Rating: 
Summary: Back from the future but never to it.
Review: James Cameron in this first film envisages the future of the Human Race in Los Angeles in 2029, after the first nuclear war that was started by intelligent machines produced by men at the end of the 1990s. Those machines took over the whole decision process and decided to get rid of the human race through a nuclear war that they started by attacking the Russians. Some resistance exists because a small minority of human beings survived, because the machines need them as slaves. So an underground army appeared and is ruthlessly chased by the machines. The leader is a certain John Connor. But machines decides to use a brand new time-travel machine to get back in the past and change the future by destroying the mother of that John before he was ever born. The resistance sends one of them to protect her and destroy the « terminator » who is supposed to do the dirty job. The soldier that is sent will succeed in his mission and destroy the Terminator before he fulfills his mission, but he will also fall in love with Sally Connor and become john's father. There is here a contradiction because this soldier has flash-forwards and he sees himself as a soldier admiring a picture of Sally, how can he has taken this picture to the future if he had to come back to the past to impregnate Sally with John, knowing that he will not be able to go back to the future. But the action is tight and this « detail » is not too visible. The film shows how the human race can resist, though they can't do more, against the dictatorshop of machines. It is in a way optimistic. But not so much because this does not change the future, but only guarantees that a leader will exist for this resistance in the future. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
Rating: 
Summary: The Terminator
Review: Don't buy from these people the special edition of this will be available this fall.
Rating: 
Summary: Steer clear of this DVD!
Review: .. Lock up your wallets! [Rumor has it that] MGM (they just released a special editon of this movie in the UK) ...says they are set to re-release a special editon version in America tentatively for this August (not sure of the day yet). The version being released in the states will actually have MORE than the UK version, plus a possibility is planned to release a limited edition 3 disc set of only 30,000 copies in North America! WOO HOO! Save your money folks, don't buy, it's not worth it and with a movie like The Terminator, you know that isn't going to be on OOP lists for long. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: A classic! Ah-Nuld's best.
Review: The story of the original Terminator movie is a lot darker and deeper than the sequel, now, I am a huge fan of T2, but this movie just tops it in so many ways. It is a lot more humble, and relies on more atmosphere as opposed to Special Effects. The acting of Linda Hamilton's is superb, there were moments where I wouldn't have been able to tell whether she was really in fear or not. Michael Biehn is kind of a corn-ball with all his paranoid dilusions, but let us not forget Ah-Nuld, the Terminator! He makes this movie so scary without saying more than 3 words. It is truly brilliant. The opening music itself is kind of bone chilling. The whole movie is great, and has truly stood the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: Everything works!
Review: The romance between Reese and Connor works (and, yes, as stated below, Biehn is underrated in this movie)...it's touching and sad. The humor works (the now world-famous "I'll be back"). And, most of all, the violence and action works. The scary scene at the end when the Terminator (who is slowing losing pieces of himself) is chasing Connor through the foundry reminds me of "Jack and the Beanstack": you're being chased by something very strong, and very evil, and it asbsolutely will not stop until you kill it. This leads me to believe that most, if not all, popular movies in some way resonate with mythic archetypes (look at the "Star Wars" movies, for a good example). But mythic or not, this is one impressive movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait
Review: As the last person says, a far superior release of 'The Terminator' is already out, in the UK at least. Amazon.co.uk stock it. It comes on two discs, has gorgeous packaging, and, apparently: "The first disc has the movie plus a DVD-ROM feature containing three different versions of the screenplay, which can be read scene-by-scene along with the film. On the second disc there are seven deleted scenes, including a fascinating foreshadowing of Sarah Connor's mission in T2, as well as trailers and TV spots. There are also two "making of" featurettes, one being an 18-minute piece from1992 based around a friendly at-home chat with Cameron and Schwarzenegger ("We did the first Terminator for the cost of your motor-home on the second film", jokes the director to the actor). The hour-long "Other Voices" featurette is an in-depth montage of cast and crew reminiscences covering all aspects of the production from its initial genesis as a fevered nightmare to the "guerrilla" filmmaking of getting the final shots. Script collaborator Bill Wisher neatly sums up the movie as "It's a Wonderful Life, with guns". The second disc also contains a stills archive of production photographs, James Cameron's amazing original conceptual artwork, plus his first story treatment." I own a copy and I don't even had a DVD player yet, which shows you how good it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy now in auctions - wait!
Review: A new release of this film on DVD is in the pipeline - already a 2-disc special edition has been released this month in PAL R2 and R4 - it is expected to be out in R1 either at the end of this year or early next year.R2 & R4 DVDs have Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, deleted scenes, trailers and documentaries. No commentary or original mono soundtrack (though I don't especially care about the last one). Hopefully when the R1 edition comes out the above mentioned deficiencies may be corrected - if not still worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Original, Interesting, Excellent
Review: Over a period of years I have heard how some people have come to regard the Second Terminator as the better film between the two, but I firmly disagree. The Terminator is an original work, that represents both the top in action movies and a model for all action movies to follow. Schwarzenegger puts on an amazing performance as the no-mercy machine sent back into time to kill the leader of the human resistance, setting himself firmly in action movie history. Other opinions have regarded this movie as being simply violence, but I think that the violence is adequate when comparing it to the plot. Look, it was the first of its kind, it has great action scenes, can't go wrong there.
Rating:
Summary: No story, all violence
Review: This way over-rated film shows us how Arnold is not an actor, and endless gunfights and car chases are not now, nor will they ever be cinema. A music video is more like it.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: This film is very inventive in terms of story line. The film is expertly directed and established James Cameron as a real talent. It is also Cameron's first film to have a strong female character as does all of his works(Sigorney Weaver in "ALIENS", Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio in "THE ABYSS", Linda Hamilton once again in "T2: JUDGEMENT DAY", Jamie Lee Curtis in "TRUE LIES" and Kate Winslet to some extent in "TITANIC".) To women who think this movie is a brainless action movie think again. A woman is signifigant to the future of mankind, a woman kills the Terminator, and a woman outsurvives all of the male co-stars. Sure, the effects are a little dated and are blown away by the sequels, but this is the one that started it all.
|
