 |
| Edward Furlong as the young John Connor, testing out his toy Terminator in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day". |
One of the best pure action films out there, the rare sequel that betters its predecessor. Having seen his fame explode as a result of the first Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns, but this time he's the good guy, reprogrammed to save John Connor but still with a proclivity to kick ass and take names. Squaring off against Arnold is Robert Patrick as the T-1000, one of the most relentless and frightening villains committed to film (although saying he's committed to film is a bit misleading, as the T-1000's ultracool shapeshifting scenes were a breakthrough in CGI technology). Like the first Terminator, this is essentially a series of brilliantly-executed chase scenes, with a bit more of the Terminator mythology fleshed out. There are a couple of drawbacks: Edward Furlong is a bit unpolished and frankly unlikable as the prepubescent John Connor, and Cameron's occasionally off-putting glibness rears its ugly head in a couple of tossaway moments. Still, this is, in my mind, the standard-bearer of 1980s and early 1990s action extravaganzas (it easily betters anything else in Schwarzenegger's canon, or for that matter Stallone's and Willis'). Somehow, this ultraviolent, macho film has an undercurrent of not-out-of-place humanism coursing through its veins. The final lines of the movie are not eye-rollingly naive...we agree with Sarah Connor when she says that "if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life...maybe we can too."
MY RATING:
79/100
WOULD IT BE IN MY TOP 250?
Yes, absolutely.
WHY IS IT IN THE IMDB'S TOP 250?
People of my generation remember how mind-blowing an action experience T2 was when it came out, and it still holds up incredibly well. It just doesn't get much better than this for Hollywood-produced action extravaganzas, and the enduring popularity of Terminator 2 on the IMDB list is a testament to its craftsmanship, humour and inventiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment