"He is the thing that won't die in the nightmare that won't end..."
No, I'm not talking about marriage to Mrs D with all the pleasures and lovely surprises that happy accident brings, but instead GOOD OLD ARNIE in a lively knees up celebration of emotion and happy smiling glee ... "I'll be back," he shrugs in his best Northern European accent as he emerges in the perfect role to exploit his Shakespearean thespian talents ... 'The Terminator' features the very muscle bound Herr Schwarzenegger as an unfeeling, dour cyborg, whose sole goal in life/existence is the searching out and disposal of a very rooted in the 80's looking Linda Hamilton.
1984 was a very good year, despite all the Orwellian omens and the pronouncements of that Nostradamus bloke ... the world didn't end in a flash of lightning and flame, instead we got the Austrian former Mr Universe in classic stereotyped role in a very wonderful science fiction thriller which drags you to the edge of your seat and keeps you resolutely pinned there like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights.
James Cameron, much later the creative brains behind 'Titanic', wrote (in conjunction with producer Gale Anne Hurd) and directed this little slice of cinematic majesty and produced a work that has been a classic of the last twenty years, the forerunner of other sci fi thrillers which copped the style and earnest approach of the original but never brought the same style and (lack of) feeling that was on show here.
It was Cameron’s first big moment and one of the first (and certainly one of the best for Arnold.
The film kicks off in the far off future … 2029 … and there’s a fight to the finish between the humans and the machines for the remains of a dying Earth. The machines send a cyborg (Arnie) back in time to 1984 to kill the mother of the Resistance’s forces (Hamilton) before she can give birth to him. The human forces send Kyle Leeson back through the same hole in time to protect her and we’re off on one of the wildest chases across America that there ever was as The Grim Faced One gets more and more tense while the obvious romantic entanglement between Hamilton and Leeson gets stronger and stronger until eventually the inevitable happens and they’re off making the beast with two backs. And don’t you just know it, Leeson is the one who puts Hamilton in the club and fathers the saviour of the human race. IT’S WEIRD PARADOX TIME…
Arnie proceeds to prove how thoroughly indestructible he is as a cyborg with heart probs and he’s packed with gear. There’s a rare spate of shoot ‘em up scenes as he deals out death and destruction to all who would get in his way in the pursuit of his quarry, until we get the final big death scene, although it goes on and on and on and on as The Grim One refuses to die, even when he’s just a pile of bits and pieces.
It’s a neat old grim faced and very earnest picture, painting a uniquely bleak picture of both Eighties America and a brave new world, but marvellous stuff for all that. There was a sequel, made much later when special FX were far superior, but it wasn’t half the film that the original was.
Grin and bear it … SCREEEEEEAM if you wanna go faster….
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Ah Poor Arnie - this was his great role too - his 'Hamlet'...although the poor guy would probably think you were asking him to do an Ad for small cigars if you booked him for Hamlet!
Advantages: Uncommonly good storyline for an action film, super special effects, imaginative design, excellent value DVD Disadvantages: Many won't enjoy it for its occasionally-graphic violence
tom1clare 07.03.2004 (10.03.2004)
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Review of Terminator
Advantages: Some visually entertaining if unengaging special effects Disadvantages: Terrible dialogue, direction, plot and acting, Unoriginal, dull and unengaging.
Burning_Darkness 28.07.2009 ·
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