Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The machines will rise.

I am only including this entry because of the done other two.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was an excellent trailer for Terminator 4.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

This time there are two…

Right, so we’ve ignored the plot flaws with T1, as it became known once this sequel came out, and lovely Mr. C came along and gave us Terminator 2: Judgment Day (“But did we save the world in the last one?” – Yes but we’re ignoring that remember!)

In many ways T2 is remarkably better than T1, better effects and a better insight to the characters.

Arnie is still his usual robotic (useful in this role) wooden self but introducing Edward Furlong as a rebellious teenage John Connor gives the film a certain appeal. Of course sticking Sarah Connor in psychiatric hospital helped with that as well. It’s nice to know she’s stuck to her guns and is continuing to tell the story of the end of the world (“But did we save the world in the last one?” – Yes but we’re ignoring that remember!).

Essentially it’s just a remake of the original. The world is going to end, there’s an enemy who is hard to kill but in the end he’s killed and the world is saved!... again!

Sadly Hamilton doesn’t get the interaction in this one with any of the actors and is mainly a sideline just for filler but the introduction of the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) brings the storyline nicely into line with the future continuing to exist in its own separate timeline and the current timeline obviously still having and effect on it… which kind of states the obvious but in this film just when you think about the obvious you get hit with the answer which turns out not to be so obvious.

It’s not a patch on T1 but watch it because it’s the sequel and sequels are there to be watched!

Terminator

The thing that won’t die, in the nightmare that won’t end.

This surely has to be one of James Cameron’s greatest films. Okay so the actual workings of the plot leaves you not so much thinking but more complaining about how things don’t work but if you ignore the story line and go for the either the acting (ignoring Arnie) or the idea behind the story then you have a great move. Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton work extremely well together on the screen and Arnie gets to be himself which is always useful considering his acting abilities or lack there of!

Warning… plot spoilers…

So John Connor, Sarah’s son (Hamilton) sends his best soldier (Biehn) back in time to project his mother from the Terminator (Arnie) but while he’s there he falls for Sarah and they end up doing the dirty and she gets pregnant with John so in effect John didn’t only send his best soldier back but also his dad and between them both they defeat the Terminator and stop the impending war.

But…

If by defeating the Terminator they’ve stopped the war then there would be no need to send daddy back to protect mummy so mummy wouldn’t get pregnant so John wouldn’t be born and wouldn’t be able to send daddy back anyway but he was born so he must have sent daddy back and the only reason he’d do that is to protect mummy but mummy would only need protecting if her life was in danger which is was because the Terminator was after her but it was only after her because of the war which had already been stopped by defeating the terminator that wouldn’t have been sent back because there was no war.

Do you see the plot flaws?

All that said it’s still a class film and worth a watch.

Love Actually

It's all about love... actually!

As much as it tries to be a excellent film it only manages to be good, if above average. There are certain scenes in this film that are hilarious and Richard Curtis did wonders with the script. Sadly the mish-mash of lives that are intertwined where everyone knows or is related to everyone else doesn’t work in one film. It’s the kind of script that would have been fantastic in a series of linked shorts.

The title “Love Actually” would lead you to believe that everything is right in the world that exists within this movie but when you watch it you see that it isn’t. With divorces looming and the hardships of caring for loved ones this film tries to show that a little bit of love or a smile will over come everything.

With a host of stars - Bill Nighy, Gregor Fisher, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Martin Freeman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Junior Simpson, Alan Rickman, Marcus Brigstocke, Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, Billy Bob Thornton, Jo Whiley, Michael Parkinson, Rowan Atkinson, Wes Butters, Claudia Schiffer, Nancy Sorrell, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards – to name but a few this film lets us into the dreamworld of Richard Curtis and takes the viewer who can immerse him or herself into the movie fully through a roller-coaster of emotions as you feel happy for those expressing love, frustrated for those in love but unable to express it and sad for those finding out they are no longer loved the way they want to be.

All in all an entertaining film that ends with the original Hollywood message that love can conquer all.

Clerks

Just because they serve you doesn’t mean they like you!

The nutshell: Dante Hicks works in a local convenience store. He gets called in one morning, on his day off and has to deal with various problems from the shutters not opening to people dying in the bathroom. Let alone the problems with an ex-girlfriend that he still loves who is getting married, a current girlfriend who has revealed certain things about her past and yet another ex-girlfriend who died and today is the last day he can go to her wake. As if things couldn’t get worse his friend, Randall Graves, who is even less dedicated to his job, turns up for work and basically annoys most of the customers, as well as Dante.

So where to start with this film? Kevin Smith, it must be said, is an unrecognised genius. It’s a shame that some people think he sold out with Jay & Bob Strike Back but those people should just shut up and remember that just because his films became more popular it doesn’t mean he sold out!

Written and directed by Smith, Clerks is filmed totally in black and white and this very much adds to the general feel of the film. The banter between Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Graves (Jeff Anderson) is fast paced and you find yourself wanting to join in and at some points wishing they’d stop and take a breath.

It’s during this film that we get our introduction to Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), two socially dysfunctional reprobates who, through-out their drug pushing and vulgar gestures, actually have hearts of gold, but it’s not fair really mentioning that as you won’t find that out until the next movie.

Smiths writing talent really comes out in this film and even if you’ve seen other films by Kevin Smith it’s worth seeing this one so you can really make your mind up, which it truly is impossible to do without seeing this film! It’s worth watching if only for the discussion over sex (thirty-seven?) and the death-star (how many innocent contractors lost their lives with the destruction of the death star?).

Go see it! I command you!

Alien

In a nutshell… The Nostromo answers an SOS call from an alien source, set down on a planet, one of their crew ends up with a crab on his face which lays an egg in his stomach which then hatches out a nasty little alien which not only kills all but one of the crew but the gets killed by the last remaining crew member. It also has a nice little subplot where the android on board wants to keep the alien to take home, not as a pet, and the crew decide this is a bad idea but the android doesn’t agree.

So there you have the story in a nutshell without spoiling it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

But what about the film itself?

Lets take any movie with a psychopathic killer and seven or eight teenagers locked inside a house. Where on earth could the killer be? Now, set all that on a space ship (with no exit) with an adult cast and a monster who is the psychopathic killer.

But it’s more than that. It’s a classic. Directed by Ridley Scott the plot is simplistic but so well done it deserves to sit in the annuls of film making history with all the other classics. It is Scott’s skill and talent at directing that makes this movie seem like nothing else that has come before it. With the sound effects adding to the suspense as the camera turns corners looking for an alien we know exists but we’ve not seen. In fact it’s not until the very end that we actually see the alien and even then we see very little of it which in my opinion just adds to the suspense.

John Hurt as Kane plays his role in spectacular fashion and its tribute to see his death scene mimicked in so many other films. Sigourney Weaver plays her role as Ellen Ripley fantastically and although she never won she certainly deserved her BAFTA nomination. It’s a shame that it only won one Oscar, although it was for Visual Effects that, obviously, it owned! (That year was the Kramer Vs Kramer and Norma Rae year so it’s hardly surprising Alien didn’t win.) Veronica Cartwright (stay away from the cherries!) and Scott won a Saturn through in the same year for Best Supporting Actress and Best Director (respectively) so it does kind make up for losing out to Hoffman, Field and the clan. Add Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton and Ian Holm to the cast and you’ve got a classic horror masterpiece that shouldn’t be missed.

We watch a lot of fillums, so we thought we'd tell you all about them!

Like my book blog, posts will be tagged "Title: Whatever", "Director: Whatever", "Star: Whatever", to create a list in the tags section that you can click on to see all films with a given star in them, or by a given director.