An interesting change of pace for Arnie

IT'S surely a sign of the apocalypse when Arnold Schwarzenegger, an actor whose roles typically run the gamut of emotions from A to B, gets to mow the lawn, drive a pick-up and chop wood (not bodies). But there are still plenty of dead people in Maggie, a horror movie that morphs, somewhat unconventionally for an Arnie flick, into a two-hanky weepie.

At 67, Schwarzenegger is still in good enough shape to be an action star but this time, he ditches the heavy weaponry (though not the heavy accent) for a turn as a dramatic lead, playing a sensitive farmer type whose teenage daughter is infected with a deadly virus.

The virus - the result of a worldwide epidemic caused by a massive crop failure - eventually turns victims into zombies but until that happens, Wade Vogel (Schwarzenegger) wants his daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) to live a normal life at home, not herded away to die in some quarantine camp. It's a decision that sits a little uncomfortably with Wade's second wife Caroline (Joely Richardson), who fears for the safety of her two young children.