******SUBMERGED SPOILERS AHEAD!!****** Lost in the Abyss. 1989 was unquestionably the Summer of “Batman”. Everywhere you looked there was Batman-product; Batman cereal, a resurgence of comic book sales, toys, collectibles, and the late (great) Prince’s “Batdance” dominated the air waves. There were other big movies that summer; “Ghostbusters 2,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,”…
Tag: JamesCameron
Rejudging “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” 30 years later…
Pre-Judgment (1984). *****TERMINAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** Way back in late fall of 1984, I remember my sister coming home to tell us about a movie she just saw called “The Terminator” (1984). The title didn’t impress me at all, because it sounded like a million other cheapie action-exploitation movies on shelves of video stores at that…
“ALIENS” (1986) took a lone monster and turned it into an army…
Haunted House In Space. Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece “ALIEN” took a simple, 1950s ‘monster on a spaceship’ B-movie story and wrapped it in glossy, A-movie production design and quality. Its status among fans has since become legendary, on a par with horror films such as “The Exorcist” and “Psycho” as well as sci-fi…
“Battle Beyond The Stars” (1980); Roger Corman’s scrappy, campy answer to Star Wars turns 40…
The Clone Wars. Following the unexpected success of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” in 1977 (“A New Hope” wouldn’t be added to the title until years later), studios big and small were scrambling to create their own space operas. Some were embarrassingly obvious in their mimicry (Luigi Cozzi’s “Starcrash”), others gained their own cult followings (Glen…
“Terminator: Dark Fate” offers yet another quasi-reboot of the Terminator multiverse…
****MIMETIC POLYALLOY SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.. For those keeping score, the Terminator franchise (much like “ALIEN” & “ALIENS”) has two seemingly immutable entries; 1984’s original “The Terminator” and its amped-up sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991). Both are classics of sci-fi action cinema. The post…
Requiem for a nightmare; James Cameron’s “The Terminator” (1984)…
“What day is it? The date! What year?” October 26th, 1984. I still remember my sister coming home raving about a movie she saw with her then-boyfriend in the fall of 1984. It was a new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and the next day she was telling me all about how truly good and scary it…
Where did the once-brilliant ALIEN franchise go so wrong?
With the imminent release of “ALIEN: Covenant” (coming in May) I wanted to discuss the ALIEN franchise in general. But I became more intrigued by this question: at what point did this once brilliant franchise go so wrong? The first two films are unabashed classics. As ALIENS director James Cameron has said, ‘the first movie…