Schwarzenegger Week: Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Greetings action and sci-fi junkies and welcome to Day 5 of Schwarzenegger Week and time to cover one of the most beloved of the Schwarzenegger franchise. Where one incarnation of the same character was a ruthless and relentless killing machine determined to complete the mission it was sent for, this version is a steadfast, capable and implacable protector.  in the summer of 1991 we saw computer generated effects, chase scenes and gun battles that completely changed the course of storytelling and cinema.  This is Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

My hair looks good?  

The Terminator: Come with me if you want to spoil.






10 years after the first encounter of this cyborg organism, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton of Secrets of Midland Heights, King's Crossing, Tag: The Assassination Game, The Terminator, Beauty and the Beast, Silent Fall and Chuck) has been enlisted in paramilitary organizations, guerilla freedom fighters and mercenaries to teach her son, the future leader of humanity to outfight and out think Skynet and all its killer machines.  Upon blowing up a factory she was arrested and sent to a psychiatric ward.  Her son John Connor (Edward Furlong of Pet Sematary II, American Heart, A Home of Our Own, Before and After, Pecker and American History X) has been assigned to yet another foster care where he spends most of his time hitting arcades and ripping off money from ATMs to further his mallrat lifestyle.   Rather than send another machine to deal with Sarah Connor in that fixed point in time, Skynet sends a new type of Terminator called the T-1000 (Robert Patrick of Body Shot, Zero Tolerance, Double Dragon, Decoy, The Faculty, The X-Files, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Unit and From Dusk Till Dawn TV series) an entity compressed of a liquid metal with the ability to take on other forms of equal mass and fashion its limbs into stabbing weapons, it takes the form of a police officer and mimics human emotions.

The resistance knowing Skynet's intent also sends a warrior back to assist John.  The very make and model T-800 infiltrator model that was sent to dispatch Sarah Connor 10 years ago.  The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger of...  seriously?  Have you not been reading this week??  IMDB him then.)  protects and obeys John Connor in the best of its programming allows it.   Joined again by Sarah, John and the Terminator must find a way to defeat the T-1000, stop Skynet from ever being created and avert the impeding apocalypse before it is too late.

Catherine telling the Beast the relationship is over...

Just a few bits of trivia and fun facts about the movie.  This film was given a $100 million dollar budget in 1991 for Director/writer James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, Titanic and Avatar) to complete and raking in a little over 200 million at the box office, not including VHS rental, sales, special releases and the latter DVD and Blu-Ray to come.

With its level of explosions, vehicles and buildings going up like Roman candles, coupled with stuntman driving, wirework and gun battles the visual creation on just the human involvement was stellar.  Add small scale model work, blue screen effects and CGI in its infant state brought the story together.

To this date, this film is the only sequel to win an Academy Award when the original film was not even nominated.   With F/X legend Stan Winston and crew they simulated from hours of nuclear test foots to create the nightmare sequence as possible to even have several nuclear test labs declaring (unofficially of course) the most accurate portrayal of a nuclear blast created in a motion picture.   Industrial Light and Magic's cutting edge computer graphics department went from 6 artists to 36 for the T-1000 costing a little over $5 million and 8 months prep and production for about 3 and a half minutes of screen time.  Yikes, the dailies most have driven the producers nuts.

This was an immensely fun week and at the suggestion of my dad two weeks prior.  Thanks Dad, I had a blast with this one.

Hmm, may need a bit of buffing out and chassis work.

Schwarzenegger Week: Red Heat

Welcome to Day 4 of Schwarzenegger Week and it is clearly time for even more shots of Arnold's butt.  No, straight men you will have to accept this tradition that has been since The Terminator and move on.   This time around Arnold will attempt an accent that is not his own but learn some Russian and pummel even more bad guys in various state of dress.  Coupled with Jim Belushi he will thwart crime and take down the head villain.  This is Red Heat.

Keep it at 50 or we blow up!

Art Ridzik:  I'm gonna get us something from the four food spoilers: hamburgers, french fries, coffee and doughnuts.





Writer/director of action Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Crossroads, Extreme Prejudice, Johnny Handsome, Another 48 Hrs. and Last Man Standing)  give us a slew of buddy cop cliches, hard hitting one-liners and many composure of James Horner (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Krull, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Commando, Cocoon, Willow and Glory) brings a gritty and dark look the differences of countries, police work and views on life.    A Georgian drug lord Viktor Rostavili (Ed O' Ross of Lethal Weapon, Full Metal Jacket, Action Jackson, Another 48 Hrs., Universal Soldier, Dark Planet and Sorority Party Massacre) is being led into a trap via Captain Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger of Raw Deal, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Dave, True Lies, T2 3-D: Battle Across Time and Batman & Robin) only to have to tables turn as Rosta's men gun down more than a few of the Soviet cops including Danko's partner.  Yes, now he made it personal and so on.

Well it's August.  Of course I am sweaty.

 Rosta makes his way to the States and lands in Chicago to peddle his wares when CPD gets wind of it and nabs him up.  Assigned to a plethora of murders with Rosta's m.o. Detective Art Ridzik (James Belushi of Salvador, The Principal, Real Men, K-9, Taking Care of Business, Last Action Hero and According to Jim) is there to represent Chicago PD as a prisoner transfer to Danko is to take place when Rosta's men strike again and now Ridzik looses his partner.  Double jeopardy babies!!  The two completely different cops team up in good faith and pursue Rosta and his lackeys up and down over half of Chicago causing more than their fair share of destruction to public and private property and have several shoot-outs in the process.

A few notes on the film itself if you will.

 This Hodge podge collection of action and pithy comments has more than the usual cadre of stars in it including: Gina Gershon, Laurence Fishburne, Peter Boyle and Arnold's weightlifting and sparring buddy Sven-Ole Thorsen.    I swear that guy has been in every Arnold flick to the day.  So the concept of the film is not exactly original.  Two cops from different sides of the track (or countries) are forced to team, argue, snipe, bitch, work together and become buddies by the end of the film.

Okay the formula has been used numerous times by even our director but it works.  We have action, some comedic moments and Arnold looks like a stone face golem, hell bent on crushing his chosen opponent and Belushi is really along for the ride.  I do not discount the humor and attitude he brings to the picture but it is hard to look like a bad ass next to Schwarzenegger...  unless you are Stallone.

Ivan Danko: Pro Vodka.

Schwarzenegger Week: The Running Man

Day 3 of Schwarzenegger Week is here!  Are you folks tired of over-the-top acting and ridiculous violence??!!  No?  Well then it is time we look to the future of law enforcement, crime and punishment.  With overpopulation, a lack of jobs and healthcare how do we give the people what they want?  How about an old Roman classic with a gladiatorial fight to the death?  This is The Running Man.

Survey says, " LET'S PLAY THE RUNNING MAN!"

Ben Richards: I told Killian I would be back.  I don't want to be a spoiler.








The year is 2017 and the global economy has completely collapsed leaving countries to fend for themselves as America as you knew it is now a police state censoring all forms of media and activity.  To keep the populace pacified a series of TV shows are at the ready to remove convicts from our gene pool in daily game shows.   The most popular is The Running Man hosted by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson of The Devil's Brigade, Hogan's Heroes, Love, American Style, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Hong Kong Phooey) and boy has he handed a whopper of a contestant.  Former police pilot Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger of  The Streets of San Francisco, Scavenger Hunt, Conan the Destroyer, Commando, Predator and Total Recall) flew overhead of a food riot in Bakersfield, his superior instructs him to mow them down and he refuses. His own men jump and bind him while cutting civilians down.

Yeesh, Sub-Zero really let himself go.

Framed for their deaths and stuck in a labor camp he makes a jail break with his inmate friends tough guy Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto of Live and Let Die, Roots, Alien, Othello, For Love and Honor and Homicide: Life on the Street) and tech geek Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre of Short Circuit, Project X, The Presido, Twins and Back to the Future Part III).  The three part ways when Richards says he just wants to live the quiet life and hang out with his brother.  He discovers his brother's apartment has been re-leased to another tenant Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso of Moscow on the Hudson, Fear City, Blood Ties, Colors, Vampire's Kiss, Predator 2 and Roosters) and she knows him to be a mad dog killer of women and children. Amber alerts (tee hee) the police and security to capture Richards and Killian gets our boy for the show.  Will Richards race to the finish or will he just be dead meat on the side of the road?

Some fun trivia about the film at this time.  The novel, The Running Man written by novelist Stephen King of which the movie is very loosely based on was written in about 72 hours.  

Arnold's campaign bus was titled running man for Governor.  Supporting character of the Resistance consisted of Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and Rocker Frank Zappa's son Dweezil both wanting to check out Arnold and be in an action flick.

It is said that the inspiration for American Gladiators came from this movie and not a history book.  Hell at least they didn't channel either concept's lethal obstacles.  

Need a painful pun?

Schwarzenegger Week: Predator

Howdy folks and welcome back to Schwarzenegger Week as we view an action/sci-fi hybrid taking the best of both genres and directed by veteran action guru (John McTiernan of Nomads, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, The 13th Warrior, The Thomas Crown Affair remake and Rollerball remake) who brings his experience and expertise to the table.  This is Predator.

Told you it wasn't a gopher!

Poncho: You're bleeding, man.
Blain: I ain't got time to bleed.
Poncho: Oh... Okay...
Poncho: You got time to spoil?



An elite special ops team lead by Major Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger of The Jayne Mansfield Story, Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, Twins, True Lies, Eraser and End of Days) assigned by a Major General character actor/mentor/path provider with a joint CIA mission to get a presidential cabinet member free from guerrilla forces.

Dutch's team consist of Sgt Mac Elliot (Bill Duke of American Gigolo, Palmerstown, U.S.A., Commando, No Man's Land, Action Jackson, Bird on a Wire, Payback, The Limey and Exit Wounds) Blain Cooper (Governor Jesse Ventura of WrestleMania III, The Running Man, Thunderground, Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe, Ricochet and Major League II) Billy Sole (Sonny Landham of Blood Bath, The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Firewalker, Action Jackson, Maximum Force and Lock Up) Poncho (Richard Chaves of Witness, Ohara, War of the Worlds, Night Eyes II, Night Realm and Dark House)  and Hawkins (writer/actor Shane Black of Night of the Creeps, Dead Heat, Robocop 3, Night Realm, As Good as It Gets, Monkeys and Any Day).  Working with CIA contact in Central America is Dutch's old buddy Dillon (Carl Weathers of Rocky,  Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Force 10 From Navarone, Rocky II, Rocky III, Action Jackson, Tour of Duty and In the Heat of the Night) who is in charge of the mission.

It's got Betty Davis Eyes!

No sooner does the crew hoof it through the jungle they find a downed helicopter with the skinned remains of an Army Special Forces team lead by Dutch's friend Hopper.  Dillon clams up on it and claims they should have never been out here.  They hit a rebel encampment hard, smoking these poor schmucks like a pack of Marlboros spraying the  camp with enough lead to block Superman's peepers.

Dutch finally confronts Dillon over the inconsistencies to his story and Dillon tells them their were CIA Agents nabbed by guerrillas.  the spec ops team went in to find and rescue and well we know how well that went.  

Back on the move, the team can almost feel eyes on them.  Hawkins is watching the prisoner the team picked up when something appears out of the jungle and runs Hawkins through leaving the female prisoner unharmed.   What else is out there?  Is it another guerrilla they missed or has another chess piece been added to the board?

A few comments and trivia about the film now.  Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast to play the Predator but was dropped by McTierran due to his relentless complaining.  Such the diva our Van Damme.  After Dutch skewers a bad guy against the post with his machete, Arnold drops his one-liner "Stick around" purely by improv.

 Between rough terrain, humidity, snakes, leeches and freezing cold night shoots, the actors almost threw in the towel.  Schwarzenegger especially with the cold mud smeared over his face, arms and torso.  Schnapps kept him warmer but also got him a wee bit hammered.  Who says you can't drink on the job?

Be vewy, vewy quiet.

Schwarzenegger Week: Commando

And thus starts the Week of Schwarzenegger!!!  Hmm, I should have smoke and explosions when I speak like that.  Oh well.  Today's film evolves a military coup, kidnapping, a few dozen or so deaths, some property damage in multiple locations and some memorable one-liners.  Some familiar faces will be added to your Schwarzenegger roster as reoccurring actors in whatever project he had in mind and some need for disbelief how one man could cause this level of carnage.  Director Mark L. Lester (Class of 1984, Firestarter, Armed and Dangerous, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Double Take and White Rush)  would like you to take this wild ride of puns and pain. This is Commando.

HE CUTS DOWN TREES!!! HE SKIPS AND JUMPS!!! 

Gen. Kirby: Leave anything for us?
John Matrix: Just spoilers.








The first 4 minutes of our movie opens with multiple homicides with different techniques and methods.  Former Delta Force Colonel John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger of The Terminator, Red Sonja, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man, Red Heat, Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgement Day) gets a heads up flyby (which given I think the general was under surveillance) by his former superior General Kirby (character actor James Olson of moon Zero Two, The Andromeda Strain, Maude, The Streets of San Francisco, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman and Lou Grant) that members of his unit of commandos have been systematically wiped out due to some mercenary outfit.  To what end?  Kirby doesn't know... yet but in the meantime he assigns a watch detail of two whole men to watch Matrix's back and flutters away.

I miss my Road Warrior assless chaps.  Oh well.

A slight sound and Matrix drops to the ground as the elite bad ass bodyguards are cut up pretty bad.  Matrix makes it to his tool shed for weapons with the mercs lead by a former member of his unit, Bennett (Vernon Wells of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Weird Science, Fortress, Nam Angels, Space Truckers and Misfit Patrol) grab and kidnap his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano of Who's the Boss, Embrace of the Vampire, Fear, Melrose Place, Charmed, Romantically Challenged and Mistresses) at the orders of osted warlord Arius (Dan Hedaya of The Adventures of Buckaroo Across the 8th Dimension, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, The Addams Family, Cheers, Maverick and To Die For) that Matrix help overthrow is demanding he take out his replacement and put him back into power.

He is given 11 hours maximum to fly and make it to South America and put a bullet in Arius's successor.  Dispatching his guard/escort, Matrix makes his way off the plane heads back to find his daughter.  This plan works due to no cell or car phones.  Snagging an off-duty flight attendant Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong of Fear City, The Color Purple, Soul Man, Time Runner, Melrose Place, Highlander and Poltergeist: The Legacy) to captivate one of Arius' men so he can flog the info out of him.  Will he get to his daughter in time?  Will the contacts in South America give his position away?

And now that annoying fun fact thing I do.   The shopping mall in these sequences of Arnold bounding and be huge is Sherman Oaks Galleria and is also later used in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.  54 stunt performers had to be brought into production which is 17 more people than the screen cast.  
Nick Nolte was the original choice for John Matrix but Schwarzenegger was cast instead.   Raul Julia was intended for Arius but producer Joel Silver (The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Jumpin' Jack Flash, Lethal Weapon, Predator, Action Jackson, Die Hard and Road House) wanted Dan Hedaya for the part.

NRA spokesman had this to say...

Schwarzenegger Week: Action and One-liners

Greeting readers aboard and near.   I thought we would take in a few action flicks starring a former Mr. Olympia to marrying a Kennedy to becoming Governor of California.  Not bad for a guy people claim to not understand when he talks.  Yes, I speak of the 6'3" Austrian Oak or Conan the Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The first successful cybernetic organism!

Seven-time Mr. Olympian and five-time Mr. Universe striven to make it in Hollywood.   With a few stinkers such as Hercules in New York, the campy western The Villain and Stay Hungry.  Meeting with writer/director John Milius (Jeremiah Johnson Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, 1941, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn and Farewell to the King) to tackle the iconic pulp fiction barbarian savage known only as Conan of Cimmeria.  Milius had seen Stay Hungry and was marveling that the sheer size of Schwarzenegger and wondered if he could act for a big budgeted Dino De Laurentiis film based on Robert E. Howard's creation.

From Milius to James Cameron, Schwarzenegger proceed to rocket up the celebrity status alongside his competition of Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis starting a business chain of restaurants with movie memorabilia Planet Hollywood became a huge success.

With the latter years have a few scandals and hiccups down the road, the Govenator heads back to the cinema and to the subject matter that had made his career with Stallone's Expendables, The Last Stand and Sabotage.  It took him a bit to get where he is so chances are he is not walking away without a fight.

Obamacare allows for cyborgs!!! Lissen to MEEEEE!!!

Post Apocalypse Week: The Terminator

Welcome back you survivors of the psychic wars to Day 5 of Post Apocalypse Week.  We've had a slippery slope of outbreaks, nuclear wars, landscapes gone to madness and zombie incursions.   Why not round this week out with a war against the machines?  So bring out your Talkie Toasters, grab your digital watches and your MP3 players to the slag pit.  This is The Terminator.

Bad boys indeed.

Kyle Reese: Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever until you are spoiled.


In the far away year of 2029, A.I. machines search and destroy the remnants of humanity.  A supercomputer known only as Skynet is a self-aware and sentient machine that was designed to detour World War III actually initiates the nuclear holocaust feeling the planet is imperfect with these beings roaming about it.  One man, John Connor leads the pockets of humanity against the machines and has overthrown them but not before Skynet sends a cybernetic organism coated in artificial skin to find and kill John's mother before his birth.  The Resistance sends one of their own , Kyle Reese (Michael Behn of Aliens, The Abyss, Navy Seals, The Rock, Insatiable and Kickback) to 1984 to protect John's mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton of Beauty and the Beast, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Separate Lives, Dante's Peak, A Girl Thing and Smile) with no back-up or future based weapons but only what he can find here and now.   The machine (Arnold Shwarzenegger of Conan the Barbarian, Predator, Raw Deal, Red Heat, Total Recall, True Lies and Eraser) systematically goes through the local phone book and proceeds to wipe out Sarah Connors until he has removed them all.  The machine stands at 6'2 and almost 220 lbs in the chest alone and you would think stood out but it actually knew a little subterfuge.  

I'M GETTING RING DINGS AND THAT IS FINAL!!!

Kyle saves Sarah from a night club onslaught as the Terminator is not fussy about civilian casualties in the least.  They go on the run and Kyle tells Sarah of the future to come and the hope to stop the machines from their terrible mission alongside his commanding officer.  He views Sarah as this warrior legend that gave her son the means, tools and skills to fight back and to not go into the gentle good night.

I had just a few observations of the film at this time.   One of the biggest sponsors of this movie was Gargoyles as they were the shades Schwarzenegger wore and their sales that year and the next 3 went through the roof thanks to the popularity of the film.

Michael Biehn almost did not get the roles for Reese as in his first audition he spoke in a Southern accent due to working on a stage production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the producers didn't want Reese region based.  His agent cleared it up for the producers, rescheduled him another audition which was a slam dunk for him.   Tom Selleck, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas and Mel Gibson were all considered for the role of the Terminator but they all declined.  Kicking yourselves a bit there, fellas?

Amway is back, honey! Bolt the door!