One of the greatest SF movies I've ever seen.

Rating: 9/10 (4 June 2005)

If I had to list my favourite SF movies of all time, "The Terminator" would probably top the list. "Terminator" manages to be both violent and cerebral, to have enough action and enough intelligence, to have a good premise and a great message.
This is THE best of the Terminator movies - despite looking painfully out-of-date in this CGI-dependent age (such as the stop-motion endoskeletons and the damaged Terminator heads), it's still of inconsequence. This movie has a relatively simple story - running from the ultimate killing machine - yet an intricate back story makes it more than just your average chase movie.
"Terminator" is so totally convincing with Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) as the lead, in a non-exploitative role so clearly lacking in modern action movies (re: Charlie's Angels). She manages to be a person truly scared by what's going on - namely the Terminator and Reese. For the first part of the movie, it's hard to know who is the scarier.
If you haven't already seen it, seek it out. It might seem ugly in comparison to CGI-soaked epics such as Star Wars and LOTR, but the effects do not matter so much.
9/10