Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- Pareidolia 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Terminator

USA 1984
produced by
Gale Anne Hurd, John Daly (executive), Derek Gibson (executive) for Hemdale, Pacific Western, Cinema '84/Orion
directed by James Cameron
starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, Bess Motta, Earl Boen, Dick Miller, Shawn Schepps, Bruce M. Kerner, Franco Columbu, Bill Paxton, Brad Rearden, Brian Thompson, William Wisher, Ken Fritz, Tom Oberhaus, Ed Dogans, Joe Farago, Hettie Lynne Hurtes, Tony Mirelez, Philip Gordon, Anthony Trujillo, Stan Yale, Al Kahn, Leslie Morris, Hugh Farrington, Harriet Medin, Loree Frazier, James Ralston, Norman Friedman, Barbara Powers, Wayne Stone, David Michels, John E. Bristol, Webster Williams, Patrick Pinney, Bill W. Richmond, Chino 'Fats' Williams, Greg Robbins, Marianne Muellerleile, John Durban
written by James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, music by Brad Fiedel, makeup effects by Stan Winston

Terminator

review by
Mike Haberfelner





On TV, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) learns that two women sharing her name have been killed that very night, and since she's got the feeling she's followed by a stranger (Michael Biehn), she dives into a club and phones to police - where two policemen (Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen) are already on her case and have been trying to track her down. They promise to send over pick-up - but before they can, a big man, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), shows up at the club with the express intention of killing her, and if he has to kill everyone else in the process, no matter. But it's the stranger whom she tried to escape, one Kyle Reese, who saves her. On their escape, he explains to her he's for the future where humankind fights machine, with the humans winning the upper hand thanks to her yet unconceived son John. So the machines have sent a cyborg back in time to kill John's mother - Sarah - to alter the timeline. And thus the humans have sent back Kyle to destroy the Terminator before he can destroy humankind's only hope. But now they're on the run from both the police and the Terminator - with the police getting their hands on Kyle and Sarah first, only for the Terminator to destroy the precinct, and Sarah and Kyle only narrowly escaping again. But no matter how hard they're trying to run and hide, the Terminator seems unstoppable, even by the biggest esplosions, so eventually they just have to face the fight ...

 

Now given, The Terminator is not an intellectual masterpiece, its timetravel backstory is just a plot device that poses more questions than it answers, and the main storyline follows more that of a slasher movie, told less as a horror piece and more as an action flick though.

And that all said, damn is The Terminator a good film, it's pretty much the perfect B picture, a film that doesn't try to overwhelm its audience with special effects but uses what it's got to maximum effect, that moves along its plot rather rapidly to keep the audience on the edges of their seats, that pretty much presents the viewer with action setpiece after action setpiece, all well-conceived, and that even gets the most out of its unmistakably 1980s aesthetics. And James Cameron, who truth to be told showed little promise in Piranha 2: Flying Killers only three years prior, proves himself to be at the top of his game here.

So if you're at all inclined to see perfectly crafted action cinema, you just need to see this one.

 

With this film becoming a raging (and somewhat unexpected) success and cementing Arnold Schwarzenegger's status as an action superstar even more so than Conan the Barbarian, a string of sequels was inevitable, but even though these films were elevated to mega-budget status, none of them matched the narrative stringency and suspense-creating simplicity of the first film, most of them suffering from overloading the basic plot with more and more subplots pretty much standing in each other's way. And the idea to turn Schwarzenegger into a good guy was at best questionable.

 

 

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Terminator
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Terminator here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Terminator at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!