago. Although his CIA colleagues think he may have under-estimated the challenge.

“That man survived a Russian mob hit, but that Tally plan is going to kill him,” his right-hand man Barry (Milan Carter) mutters out of Luke’s earshot.

Netflix

Arnold Schwarzenegger makes the jump to series TV in Fubar.

However, Luke has barely sliced into the farewell cake when Barry has to break the bad news to him. An undercover agent is at risk of being exposed – and they need him to go back into the field.

Turns out the international arms dealer’s son who, many years ago, he attempted to rehabilitate by securing him a place at a London boarding school, has decided to use his education to reignite his father’s paramilitary empire. The CIA needs Boro’s (Gabriel Luna) childhood hero “Finn Hoss” to reach back out and find a way of getting “Agent Panda” to safety.

While his natural charisma makes that first part a doddle, once on the ground, nothing in Luke’s training can prepare him for the shock of finding out exactly who Panda (Monica Barbaro), known to Boro as Daniele DeRosa, really is.

Supplied

Sure, at 75, Arnold Schwarzenegger creaks a little more, both in the action and the line-delivery, but he delivers the appropriate presence and subversive laughs right on cue in Fubar.

Right from the opening strains of The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil, there’s a swagger and style about creator Nick Santoro’s series that reminds one of Schwarzenegger in his heyday.

Sure, he creaks a little more, both in the action and the line-delivery (although the latter does make it feel more like his early forays into Hollywood blockbusters), but he delivers the appropriate presence and subversive laughs right on cue.

Supplied

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Luke Brunner in Fubar.

If you’ve seen Santoro’s previous works like Scorpion, Prison Break and Reacher, then you’ll know what to expect – plenty of pyrotechnics, gun play and fisticuffs, a one-dimensional villain or two, some questionable domestic dramas and plot twists, but overall an enjoying thrill-ride that doesn’t get too bogged-down in anything like reality or airtight continuity.

Alongside the still reliable Arnie, Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) makes for an effective foil and sparring-partner, while Carter (Dolemite is My Name) gives good side-kick.

Fubar is now available to stream on Netflix.

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