Entertainor

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2014)

As with the first Terminator this was recommended to me by a friend at work simply because I'd never seen it. I wasn't too impressed with no. 1 and told him I wouldn't be back but he insisted that no. 2 was much better with a stronger production and is even in the IMDb top 40 films of all time. Well, he was absolutely right, but I'm glad he's moving on because I just haven't got the stamina to keep going through all of his testosterone-fuelled favourite choices.
It's a revision on no. 1 with a bad robot sent from the future to terminate a young boy to prevent him from growing up into an important good guy, and with a good robot also sent from the future to protect the boy. Much mayhem involving many pulverised vehicles and a tidy amount of broken glass ensues as the lad, his Mum and his rather straight faced Uncle Bob spend the picture trying to escape from the bad robot's steely clutches. Arnie being a descendant of the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz, beguilingly indicates he may also have a heart, it's certainly melting by the end. It helped that the music was way less dated than no. 1, and that cgi was rearing its shiny head by the time this was made. On the other hand cgi cartoonery gave Cameron & Co. a greater opportunity to portray gratuitous brutality, which they used with gusto – was there really a point in showing the good Samaritan motorist getting needled through the brain for his concern by the bad robot? As childish as pulling the wings off flies... But as it wound on it turned into a reasonable comedy – the sight of the baddie being split right down to his gizzards by the goodie and looking only slightly annoyed was surely the funniest bit. Mel and Brucie couldn't do that in Lethal Hard! Ultimately though, it was solid escapist entertainment and well worth its long running time.