Thought it was time to finally write a review for the greatest action movie of all time.
When you run down some of the best action movies of all time, the list can get pretty long. Aliens, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Knight, The Matrix and Heat. All incredible in their own rights. But none of them hold a candle to not only the greatest action movie ever made but the greatest sequel of all time. This is about to be 30 years old, I’ll say that again. This movie turns 30 this summer and it still feels so inventative, so original and so ground-breaking that with every single re-watch, it still amazes me in new and surprising ways.
James Cameron coming off just a slew of home runs, most notably Aliens, was set to direct a sequel to The Terminator, the movie that put him on the map. Already proving he could direct a worthy sequel with Aliens being one of the best movies to come out in the 80’s. This time around he was dealing with his own child, the ultimate killing machine, the Terminator.
We open up about 10 years later and Sarah Connor is not that shy and naive girl from our previous encounter. She has done a lot of growing up and even had a baby boy! John Connor as we know is the future leader of the resistance against the Terminators and she will do anything in her power to keep him safe. Enter Edward Furlong and his clear claim to fame. Does James Cameron know how to cast excellent kid actors or what. The second he’s introduced with Guns N’ Roses ‘You Could Be Mine’ playing in the background, it kind of says everything you need to know about his character. A troubled kid, but what kind wouldn’t be with their mom in a psycho hospital because she thinks machines are going to take over the world. For a film that introduces Edward Furlong he doesn’t such an incredible job acting beside both Linda Hamilton and Arnold.
I’ll never forget going years and I mean YEARS without watching this movie, so I was in university and fired it up and we arrived at the best sequence in the movie – the Galleria Mall and tunnel car chase. When Arnold meets Robert Patrick’s T-1000 in the back hallways of the Mall, the hairs on my arms stood up. It was instant goosebumps because I forgot how intense and just beautiful this moment was. Imagine being a person sitting in the theatres in 1991, because the movie did a really great job at not showcasing who the bad guy was in the movie. Until that time, Arnold was the bad guy, the Terminator sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor.
Speaking of bad guys, how fantastic has Robert Patrick’s T-1000 aged? Not only his running form, which remains god like, he really could give the Flash some lessons on proper running form, but his whole performance has really stood the test of time. From his stoic demeanor, his almost likeability at the beginning of the movie, and finally just how much ass he kicks. Without a doubt, the movie just isn’t the same if they go with a different actor.
From the pitch-perfect pacing, with action set-pieces that seem so simple, yet are excecuted to perfection, because that’s what James Cameron does. To the memorable performances across the board, Terminator 2 is just a beautiful movie to watch unfold each time you play it back. Even the score has just be embedded in movie history, you hear that epic score, you know exactly what is about to go down.
Judgement Day is something that I watch about once a year and it’s just a movie I’ll never really get tired of. How can you? From Arnold learning how to reload a shotgun while riding a motorcycle, to the horror elements from the T-1000. This movie provides so many iconic one-liners that you almost think this movie invented the cool one-liners, or simply has the most ever in a single movie.
Put this movie in a museum and throw away the key, or in some canister much like the robotic arm from Cyberdyne.
T2 is perfect.
100/100
