The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger won't be known for his winning of Mr. Universe, etc. He's known for his phrase "I'll be back", which was made famous from The Terminator.

He plays The Terminator, a cyborg who comes from the future to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), an innocent waitress who doesn't believe Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) about that story. Reese also came from the future, but to protect Sarah from The Terminator, for reasons that come into detail later in the story.

Schwarzenegger is fun as The Terminator. He only has about 10 lines to say in the entire movie, but I liked him in his futuristic role. Terminator is his most famous movie. It has action coming out the wazoo, but no real thrills. The 108 minute run-time seemed to go by quickly.

The special FX, for 1984, were pretty good. Despite what it seemed, the exo-skeleton at the end was not stop-motion as it looked like, it was an animatronic puppet. The explosions looked real, so did all the shootings, and everything else. Biehn was very good as the guy from the future. He seemed to know what he was doing. I wonder why he hasn't been in much lately, though.

Hamilton was good, too, as Sarah, but nothing to write home about. Terminator has set an example for others to follow in action movies. Many spoof movies have the "terminator sight", and say "I'll be back", and all the other catch phrases from the movie. I thought it also had some good places of humor, like all movies should. It is entertaining, also. The dreary look at the future seems almost farcical now, since we now know that there won't be a nuclear war around 1990. So that means it's a little outdated, but it's still fun (if lacking thrills), and recommended.

My rating: 6/10