"Back" in business!

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2003)

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) *** Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, David Andrews, Mark Famiglietti, Earl Boen. He's Back! And this time the Terminator is against a highly advanced model Terminatrix T-X (Loken, who comes across as a Swiss Army knife meets Sharon Stone out of Midol) sent back from the future to kill rebel leader-in-the-making John Connor (Stahl, replacing Edward Furlong, and for my money actually resembling the adult version shown in the last sequel's preamble) and his spouse-to-be (Danes, seemingly miscast and borderline a Screaming Mimi ala Kate Capshaw in 'Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom' ), by any means necessary, prior to their attempt to stop SkyNet, the nefarious weapons defense system from beginning a nuclear war. Director Jonathan Mostow (who fills in for James Cameron, who has absolutely nothing to do with this latest chapter in the lucrative franchise) skillfully handles the jaw-dropping action sequences and high tech visuals with deft aplomb (including a hairy chase sequence that rivals 'Matrix Reloaded' ) but the logy screenplay by John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris and Tedi Sarafian) hinders the pyrotechniques on display.