Review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) by Adam F — 04 Feb 2013

Even if you haven't seen the first installment (or if you didn't care for it) "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" is terrific entertainment. The movie is very cleverly set up and plays with your expectations, keeping you on your toes and consistently surprising you.

It turns up the juice on everything that was good about the first film and switches the genre from a horror film to an action film. To back up this change, James Cameron utilizes cutting-edge special effects that still hold up today.

You can find a little bit of everything here blended seamlessly, from puppetry, to computer generated imagery, to prosthetics and miniatures. There's three great car chases, several great adversaries for our heroes (so for our likeable heroes we have numerous villains that more than fit the role), some very funny moments and a lot of brains too.

The film asks a lot of smart questions like "what makes us human" and "can you judge someone for something they haven't done yet?" but introduces these subtly, so you're distracted by the gunshots and explosions and then when it slows down a bit you realize that you just heard a whole lot of intelligent dialogue too.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles and they're even better the second time around. It's without a doubt one of the great time travel films and a great action film so treat yourself and give this one a watch.

(Extended Edition on Dvd, January 30, 2013).