“Raw Deal” is another action flick starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (“The Terminator”, “True Lies”). However, unlike the majority of his other films (even many of the bad ones), it seems to lack any real spark or personality. These are things that have helped separate Schwarzenegger’s pictures from most of the competition so this one is a real disappointment.

In this film, Schwarzenegger plays a former-F.B.I. agent, who gets the chance to go undercover on an off-the-books operation to infiltrate a vicious gang of Chicago mobsters and ultimately bring down their operation. The idea of the protagonist going undercover to bring down the bad guys is one of the most used formulas in action films and this one seems to enjoy following the rulebook exactly.

Schwarzenegger himself is not as good as he is in many of his other roles, simply because the script isn’t there to support him. There’s a female in the form of Kathryn Harold (“The Hunter”) but the film never really explains her importance, she’s just there from time to time. Interestingly, the main bad guy (Sam Wanamaker “Superman IV”) and the main henchman (Robert Davi “Licence To Kill”) are pretty good but they get very little screen-time.

I guess some of the action sequences are good but I would’ve enjoyed them a lot more had the whole film been a little better. The one-liners aren’t there, the good story isn’t there and the characters certainly aren’t. This is another action film that believes action is the only thing you need to make it work. Although it’s definitely not Schwarzenegger’s worst film, it’s definitely one of his blandest and in a way, being bland is worse than being bad because at least some of the really bad stuff is stuff you can remember. “Raw Deal” certainly shouldn’t be one to look out for (unless you’ve exhausted most of the Schwarzenegger library).