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DVD Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (Full Screen Edition)
With a reported budget of $172 million, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines starts in high gear and never slows down. The apocalyptic "Judgment Day" of T2 was never prevented, only postponed: John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacing T2's Edward Furlong), now 22 and disconnected from society, is being pursued yet again, this time by the advanced T-X, a sleek "Terminatrix" (coldly expressionless Kristanna Loken) programmed to stop Connor from becoming the savior of humankind. Originally programmed as an assassin, a disadvantaged T-101 cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger, bidding fond farewell to his signature role) arrives from the future to join Connor and his old acquaintance Kate (Claire Danes) in thwarting the T-X's relentless pursuit. The plot presents a logical fulfillment of T2 prophesy, disposing of Connor's mother (Linda Hamilton is sorely missed) while computer-driven machines assume control, launching a nuclear nightmare that Connor must survive. With Breakdown and U-571 serving as worthy rehearsals for this cautionary epic of mass destruction, director Jonathan Mostow wisely avoids any stylistic connection to James Cameron's Terminator classics; instead he's crafted a fun, exciting popcorn thriller, humorous and yet still effectively nihilistic, and comparable to Jurassic Park III in returning the Terminator franchise to its potent B-movie roots. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (Full Screen Edition)
this movie is HOT!
this movie is the bomb. Kristanna Loken sizzles in her first role as the T-X. Arnold Schwarzeneggar as always does an excellent job as the T-101. at the end of the movie, a lot of bombs fall, which is why I say this movie is the bomb. Arnold became a governor so don't expect any other movie to come from him.
Why Arnie Is The Great One...Arnie: The Man, The Myth, The Legend
While sitting through the obligatory watching of Collateral Damage the other weekend, I found myself thinking "This isn't really a very good movie, so why am I sitting here?" In case you didn't know, Collateral Damage is one of Arnold's Hollywood offering. In this particular movie, Arnold's family is killed when a Columbian terrorist bombs a prominent American building. When the government doesn't seem to want to do too much to avenge the death of his family, Arnold takes matters into his own hands (what else did you expect?). OK, so I knew that was coming. But the next thing I knew, Arnold was hiking across Columbia and taking on the Columbian Guerrilas on their own turf, by himself. Now, I've seen probably every Arnold movie in existance, and I've seen him do some pretty farfetched things... but this took the cake. Collateral Damage was kind of a disappointment. The thing that got me thinking in the first place was that I KNEW it wasn't going to be a very good movie. Something in my mind told me before I even left "Hey, don't spend £10 on this movie, you know it's not going to live up to Raw Deal standards!" But did I listen? Of course not! Why? Because it's an Arnold movie!
OK, I have a policy when it comes to going to movies, and believe me when I tell you that it's not very strict. Basically, if it doesn't feature Freddie Prinze Jr., a member of any boy band, or look like a chick flick, I'll go to it. I paid good money to see Dracula 2000 so that ought to tell you that I don't really care what I watch. However, there are some movies that I HAVE to see. These movies are the ones that I try my damndest to make it to on opening night, show up early so I get prime seating, and try to coax my friends into coming with me. Movies of this nature need only meet one of three criteria, as follows :
Movies that achieve 'Must-See' status in Der Dukes book:
1.) Any movie that contains Ah-nuld.
2.) Any movie that contains Sylvester Stallone.
3.) Any movie that contains Rachael Leigh Cook.
Therefore, according to rule #1, I HAD to buy and watch Collateral Damage. For all of you out there who are snickering and say "This guy paid to see She's All That!?", keep in mind that the criteria was really put to the test when Rachel Leigh Cook starred opposite Freddie Prinze, Jr., but I reached a compromise by only renting it when it went down to the 7-day rentals and not paying to see it in the theatres. So THERE!
Why do I have this system of movie-going standards? It's quite simple really, no one can put on a show like Ah-nuld, and not many chicks look as good as Ms. Cook. Now, you may make a case that Arnold isn't the best actor... you may say that he lacks any acting range... you may even say that he's too old. In all three cases I wouldn't argue with you. I'm not jaded enough to think that Arnold should be nominated for an Oscar, I don't go to their movies for the engaging plot, the excellent character development, and the terrific climax. Hell, no! I go for the laughs! I go for the things that you might not realize makes a movie starring one of these two actors great! So, if you've ever had troubles enjoying a movie that featured Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, let me help you out by listing the things that make their movies great.
What makes Arnold movies so great?
1.) "We've gaht to get owda he-ah!"
First and foremost, Arnold's catchphrase is the number one reason to go to an Arnold flick. During every Arnold movie, I hang on every word he speaks. Why? Because sometime, during every single Arnold movie ever made, Arnold shouts out his classic phrase "We've gaht to get owda he-ah!" His accent is what makes it great and it never ceases to crack me up. While the phrase might not be EXACTLY like that, you can almost bet your bottom dollar there will be some variation of it during the course of the movie. Other popular variations include "Let's get owda he-ah!", "Come on, let's get owda he-ah!", or - as was the case in Collateral Damage - "Theahs a BOMB in he-ah!"
I am almost positive that that phrase (or any variataion thereof) must be included in every single movie Arnold acts in. If it's not, Arnold won't act. He probably has it written into his contractual demands. A meeting between Arnold and a movie exec would go something like this:
Movie Exec : Ok Arnold, here's the deal. In this movie, you star as a battle-hardened war veteran. On a mission to South Korea, you single handedly disable the entire Korean army, disarm 15 nuclear missiles by yourself - using only a pair of wire clippers - then you rescue the soldiers from the POW camp while facing off against a mutant alien from another planet! In the end, you kill him by throwing a grenade made up of baking soda and vinegar! Total kill count is upwards of 66,000!
Arnold : **Flipping through the script.** I like it... I like it... BUT THEAH IS A PLOBLEM WIT DIS SCRIPT!
Movie Exec : What's wrong?! You get to kill an insane amount of people, flex your oiled up biceps, carry a log on your shoulder, drive a truck with no brakes down a steep incline, and do battle with a space alien who possesses technology unknown to man! We've fulfilled all of your contractual demands!
Arnold : You've fulfilled all but ONE! "WE'VE GAHT TO GET OWDA HE-AH!" If it's not in theah, I'm OWDA HE-AH!
2.) Arnold's great one-liners.
Few can deliver the one-liner better than Arnie. In just about every movie, he's got to spout off a few one-liners. Usually it's just after he kills someone, so you really get to appreciate the great sense of humour Arnold has. Let me tell you about my favorite Arnold one-liners:
Great one-liner #1:
Early on in the movie Commando, Arnold tells one of the bad guys that he likes him so much that he's going to kill him last. Later on, Arnold catches up with the same guy and runs his Porsche off the road, then he holds him upside down over the edge of a very steep cliff. In this particular scene, Arnold mutters not one, but TWO delicious one-liners.
Arnold : Hey Sully, remember when I said I would kill you last? I Lied!
**Arnold lets go of Sully and Sully falls to his death.**
Great one-liner #2 (Same scene!):
**Arnold walks back to the car.**
Girl : What did you do to him?
Arnold : I let him go! (BRILLIANT!)
Great one-liner #3:
The final fight scene in Commando takes place between Arnold and the main bad guy, Bennett, in a boiler room. Arnold ends up throwing a steel pipe javelin-style at Bennett, and it impales him. When we see Bennett, we see the pipe sticking out of him has also ruptured one of the boilers behind him and steam is shooting out of the exposed end. Arnold mutters "Let off some steam, Bennett!"
Great one-liner #4:
As Arnold and his cronies bust up a terrorst camp in the jungle, Arnold is rummaging through a hut when he sees someone beside him. He pulls his knife out and throws it at his adversary, killing him and at the same time pinning him to a wooden beam. What does Arnold have to say about this? "Stick around!"
Do you see the utter hilarity in all of these? You can't help but laugh when Arnold cracks a joke just after murdering someone!
3.) Action, action, everywhere!
If you're going to an Schwarzenegger movie to be enthralled with the plot, you are an idiot. I go to Arnold movies because I know I won't have to think for at least 90 minutes. Many times I don't want to go to a movie like Arlington Road that makes me think too hard... I just want to see a guy wielding a machine gun kill at least 150 other men. In addition, I like explosions. I'm a pyro at heart, and I know the simple mathematical equation - Arnold + starring role in a movie = explosions. Guys like to see stuff blowing up, and I'm no different. Whether it's Arnie tossing grenades, filling light bulbs up with gasoline, or detonating remote bombs, I know if I want to see lots of things go boom, all I have to do is look for Arnold's name on the movie poster.
4.) The 'dying breed' factor.
Only in the 80's could a guy like Arnold rise to superstardom. Face it, the guy looks like a genetic freak, he's probably spent more money on steroids than I'll see in a lifetime, he's not that great of an actor, and he's very much a one-dimensional actor (say what you want, but Kindergarten Cop was NOT a funny movie). Do you think movies like Raw Deal and Commando would be mega-hits in this day and age? Not a chance. Sure, many of us still go to action-movies, but the reality is the only thing movie studios cater to these days are pre-pubescent girls, and I don't know if too many 13 year old girls think Arnold is "Like, SOOOOOO HOT!" 9 out of 10 movies that come out nowadays are teenybopper flicks with PG-ratings. However, Arnold is one of the few actors that defines the 'action movie'. How many new action-movie stars have there been in recent years? I can't think of a single one off the top of my head. I thought there might be some hope for Josh Hartnett after seeing Blackhawk Down, but then I saw him in a preview for some stupid-ass teen movie entitled '40 days and 40 nights' (or something like that). Face it, when Arnie, Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Steven Seagal die, we may never see another action-movie star again. As such, as these guys get older and make fewer movies, the testosterone factor of movies continues to drop at an alarming rate.
OK, so we've established some pretty darn good reasons why Arnold movies are just so good. Granted, he's appeared in some pretty bad movies by ALL standards, but if someone paid me 15 million I'd appear in a show like Jingle All The Way too!
More a Remake than a Sequel
Seen as an action vehicle. Terminator 3 is perfectly adequate. There is a level of adrenaline-pumping violence that's been missing from the screen for some time. There is a chase scene that has briskly upped the ante for onscreen automotive violence. The various robots, drones, tanks, etc are all suitably lethal, and TX's bag of tricks is impressively inventive. Kristanna Loken is beautiful and perfectly serviceable in her role, and she looks great naked.
However, as the next chapter of the Terminator series and as an immediate sequel to one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, T3 falls flat. There is a curiously dated feel to this film. Somehow it seems more like something made in 1973 than 2003. What is lacking is Jim Cameron's epic vision. What made T2 so legendary was the feeling you were watching an epic of Biblical proportions unfold. The intensity of Linda Hamilton's performance has no equal in T3, and even Arnold seems quite a bit diminished in conviction. Nick Stahl is a great actor, but lacks the manic nervous energy that Edward Furlong brought to the role of John Conner. Claire Danes is feisty, but we are given no real reason to care about her and the rest of the cast seems like something of out a Charlton Heston film, circa 1975.
What will grate on fans of T2 is how many of the same riffs are recycled from that earlier film. Loken's TX is no real innovation on Robert Patrick's T1000, and in fact the same notes are hit repeatedly, the morphing, the bulletwounds, the impersonation of loved ones. We have the same exposition when the characters appear and even the roadhouse scene from T2 is recycled (albeit humorously). We see John Conner on a motorcycle. We see the "flashbacks" from future battles. The climatic Terminator battle and ultimate sacrifice of Arnold's character is sequentially different but feels utterly the same. We've been here before, and we've seen it done better. Much better.
The film ends on a curiously "Planet of the Apes" note, as if director Jonathan Mostow was taking his atmospheric cues from that series rather than the original Terminator films. By that time, you won't care much. As a fix for cheap action thrills, T3 is perfectly serviceable. As a sequel to the Terminator epic, it's utterly forgettable.
Related DVD's Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (Full Screen Edition)
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Despite the inevitable law of diminishing returns, The Matrix Revolutions is quite satisfying as an adrenalized action epic, marking yet another milestone in the exponential evolution of computer-generated special effects. That may not be enough to satisfy hardcore Matrix fans who turned the Wachowski Brothers' hacker mythology into a quasi-religious pop-cultural phenomenon, but there's no denying that the trilogy goes out with a cosmic bang instead of the whimper that many expected. Picking up precisely where The Matrix Reloaded left off, this 130-minute finale finds Neo (Keanu Reeves) at a virtual junction, defending the besieged human enclave of Zion by confronting the attacking machines on their home turf, while humans combat swarms of tentacled mechanical... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Larry Wachowski - Andy Wachowski DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Considering the lofty expectations that preceded it, The Matrix Reloaded triumphs where most sequels fail. It would be impossible to match the fresh audacity that made The Matrix a global phenomenon in 1999, but in continuing the exploits of rebellious Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) as they struggle to save the human sanctuary of Zion from invading machines, the codirecting Wachowski brothers have their priorities well in order. They offer the obligatory bigger and better highlights (including the impressive "Burly Brawl" and freeway chase sequences) while remaining focused on cleverly plotting the middle of a brain-teasing trilogy that ends with The Matrix Revolutions. The metaphysical underpinnings can be dismissed... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Andy Wachowski - Larry Wachowski DVD Release Date: Released the 14 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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