The Terminator (1984)

3/5

The Terminator is James Cameron's first big movie (unless you count Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, about flying killer fish, which I have not seen and do not wish to) and you can tell he doesn't have the same technical expertise as he displays in his later movies. But you can see the nuggets of talent that enabled him to make the two most profitable films of all time. Cameron loves special effects--and there are quite a few good special effects here--but they severely date the film. And the bad special effects (e.g., the animatronic Schwarzenegger) overshadow the good ones.

Make no mistake, Schwarzenegger is the reason to see this movie. He delivers killer one-liners with aplomb and keeps the tension throughout. Unfortunately, this movie has been overshadowed by its bigger brother and sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And for good reason: the sequel is far better in just about every way. But this movie is good enough to put you on the edge of your seat and pull you in until the very end. I suppose that's enough to enjoy the movie, but it's not enough to keep it in the conversation whenever somebody mentions Terminator.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/

The Rock (1996)

4/5

Michael Bay's The Rock is one of the finest action movies made in the 90's. Yes, I know we all love to poopoo Michael Bay, but here he has actually made a movie worth watching. The plot concerns Ed Harris as a former military commander who takes hostages on Alcatrez and threatens the US government with a civilian attack as an act of patriotism. He demands payment to each family who was lied to concerning their relative's death as a black ops agent in Desert Storm. Nicolas Cage plays a dorky chemical weapons expert and Sean Connery plays an ex-SAS agent who is brought in because he was the only man to have escaped Alcatrez alive. They infiltrate Alcatrez and take down Harris in a series of wonderfully exciting action sequences.

I was actually impressed by how technically proficient the movie is. There are some really great shots and camera movements in this movie that added to the action and sense of cool. The rapid-fire editing was effective without being an eyesore, but the music emphasized the mood and atmosphere a bit too much; it could be very overbearing. The acting on the whole was excellent (Harris and Connery were on point, but Cage was a bit overdramatic) and the dialogue was always funny (half the time from good writing and half the time from bad). All in all, a very thrilling action comedy.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117500/