Linda Hamilton

‘The Terminator’ Movie and 4K Review

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent, Tony Farinella.

“The Terminator,” directed by James Cameron, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Because of this, Warner Brothers released the film on 4K for the very first time.  This has been one of the most anticipated 4K releases in years.  James Cameron released a number of his movies this year on 4K, including “Aliens,” “True Lies” and “The Abyss.”  Many YouTubers and physical media collectors have expressed mixed opinions on the transfers of these releases, and it has caused a lot of debate in the physical media community. Cameron himself has come out and expressed his frustration with their criticism and even suggested they move out of their parent’s basements.

As far as the film itself, “The Terminator” opens up by introducing the audience to a cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who has been sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to eliminate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). To the untrained eye, he looks like a regular human being with his flesh, his ability to talk, and his ability to enter a room without really drawing a lot of attention to himself. Standing in the Terminator’s way is a soldier by the name of Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn).  He’s also from the future, and he has one job and one job only, which is to protect Sarah.  The Terminator’s job is to stop at nothing to eliminate Sarah because her unborn son, John Connor, is going to be the one to attempt to stop the machines from taking over after a war in the future begins.

The battle between humans and machines is one we are still battling in today’s world, especially with the introduction of artificial intelligence.  Will machines become so powerful that humans will be rendered useless and unnecessary? Cameron was way ahead of himself with 1984’s “The Terminator.”  This is a movie with big ideas and big characters.  Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator is fantastic with his movements, his screen presence, and his aura.  Whenever he is on screen, you are completely captivated by him as an audience member to where you can’t keep your eyes off him.  Linda Hamilton is terrific at walking that tightrope to where she’s seen as tough but also a little vulnerable.  Michael Biehn also turns in a stellar performance as Kyle Reese.  It’s a hard role to pull off, as Kyle needs to talk about the future in a way that will not only convince Sarah he’s telling the truth but also win over the audience.

I might be in the minority on this one, but my one issue with “The Terminator” is the love story between Sarah and Kyle.  It is why I can’t give the film a perfect rating, even though I absolutely love it.  The love story feels unnecessary when all of this is going on in Sarah’s world.  In a film where I was able to suspend my disbelief for almost its entire running time, the romance came completely out of left field for me.  Besides that, there is a lot to like about this film.  It has a ton of great supporting work from actors such as Lance Henriksen, Paul Winfield, Dick Miller, and Earl Boen. Los Angeles is a character in this film, especially late at night. In many ways, “The Terminator” felt like Michael Mann directed a sci-fi thriller.  It’s a moody and dark film with an underbelly of seediness and gloom and doom.

I also felt as though “The Terminator” had a sense of humor about itself without being too jokey.  When the Terminator himself encounters some street punks while he’s naked, it allows Cameron to have a little fun with his premise.  He is wise to not make the film too silly or goofy, however, as then it would be a completely different film altogether.  The comedic moments come more from the way people react to the Terminator and how he reacts to them.  Because he is so laser focused on killing Sarah Connor, he doesn’t have time for pleasantries.  He is a man on a mission and will eliminate anyone and anything in his way.  This film is able to feel like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster and a gritty, down and dirty independent film at the same time.  It was made for $6.4 million, but it looks top-notch and has a sense of danger to it as well.  “The Terminator” is an almost perfect film.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

4K Info: “The Terminator” is released on a single-disc 4K from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment.  It comes with a digital copy of the film as well. The film has a running time of 107 minutes and is rated R for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence throughout, some sexuality/nudity, and strong language. You can get this film either with a 4K slipcover or a 4K steelbook.

4K Video Info:  Warner Brothers released this film on Dolby Vision HDR. It is a clean-looking transfer that doesn’t take any chances and doesn’t really need to when you consider its original source material. I thought the majority of the film looked impressive and it had a very cinematic feel to it. I don’t think there are too many things you can find wrong with this 4K video transfer.

4K Audio Info: The Dolby Atmos track is really good here.  This is a film filled with a lot of action, explosions and big moments.  Those scenes sound impressive and make for a good at-home theater experience. It wasn’t too loud or boisterous, but it made its presence known. Subtitles are included in English, Spanish and French.

Special Features:

Deleted Scenes with Optional James Cameron Commentary

Creating the Terminator: Visual Effects & Music

The Terminator: Closer to the Real Thing

Unstoppable Force: The Legacy of the Terminator

Should You Buy It?

This is one of the greatest sci-fi/action films of all time, despite my issues with the love story between Sarah and Kyle.  It comes with a stand-out 4K transfer which includes Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.  This is the best “The Terminator” has looked, and it looks much better than the failed “Terminator 2” 4K release from Lionsgate a few years back.  It seems like they have found a happy medium when it comes to James Cameron and his 4K transfers.  They know how to make the most out of the 4K format without changing it too much to where you don’t recognize the film you love. Much like the prior Blu-ray release, the special features are lacking, which is a disappointment. Overall, though, if you love movies, you have to have “The Terminator” on 4K in your collection.  It is a must-own, whether you get the 4K slipcover or the 4K steelbook.   It’s a revolutionary film that holds up incredibly well on repeat viewings.  This one comes highly recommended.

**Disclaimer** I received a copy of this film from Warner Brothers to review for free.  The opinions and statements in the review are mine and mine alone.

‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ – Seriously Folks, The Thrill is Gone

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Terminator Dark Fate theatrical poster

Hollywood is one the few places on this planet where you can look at $29 million dollars and say, that’s it? This was the reaction many had when the opening weekend numbers of “Terminator: Dark Fate” were revealed to the world, and to say they were below expectations is putting it mildly. Many will pontificate over why this sixth installment bombed at the box office, but I think it comes down to the inescapable fact that the “Terminator” franchise has long since lost its capacity to wow and thrill us in the same way the first two movies did, and even series creator James Cameron, who returned to executive produce this sequel, cannot put it back together again. While you can retcon the hell out of “Halloween” to keep it going, “Terminator” is now way past the point of self-termination.

I finally got to check out “Terminator: Dark Fate” after finding some time to tear myself away from work as I was not going to let anything deter me from seeing it on the big screen. The truth is, it is not a bad movie and it has a good story and a game cast of actors who bring their all to the material. But it does not take long to see this sequel tread familiar ground as the story remains the same even if the major players have changed, and the feeling of déjà vu is more prevalent than ever before.

“Dark Fate,” as you all know by now, is a direct sequel to “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and it ignores all the other movies which followed it. The movie begins with Sarah Connor suffering a tragedy much like the one Ellen Ripley suffered at the beginning of “Alien 3.” While she and her son were able to stop Judgment Day, they could never stop fate. The movie then jumps ahead 22 years when an advanced Terminator called the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) appears in Mexico City with a mission to kill Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes), a young woman who works at an automobile industrial plant. But when Dani arrives at work, she finds her job is being taken over by (surprise, surprise) a machine.

Another person arrives from the future, and her name is Grace (Mackenzie Davis). At first she appears human, but then she is shown to have superhuman strength and fighting abilities much like the average Terminator, and seeing her kick human ass is quite the sight. We later learn she is indeed human but has been augmented to become more like a cyborg, and her mission is to protect Dani from Rev-9 as Dani is set to play an important role in the future.

Sound familiar? Of course it does because this was pretty much the plot of the first two “Terminator” movies. Part of me wants to forgive this as it sets up how Skynet was completely destroyed and has since morphed into another artificial superintelligence system called Legion, and this shows how history, more often than not, repeats itself. Heaven forbid we ever learn from our mistakes, you know? We are certainly reliving a past we have not learned from right now as certain impeachment hearings have a certain Nixon feel about them. Like Snake Plissken once said, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

But while the first few minutes tread very familiar ground, “Dark Fate” really comes to life when Linda Hamilton enters the picture as an older but still battle-ready Sarah Connor. It is the first time Hamilton has appeared in a “Terminator” movie in 28 years, and it is great to have her back as she makes this iconic character of hers as badass as ever, and she has some terrific dialogue to boot. With her face weathered from years of struggle and loss, Hamilton quickly reminds us how brilliantly she embodied this character all those years ago, and with the character evolving to another level here, she shows how one with such a hardened heart can rediscover their humanity even after suffering the worst life has to offer.

And yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, and he gets to take his iconic character of the T-800 in yet another interesting direction. In “Terminator: Genisys,” he played the cyborg as one who has existed long enough to where he is no longer under warranty. In “Dark Fate,” this T-800 starts off as a cold-blooded assassin who, after a particularly shocking act, ends up developing a conscience and even becomes domesticated. Schwarzenegger gives another inspired portrayal here as he plays it straight and never for laughs, and this makes his performance all the more enjoyable. It is not the first time he has given a terminator this much heart, but his work here is particularly moving in a way it has not been for some time.

Mackenzie Davis, so luminous in “Tully,” is a powerful presence as Grace, and there is no doubt she gave her all in this role as watching her dominate the action scenes here is both physically and emotionally exhausting, just as it should be. Natalia Reyes does strong work in taking Dani from being an innocent person thrust into a situation no one could see coming to someone who accepts a role she is expected to fulfill. As for Gabriel Luna, he is good as Rev-9, but he is nowhere as menacing as Robert Patrick was as the T-1000.

Directing this installment is Tim Miller who helmed the first “Deadpool” movie, and he certainly has an interesting visual style which benefits this franchise to a point. At the same time, he is not able to bring the same visceral energy Cameron brought to the first two “Terminator” movies. Looking back, none of the other directors were able to either. Some came close, but Cameron is a rather unique filmmaker as he has given us some of the most exhilarating and adrenaline-pumping motion pictures we could ever hope to watch, and his vision of “The Terminator” is a personal one which no one can easily duplicate.

“Terminator: Dark Fate” simply feels like the same old thing with little in the way of anything new. It’s not a bad movie and it definitely has its strengths, but it serves as proof that this franchise has truly hit a dead end and really needs to be put to rest. The last few “Terminator” movies have come to us with the promise of a trilogy and of filmmakers more or less telling us that, this time, we are going to get it right. Well, this is the latest installment to see its hopes for a trilogy dashed yet again as Arnold’s dialogue of “I won’t be back” proves to be quite prophetic.

Still, we do learn of one advantage of being a terminator which the other movies never showed us: they can change diapers without complaining. If this does not impress you, what will?

* * ½ out of * * * *

Sarah Connor Returns in First Trailer for ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

I know it has been a week since this first trailer for “Terminator: Dark Fate” was unleashed upon us, but it is still on my mind. Despite the tepid critical and commercial reception for both “Terminator Salvation” and “Terminator Genisys,” there is still a vested interest for some in continuing this franchise even if the thrill of it seems to have long since disappeared. But with this movie, which is meant to be a direct sequel to “Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” we get the return of James Cameron to the franchise, and this leaves me with hope we will get “The Terminator” cinematic experience we have been expecting for far too long.

Watching this trailer is a bit disorienting as it introduces us to characters who were not in the previous movies. There’s Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) who starts off by saying how she had an easy-going life until a few days ago, and now everything for her has gone to hell. Then we have Grace (“Tully’s” Mackenzie Davis), a tough warrior who eventually proves to be more than human. And of course, there is an especially advanced Terminator pursuing them called Rev- 9 (Gabriel Luna), and he can get from one place to another even when he’s behind the wheel of a big truck.

At this point, we can tell this is a “Terminator” movie, but then a familiar face pops up. But instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, it is Linda Hamilton who returns as Sarah Connor, and it is great to see here playing this iconic character once again. What really surprised me about this trailer is how it makes Hamilton its biggest star instead of Schwarzenegger. In fact, we only see Schwarzenegger once, and it leaves me wondering if he is playing a terminator in this one or the man the T-800 was modeled after. Besides, he has facial hair this time around.

But having Hamilton here front and center was an inspired move, and she leads the cast of an action movie which looks to be dominated by female characters in the same way the “Halloween” reboot was. Is Hamilton too old to be playing Sarah Connor? Oh please, don’t even ask me such a silly question. All that matters is she’s back!

We do not, however, see John Connor in this trailer, but he is said to be in the movie and will be played by Jude Collie. Will John be in the background this time around? Will he be taken out early on? I cannot help but wonder.

I can’t say this trailer for “Terminator: Dark Fate” blew me away, but it does leave me hopeful that Cameron and “Deadpool” director Tim Miller can give us something on a par with the first two films in this series. Also, you have David Goyer as one of the screenwriters, and Junkie XL doing the film score. These are good omens, right?

Check out the trailer above. “Terminator: Dark Fate” will arrive in theaters on November 1, 2019.

Terminator Dark Fate teaser poster