still an action movie classic, or a 'Tech-Noir' if you will

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2000)

The Terminator - ripped from the pages of Harlan Ellison (literally ripped-off at first until a lawsuit came around for screen credit) and out of the imagination of James Cameron, it's an action movie that MOVES, fast, after a 20 minute set-up with only little bits to pause and reflect or give exposition or have a quintessential love scene. It's also the reason that Arnold Schwarzenegger got work for so many years after as a star, with a performance that oddly enough features only a handful of lines of dialog. One wonders today the T-800, Cyberdine model 101, is still (Anton Chigurh be damned) the true quiet-killer in modern cinema.
The set-up is simple, so simple a child or senile old person can watch and know what's going on: Kyle Reese, soldier, sent back over 40 years into the past to stop the T-800 from killing Sarah Conner, mother of the resistance-against-the-machines leader John. That's about it. There's some more, of course, including a glimpse into the future (the term "Tecnh-Noir" is most apt even with the rampant violence throughout), but mostly it's a chase movie, a cat-and-mouse game where the lines are drawn straight and from there on in James Cameron propells the characters and action down without a mark missed. It's the kind of movie that if you really like it the first time you'll rewatch it whenever it's on TV and love it more. It's smart, fun, ruthless contemporary film-making.
"Look at it this way, in 100 years, who's gonna care?"