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The Terminator (Special Edition)

The Terminator (Special Edition)

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.21
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best sci-fi action thrillers of all time
Review: This is the film that cemented director James Cameron as a visionary director, and also cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as a premier action superstar. Schwarzenegger is chillingly perfect as the heartless, soulless cyborg killer sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who will unknowingly in the future give birth to a son named John who will become leader of a human resistance in a distant future war with cyborgs called Terminators. Michael Biehn plays a soldier sent back in time as well to protect Sarah and stop the Terminator from fulfilling his mission. Imaginitive special effects and makeup are abound, and the film is action packed from beginning to end, and all the actors give superb performances, but this is mainly Arnold's show, and like I said before he is chillingly perfect. A little side note: Arnold was originally supposed to play the soldier sent to protect Sarah, and Lance Henriksen (who plays a cop) was supposed to be the Terminator, but Arnold expressed to Cameron that he would do better as the Terminator, and he was dead on the money. Look for Bill Paxton as a punk in the beginning of the movie, he has an unfortunate run in with good 'ol Arnold.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great movie to own
Review: The Terminator is a great sci-fi movie to add to your DVD collection. There is a decent amount of bonus material on the DVD that should satisfy most Schwarzenegger and Terminator fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Somewhat original.
Review: There are too many parallels between Schwarzenegger's automaton and Yul Brenner's robot cowboy in Michael Crichton's "Westworld" but you'll probably overlook them. "The Terminator" is James Cameron's best film overall and original in its own right. Hamilton, Biehn and Arnold all deliver electrifying performances, in this powerful, 1980's action film. A must-have!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic Sci-Fi Thriller!
Review: The Terminator is likely one of the most widely screened movies of the last twenty years. In many ways its effects on popular consciousness have been notable, and it also made a major star of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who up to that point had appeared only in supporting roles in minor films like "Stay Hungry" with Jeff Bridges and "The Villain" with an aging Kirk Douglas. With the release of this film, all that was over in a heartbeat. Or perhaps one could say, in the speed of a laser beam. For this is a science fiction thriller to end all thrillers!

The movie staggers the viewer with the horrifying vision of a world at risk, of a world we can recognize in the act of propelling itself toward a nightmare future, a future that may well be dominated by impersonal and anti-human machines. Linda Hamilton plays the hapless, disorganized, and playfully immature Sarah Connor, future legendary mother to John Connor, the future potential leader of the Anti-machine rebellion that might just save the world in that future time. And while poor Sarah is trying to wrap her mind around all this data being hurled at her by a solitary soldier sent back in time through a time machine by her son to warn her, a cybernetic warrior is systematically hunting and killing every other Sarah Connor in the Los Angeles county telephone book!

This sets the stage for non-stop, heart-wrenching action, and the viewer is assaulted by both sights and data that intrigue and astound him or her, for this is science fiction very well done, a story that has meat and bones over its substantial interior, and like the cyborg that Arnold plays, is ready to slay you into submission. The scenes don't follow each other so much as get exploded from one sequence to the next, in a blood-curdling, shotgun wielding struggle to kill or be killed. And the struggle goes on and on. This is a classic thriller, folks, one that has already spawned another hit movie (T-2), and rumor now has it that Schwarzenegger and company have T-3 ready to begin production soon. In the unlikely event you have been off the planet and have missed seeing it to date, no problem. Just grab this, some popcorn, and a box of Jujifruits. The show is about to begin!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Compralo si o si
Review: Excelente presentacion, excelente contenido, audio estupendo, video sorprendente, las escenas recortadas me hicieron delirar, Esta pelicula es un clasico de la accion, quien no la haya visto sencillamente no sabe lo que es una buena pelicula de accion, el poner el audio original resulta ser un detallazo (las balas en el audio en estereo no suenan igual de bien que en el audio original, facilmente apreciable por los disparos de la 45 de el terminator), los trailers son para hacer llorar a los fanaticos como yo..entrevistas, fotos...no se que mas decir no le encuentro ningun defecto, ojo que la calidad del DVD se ve desde el case del mismo...ahorita me voy a verla..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Creation Of The Terminator!
Review: The Terminator is a staple of sci-fi action films. His villainous status is as remarkable as his status as the hero.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the character with great passion, giving the machine it's cold, merciless attitude. Stan Winston creates one of his early greats here, giving the machine a terrifying effect, and the stop-motion animation is an endoskeleton version of the great Jason And The Argonauts skeletons.

The Terminator has plenty of action and atmosphere to please, James Cameron handles it's style the way he handles his passion for filmmaking. A truly cool sci-fi tale that tells us the future might fall into the hands of the machines that we build, and that wouldn't be a surprise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Terminator (special edition) is a "must own" DVD
Review: The newly mixed 5.1 soundtrack is catching up to today's standard which is compatiable with requirement of home enterainment. The soundtrack of the old edition is somewhat "out dated" - mono, though it can perserve and adhere the origin of the film. I like the new soundtrack which greatly enhances the experience of watching the film. I enjoy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sci-fi Classic!
Review: Even better than Alien and about tied with Predator, is The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous role, which he continued in Terminator 2 and the upcoming Terminator 3 which is being released in Summer 2003. Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese, trying to protect Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor character from the time-traveling cyborg hunter. The special effects by such great Hollywood masters as Sam Winston (Jurassic Park,Predator,Aliens) delivers a great mechanical muscle man played with great cold qualities by Arnie, who picks up weapon after weapon, vehicle after vehicle. The music by Brad Fiedel has become a great staple for sci-fi film music.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Classic
Review: Terminator is one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's finest movie. It is truely a classic action science fiction show that cannot be miss. Great special effects consider this ia a rather old movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They can't make things like that, yet...
Review: The Terminator stands as one of the truly great movies ever made in my books. Like many people, I maintain a fluid list of favorite movies in my head, however, the top three spots have never changed. Star Wars: A New Hope is number one, Aliens is number two and the Terminator is number three. Everything else after that is in a constant state of flux as I see new films. James Cameron's opus will always be Aliens, but the Terminator is his second best work and his directorial debut. This film is exquisite start to finish and a masterpiece of contrasting imagery that spans forty years between the stark, rain swept night time streets of 'present day' Los Angeles in 1984, and a dark, foreboding future where mankind clings to life in a terrific struggle against the machines.

The film opens in Los Angeles of 2029. Silvery aerial and tracked hunter-killer tanks roll relentlessly across field of shattered human skulls, searching for pockets of humanity to exterminate. The whine of engines and the purple flash and deep resonant pulse of the plasma cannons highlight a grey, dead city. It sets the stage for the war of the future that will be fought in the present as Skynet, the intelligence created by Cybderdyne Systems, sends a lone cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to kill Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), mother of John Conner, who will teach the humans to organize and fight back. It is implied that the humans capture the facility, are able to send a protector to look after her, and make it possible for John to be born. An interesting problem exists in that all the records of Sarah Conner's existence are gone, the Terminator only knew her name and the city in which she lives. Thinking logically, it stars a methodical search using the phone book, and begins killing every Sarah Conner it can find.

Part of what makes this movie so perfect is the lead heroine. Nowadays strong female characters, the Mara Jade types, are usually confrontation, arrogant, and mean. Sarah Conner, like Aliens' Ellen Ripley, is a wonderful mix of very attractive qualities. She is thoughtful, intelligent, and possessing of an inner strength that even she doesn't believe she has within her. But at the same time she is depicted as lonely, which leads to a great sense of isolation when she realizes that she is next on the killer's list. And when she is at her most helpless, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) saves her, but not only that. He acts as a spring board for her character to begin delving within to find what she needs to help herself and learn what she must teach her son if he is to be the savior of mankind. The dynamic between Hamilton and Biehn is electric. There is real passion there, because in many ways they are the same person, just reversed. Kyle is a warrior, with a sensitive caring soul held just beneath the surface that Sarah brings to the surface.

The action and pacing of the film are first rate as three points converge: The Terminator, Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner, moving towards a flash point and the climax of the film. The Terminator is methodical- procuring weapons, a place to hide, and locating the Sarahs. Kyle is more in the background, but doing essentially the same thing, except he has a picture of Sarah. Conner's only inkling that something is wrong happens when she learns that women with her name are being killed all over LA. And when Sarah is stood up by her date, she opts to go see a movie instead when she realizes that someone is following her. After killing Sarah's roommate and her boyfriend at their apartment, the terminator overhears Sarah calling Ginger for help, revealing her location. The three points converge is a trendy night club. It's an epochal event as the Terminator finally comes face to face with her. Then with all the aplomb of a man hailing a cab, he singles her out with his laser-sighted .45 and prepares to change history.

There follows a series of high speed chases through the streets of LA, and Cameron's telltale style of lighting, often glaring white, shining from the background adds an almost otherworldly effect to mundane things like buildings and cars. When Sarah and Kyle are arrested, the Terminator goes through an entire police station to get her, including Millenium's Lance Henriksen. Escaping into the night, the two prepare for the final confrontation with the mechanized killer. Kyle teaches Sarah how to make pipe bombs while telling her of his world. And he explains why he volunteered to be the one to come back in time. It is in fact Kyle who is John's father, and I'm sure there has to be a temporal paradox in there somewhere.

Visually, the film is first rate. Fantasy II's future sequences and Stan Winston's make-up and Terminator endo-skeletons are some of the finest moments in Science Fiction film making. Even in this day and age of CG-everything, the rear projected, stop motion animated Terminator effects are still very good, standing up well in the light of eighteen years of technological innovation. Additionally, for the special edition DVD they redid some of the sound effects, like the Terminator's long-slide .45. There are lots of extras, including deleted scenes, still galleries, and two interview reels with Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron, plus Biehn and Hamilton. After eighteen years since I first saw it, Terminator is still Number 3 on my list of favorite films, and it always will be.


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