Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Year of Release:  1991
Director:  James Cameron
Screenplay:  James Cameron and William Wisher
Starring:  Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Running Time:  137 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, action,

In the year 2029, a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles is a battlefield in an ongoing war between a small group of human resistance fighters and the machines controlled by the vast computer system known as Skynet.  In a last ditch attempt to destroy the resistance, Skynet sends a liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 Terminator (Patrick) back in time to the 1990s  to kill the ten year old John Connor (Furlong), who would grow up lead the resistance.  The resistance, however, is able to send a reprogrammed older model T-800 Terminator (Schwarzenegger) back in time to act as the young Connor's protector.  John, the T-800 and John's mother Sarah (Hamilton) - the target of a failed assassination attempt ten years earlier - are forced into a desperate struggle to survive, and possibly save the future.

Whereas The Terminator (1984) was a modestly budgeted science-fiction chase movie, everything here is bigger including the action, the budget, the length and Schwarzenegger himself who, alongside director James Cameron, really broke through to the action "A" list with The Terminator.  Terminator 2 was groundbreaking in it's day for it's visual effects, particularly it's use of CGI which was really still in it's infancy in 1991, it was also the most expensive movie ever made up to that time (although Cameron himself has broken that record several times since).  It broke box-office records and remains one of the most iconic films of the 1990s.  Although, of course, bigger doesn't necessarily mean better, but this really does improve upon the original, building on and expanding the world and the themes of the first.  The tone of the film is surprisingly downbeat and bleak, with the characters not being particularly likable most of the time, although when your chased by an unkillable, shapeshifting robot that exists solely to kill you, and you know for a fact that the world is about to be annihilated in a couple of years, you could probably be forgiven for having a case of the grumpys.  The performances are good, with Schwarzenegger delivering one of his most memorable appearances.  Schwarzenegger is an actor of limited range, but he knows what those limitations are and he plays to his strengths, and what he does well, he does better than anyone.  Linda Hamilton gives an intense performance as the traumatised Sarah Connor, a world away from the cute, fluffy waitress from the beginning  of the first film, she's almost a human Terminator here.  Edward Furlong made his acting debut as the ten year old John Connor and turns in a fine performance.  The action is spectacular, and the special effects, surprisingly, have aged very well and still hold up today.  Full of memorable moments, this is one of the best movies of the 1990s.

He'll be back:  Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgement Day

  
 

Fire in the Sky

Year: 1993
Director: Robert Lieberman
Screenplay: Tracy Torme, based on the book The Walton Experience by Travis Walton
Starring: D. B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, James Garner, Craig Sheffer, Peter Berg, Henry Thomas
Running Time: 109 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, mystery, drama

Summary: In 1975, a group of loggers are working in the White Mountains area of Arizona, near the small town of Snowflake. As they make their way home the men notice a strange large, glowing object, floating beside the road. One of the group, Travis Walton (Sweeney) leaves the truck to investigate, and is struck and knocked out by a beam of light. The other drive off in a panic, believing Walton to be dead. When the group's leader, and Walton's best friend, Mike Rogers (Patrick) returns to the site to find him, he discovers that Walton has vanished.
Naturally, no-one believes their story and the general opinion is that the group murdered Walton, and suspicious Lieutenant Frank Watters (Garner), in particular, is keen to see the men behind bars, especially Allan Dallis (Sheffer) a drifter with a violent criminal record who was working with the group and was known to dislike Walton.
As the pressure on the group mounts from both the police and the community the story becomes a media sensation. A sensation which only intensifies when a deeply traumatised Walton turns up after five days, naked and with apparently no memory of what happened to him while he was missing.

Opinions: This film is based on the true story of Travis Walton who was allegedly abducted by a UFO in 1975. The Walton case is one of the most famous in the annals of ufology, mainly due to the fact that the abduction itself had several witnesses and that Walton was missing for several days.
The film is interesting in the fact that the UFO and alien scenes are mostly downplayed with much of the running time focusing on the impact of the events on Walton's friends and family and the police and media investigations. The most notable aspect of the film are the nightmarish sequences aboard the alien spacecraft, which differ wildly from Walton's account (Tracy Torme, the film's screenwriter, claimed that the studio executives found Walton's account boring and insisted on the changes). The spacecraft sequences are genuinely imaginative and disturbing and have made the film something of a cult movie among science-fiction fans.
The film is well cast with familiar, solid character actors. The film would probably have been more successful if it had been released a couple of years later to tie in with the increased interest in alien phenomenon caused by the success of the TV series The X-Files (1993-2002).
Whether you believe Travis Walton's account or not, or even believe in alien abduction or not, the blend of science-fiction and police procedural should help the film appeal to more than science-fiction fans.


"They took him."
- Mike Rogers (Robert Patrick) explains the situation in Fire in the Sky



Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney) in Fire in the Sky

The Faculty

Year: 1998
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Screenplay: Kevin Williamson, from a story by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Shawn Hatosy, Robert Patrick, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Salma Hayek, Daniel von Bargen, Usher Raymond
Running Time: 104 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, horror

Summary: Herrington High School is a perfectly normal school in Ohio. The star quarterback, Stan (Hatosy), wants to quit sports to concentrate on his academic work. Stan's girlfriend, Delilah (Brewster), is the head cheerleader and editor of the school paper. The frequently bullied Casey (Wood) photographs for the newspaper and has a massive unrequited crush on Delilah. Zeke (Hartnett) is a very intelligent but lacklustre student, preferring to concentrate on selling fake IDs, pornographic videos and his own home-made drugs to his fellow students. While goth girl and science-fiction fan Stokely (DuVall) is happy being left alone. Meanwhile new girl Marybeth (Harris) is just trying to fit in and make friends in the new school.
However, they soon become aware of strange changes taking place in the behaviour of the staff and fellow students. They quickly begin to realise that the faculty and most of the students are being infected by mind-controlling alien parasites. The problem is finding out who is infected and who isn't and whether there is any way to stop the parasites before it's too late.

Opinions: A mix of science-fiction, horror and teenage high-school comedy-drama, this film is an entertaining blend of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Thing (1982) and The Breakfast Club (1985) all of which are explicitly referenced.
The screenplay is by Kevin Williamson, who at the time was one of the hottest scriptwriters in Hollywood having written Scream (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream 2 (1998) as well as creating the TV series Dawson's Creek (1998-2003). The film features many Williamson hallmarks such as quick-witted dialogue, multiple pop-culture references as well as Williamson's genuine interest in and liking for his teen characters.
The movie benefits a lot from Robert Rodriguez's typically stylish and fast-moving direction. The main cast of young, up and coming actors are effective and receive good support from their more established adult co-stars, including Robert Patrick as the enjoyably sinister Coach, and Famke Janssen as a repressed English teacher. Also comedian, satirist, TV presenter and host of The Daily Show Jon Stewart appears as a science teacher and there is also a cameo from Harry Knowles, founder and maintainer of movie news and review site Ain't It Cool News.
This is an enjoyable and interesting variation on some familiar themes. Also a high school, with it's emphasis on conformity and the pressure to fit in, is a perfect setting for "mind-control" horror.



Shawn Hatosy, Josh Hartnett, Laura Harris, Clea DuVall and Elijah Wood in The Faculty