Nope, ciao. Even with your instruction and with Javascript enabled, no way of finding who has rated ...
Nope, ciao. Even with your instruction and with Javascript enabled, no way of finding who has rated me. I can do it with other people's reviews, but not mine. Once again, computer says 'No!'
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1984 saw two films featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger being released. The first was the sequel to Conan the Barbarian, entitled Conan the Destroyer, and was a popular film. However, it was nowhere near as popular and as critically and commercially successful as his second film of the year: The Terminator, the tale of a breed of cyborg robots being sent back in time from the future to prevent any kind of future from happening.
The Plot
A mysterious musclebound man, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses and armed to the teeth with weapons, starts hunting down every woman with the name Sarah Connor. As he is about to kill the last Sarah Connor, a man named Kyle Reese suddenly stops him, rescuing Sarah, and a chase ensues. Reese and the mysterious man are from the future, and the muscly freak with the sunglasses is no man - he is a Terminator, a cyborg from the future send back to destroy kill Sarah and prevent her from giving birth to the man who will lead the future resistance against the Terminators - John Connor. Can they outrun and outmanoeuvre the deadly assassin, made of indestructible metal, long enough, and save the future of mankind?
The Cast and Performances
Arnie has yet another role just as a hard man, with the majority of his previous roles in films relying more on his muscle bound nature than anything else. This is again true of this film, although curiously enough it is for one sentence in this film that he is perhaps best known: 'I'll be back!', quoted as the Terminator leaves a police station only to return by knocking through it with a car. The Austrian muscleman gives perhaps his most famous performance in this film, which he will later reprise in two sequels.
Linda Hamilton gives a good and panicked performance as Sarah Connor, and Michael Biehn is heroic and believable as Reese, sent back from the future to save Sarah. There are short but solid roles from Lance Henriksen and Rick Rossovich and Paul Winfield, and the remainder of the cast support very well.
My Opinion
This is a groundbreaking and pioneering film, paving the way for further films of genre, taking sci-fi by storm, and launching Arnie onto a roll of films year after year until the beginning of the 1990s. Director James Cameron had many visions for the film, all of which were reshaped and remoulded on a regular basis. Curiously enough, Arnie was scheduled to play Reese, not the terminator, and Lance Henriksen the terminator, as Cameron had imagined a more subtle assassin. However, the end result was possibly the better combination, with Michael Biehn taking the part of Reese, Arnie that of the Terminator, and Henriksen having to take a back seat role in the form of Detective Hal Vukovich.
My personal opinion on the film is that it is one of Arnie's best. I do enjoy watching the later films where he starts comedy roles, particularly Twins, as well as Commando and Total Recall, but here we see raw Arnie at his most fearsome. Production of the film was halted due to him having to finish the filming of Conan the Destroyer first, a film for which director Richard Fleischer asked him to gain a stone in muscle. Therefore, Arnie's bulk was more physically threatening for the Terminator as well. His English still rusty, the actor still has some lines in the film, and his accent has since become world famous, imitated repeatedly, particularly 'I'll Be Back'.
The special effects in the film deserve a mention, too. The effects of the cyborg assassin's metal framework is brilliantly done. It is bettered many years later in T2, the sequel to this film, but the limited technology at the time is even more testament to the clever work done by the FX team.
Conclusion
Great ground-breaking film, Arnie's screen presence is magnificent.
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
I hate to do this as the review itself is good but this is supposed to be specifically about the Special Edition DVD - there is a separate category for just the film - if you ask Ciao they should move it there for you. Mil x
just.bcoz 10.06.2008 01:07
Great review
headcase44 10.06.2008 00:55
Very good review....I have seen this film twice and hated it both times LOL...Good review though. Thanks. J.
The Terminatorwas the film that cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger's place in the action-brawn ... more
firmament, and both his and the movie's subsequent iconic status are well deserved. He's chilling as the futuristic cyborg that kills without fear, without love,...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In this blazing sci-fi classic, Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as the fiercest ... more
and most relentless killing machine ever to threaten the survival of mankind! From the Oscar winning director of 'Titanic' this fast-paced, cleverly conceived, rip ...
Advantages: the best film ever? on a a great DVD?! you're damn right its true Disadvantages: the original 1984 subtitles do not appear at the beginning
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
![The Terminator (Two Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [1985]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78529423.jpg "The Terminator (Two Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [1985]")
![The Terminator [Special Edition]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/99374436.jpg "The Terminator [Special Edition]")
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