Veterans Day Movie Reviews

The people involved in producing and writing this program were previously involved in early post war journalism specializing in espionage. This is what makes the program so realistic. Some liberties are taken from reality by the use of gadgets. Watching this series will give members of the X generation a feel for what the world was like a few decades before they were born.

TO' Day of Days is the blow by blow account of this history making day in the sport of surfing. Not only was the worlds greatest big wave surfer on hand to ride the "heaviest wave ever ridden" (Surfer Mag), the worlds greatest surfing cinematographer was there to record what happened. Jack McCoy's documentary is unlike Laird's personal DVD LAIRD (of which footage from this day is included). TO' is the complete story of this epic surfing trip. The film follows Lairds first trip to Tahiti with his tow surfing, longboarding, foil surfing, the warm up, and concludes with the Day of Days. I personally showed this program around Australia as a Surfrider fundraiser to hundreds of surfers and non surfers alike who were in awe of Lairds amazing feat and McCoy's storytelling. You can show this to anyone and they will be rivited. On top of that the Special Features section has another 50 minutes of extra material. By far the most awsome footage of Laird doing what he does in found in the short film in this section called "The Morning Glass". The underwater bodysurfing sequence is some of the most amazing surfing footage ever taken. Along with the other bonus shorts "Aftershock", interviews with Laird and DD and a Midnight Oil track, this DVD is a must for anyone who can appreciate extreme sport's and the ocean.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest films in the sci-fi pantheon, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is one of the few science-fiction flicks from the McCarthy era that is not an anti-communist allegory. A literate and thought-provoking film, it presents extraterrestrials as humanoid in appearance and intelligent and peaceful in demeanor, as opposed to the reptilian, googly-eyed creatures with a bent for world domination that are the norm in most other Hollywood space operas of the early 1950s.

The story revolves around Klaatu (Michael Rennie), an extraterrestrial being who comes to Earth as the representative of an intergalactic peacekeeping organization. Now that the people of Earth have reached the nuclear age, they have become a potential threat to life on other planets, and the violent history of earthlings indicates that, if left unchecked, a threat is what they will indeed become. So Klaatu's league of interplanetary peacekeepers have sent him to offer an ultimatum: Either the Earth agrees to join the league and abide by its rules--basically, a no-nukes, no-aggression policy--or the Earth will be utterly annihilated. And to demonstrate that he and his fellows have the power to carry through, Klaatu arranges for all non-essential electrical devices to completely cease functioning for a full 24 hours. (The Earth stands still for an entire day--get it?)

Although there is no real evidence to support it, many contemporary fans of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL have wondered if director Robert Wise and scriptwriter Edmund North were not waxing prophetic about the global role the U.S. was, circa 1950, poised to assume. Since WWII--and even more so after the fall of the USSR--the United States has grown to become the dominant world power both militarily and economically, and it has used this position to muscle the other nations of the world into conforming to its basic principals or, at the very least, into maintaining a non-combative relationship with its allies. In retrospect, then, Klaatu and the organization he represents can easily be viewed as an allegory of the U.S., with the Earthlings in the film representing the other nations of the world. And the dropping of THE BOMB on Japan can therefore be seen as the U.S.'s demonstration of power--its proof that it can, indeed, make the Earth stand still.

Prophetic allegory or not, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is a well-written and well-directed motion picture. Wise and North's powerful storytelling techniques create concepts and images that are hard to ignore and not easy to forget. Indeed, it's likely that Klaatu and his towering robo-cop sidekick, Gort, are cinematic icons that will remain in the sci-fi lexicon long after other 20th-century film characters are considered to be grossly passé.

The DVD offers a beautiful restored version of the film; an excellent feature commentary with the film's director, Robert Wise, and renowned writer/director Nicolas Meyer (Meyer spurs Wise with pertinent questions and comments); theatrical trailers; an interesting documentary/featurette on the making of the film; a period newsreel; and more. At Amazon's price, adding this science-fiction classic to your DVD collection is well worth the investment!

This film, directed by Robert Wise, shows what truly competent direction can give to science fiction without all the Jim Cameron razzle dazzle. The hint of love and development of intrigue and compassion between handsome Michael Rennie and lovely Patricia Neal compels from their first glance, and Gort is just downright chic. I love this film. It never dates. But I'm always sad to see Michael Rennie wave bye to Patricia Neal, and I still am unclear how long he survives after the spaceship exits. Bernard Herrmann (Taxi Driver) score is classic and minimal, with early use of Theremin.

Nearly everyone who has seen THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL hails it as a classic of science fiction, even if they are not quite sure why. For a film that has withstood the test of time, it cannot be because of those elements that mark other and similar successful science fiction films. There are no corresponding battle sequences that stamp, say, INDEPENDENCE DAY, or special effects that characterize any of the ALIENS saga. What director Robert Wise did was to adapt the original short story, "Farewell to the Master," by Harry Bates to transform a tale warning Earth to forego its mutually assured nuclear destruction into a riveting story that forces viewers to ponder some serious issues of why they are here on this planet and how they can avoid massive self-genocide. Surprisingly enough, Wise does this without allowing the film's didacticism to dilute audience involvement.

Michael Rennie is Klaatu, an emissary who lands on Earth with the stated intention of saving humanity from itself. He offers the olive branch of his race, a device that would have eliminated some of man's most persistent problems only to find that a collective fear of the unknown blasted that device to pieces and severely wounded him. Rennie plays Klaatu as an earnest Christ figure so subliminally that the film morphs into an allegory of man's turning on the One who would die for their collective sins. Klaatu escapes from a hospital to assume the name of Carpenter, Jesus's occupation. He performs miracles: where Jesus turned stone to water, Carpenter turns motion to non-motion by literally turning off Earth's electricity, thus the day of the title. Jesus here is Tom Stevens (slimingly played by Hugh Marlowe), who betrays Klaatu, not for thirty pieces of silver but for the love of a woman (Patricia Neal), who painfully learns that behind the smiling face of that Judas lies the smallness of the insecure mind. Then there is the resurrection of Klaatu, who ascends, if not to heaven, than at least to his spaceship, which is almost the same thing. Yet all these allusions to traditional Christianity do not intrude suffocatingly. Indeed, most viewers scarcely recognize them, and it is only after repeated viewings that such correspondances suggest why audiences continually flock to witness Klaatu's Good News.

It is not only the religious coating that marks this film as a classic. It has a literate script that requires one to listen to well-reasoned ideas rather than to ooh and aah at FX. Rennie's interpretation of Klaatu is both fluid and soothing. In his exhortations to mankind to rise from the muck of squalor and viciousness, Klaatu is seen ultimately not so much as a representative of an alien power seeking to impose its will on a protesting humanity, but more as an inverted symbol of that humanity. If Jesus were crucified for being both mortal and semi-devine, then surely Klaatu is meant to be the scapegoat for man's failure to heed his wisdom. In nearly every scene that Klaatu is in, he is scorned, hunted, shot at, and mocked. In lashing out at him, the Sanhendrin-like government and mass media exhibit the same lack of acumen that stamps most of the citizens.

The number of special effects are kept to a minimum. The robot Gort is huge and menacing, but his lethality rests more in what he can do than what he does do. Klaatu's spaceship does little but squat serenely on the White House lawn, with Klaatu spending only one brief scene aboard. Some of the film's best moments are of the quiet sort, usually with Rennie in contemplative dialogue with others. The words that pass back and forth suggest a subtext that if human beings are to avoid self-immolation, then it can occur only through the medium of verbalized reason that will negate the mushrooming clouds. If and when the nukes fall, it will be because no one had the sense to cry out,"Klaatu Barada Nikto," to stop the madness.

Just fabulous. NO other description for this film. It was great fun when it hit and it remains great fun! Ferris is the kid that everything works out for all the time--but FERRIS, unlike so many of those kids, so freaking likeable. Some nice things happen between Ferris and his best friend. And his best friend's personal journey is worthy. Ferris' sister has some great scenes. Just a really good flick.

There are certain films that become timeless classics. Hughes put out two of them in the eightees and this is one of them. (The other being Sixteen Candles). I hope Amazon doesn't take offense, but I bought this at a department store over the weekend. A young bespectacled cashier, who couldn't have been a day over 16, remarked that Ferris was his all time favorite movie. Yes, your kids probably won't like this movie, but your teenagers will.....and you will too.

There is just one Special Feature on this film and it is the director's commentary. At times, Hughes delivers some interesting history behind his directorial decisions, but at other times he merely narrates the plot. Too bad the folks at Paramount didn't add a cast member to the commentary. Even without the cast member, fans of Ferris will still enjoy the story behind Cameron's fake voice.

that you can watch over and over and not get sick of it. Though there aren't many bonus features, it doesn't matter...The movie just rocks. You really need to see the movie to appreciate what everyone is talking about. So, this review probably will not help much, you just have to see it.

Just fabulous. NO other description for this film. It was great fun when it hit and it remains great fun! Ferris is the kid that everything works out for all the time--but FERRIS, unlike so many of those kids, so freaking likeable. Some nice things happen between Ferris and his best friend. And his best friend's personal journey is worthy. Ferris' sister has some great scenes. Just a really good flick.

There are certain films that become timeless classics. Hughes put out two of them in the eightees and this is one of them. (The other being Sixteen Candles). I hope Amazon doesn't take offense, but I bought this at a department store over the weekend. A young bespectacled cashier, who couldn't have been a day over 16, remarked that Ferris was his all time favorite movie. Yes, your kids probably won't like this movie, but your teenagers will.....and you will too.

There is just one Special Feature on this film and it is the director's commentary. At times, Hughes delivers some interesting history behind his directorial decisions, but at other times he merely narrates the plot. Too bad the folks at Paramount didn't add a cast member to the commentary. Even without the cast member, fans of Ferris will still enjoy the story behind Cameron's fake voice.

that you can watch over and over and not get sick of it. Though there aren't many bonus features, it doesn't matter...The movie just rocks. You really need to see the movie to appreciate what everyone is talking about. So, this review probably will not help much, you just have to see it.

When I first bought my DVD player two years ago. DVDs made by Colombia/TriStar were among my first purchases. Since then I kind of don't have much interest in movies made by the Colombia/Tri-Star studios. In almost thrity years of regularly going to the movies, very few pictures that I have enjoyed have actually come from Colombia Pictures. GroundHog Day was among the very few, and when it was released in 1993, I enjoyed it very much. I liked the fact that it's an honest romance. It made a good screenplay. Harold Ramis directed it with a good professional manner that is rare in many of today's film makers. Bill Murray and Andie McDowall are wonderful in the roles, and it make a fine film to add to any video/DVD library. Regretfully on this disk, the film itself is the only good thing about it. This "Special Edition" is not so special. It just has one making of featurette that runs barely 15 minutes. It's really only a collection of interviews with five people, some outtakes of the production, and some still photos, and that's it. One would have liked to have seen more here, but there isn't. And it's enough for me to say, that I will not be buying anymore Colombia-TriStar DVD disks in the future,(unless I come across a movie that I really enjoyed). but I am not sorry to have bought this one, because there is a good movie on it.

Phil Conors ( Bill Murray) is a TV weatherman that is rude, conceited, and full of himself. Every year he gets stuck having to go to Punxsutawney, Pensylvania to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. Going with him this year is his sexy and cheerful producer Rita ( Andie McDowell), and his smart-mouthed, yet somewhat nerdy camera man Larry ( Chris Elliot). Phil wants to get out of town as soon as possible, but is snowed in when an unexpected blizzard hits. But things are about to get even worse. Phil wakes up the next morning to discover that it's Groundhog Day all over again. He is forced to live the same day over and over. But the more Phil is forced to repeat it, the more he comes to care about the town and those around him. But life really starts to get complicated when he finds himself falling for Rita.

"Groundhog Day" is one of the funniest and most original films ever made. Bill Murray has made a lot of outstanding films. But in my opinion, "Groundhog Day" is his best one. The repeating day is amazingly done. All of the actors do an extremely good job making each day look the same. The laughs that this film brings are non-stop. I even found myself rewinding scenes for a second and third viewing at times. Bill Murray is amazing as Phil Connors. Watching him play both roles is great. The first being the one who hates everybody and only cares about himself. Watching him try to kill himself over and over will make you laugh extremely hard. The other is the one that adjusts to live in Punksatawney and learns to care about those around him. No matter what he does, he will make you laugh. Andie McDowell is great as Rita. Her sweet and caring nature works well against Murray's negative attitude. The chemistry between her and Murray is amazing. One of the best romance stories I have ever seen. However, my favorite character was Stephen Tobolowsky's Ned Rierson. Every different time Ned and Phil meet, provides for the funniest scenes in the film. "Ned, I'd love to stay here and talk with you. But I'm not going to." Chris Elliot and the rest of the town are also all outstanding.

No matter how many times you see this film, you will never find it boring, repetitive, or less funny. In fact, you laugh harder with each viewing. The story, romance between Phil and Rita, and the great all around acting make Groundhog Day one of the best comedies ever made. The DVD is great, and the documentary : "The Weight of Time", is worth the price alone

It just might be. It is certainly something to have in your collection because there is so much more you discover every time you see it. Perfect vehicle for Bill Murray's lovable scoundrel personna. Thought provoking and funny.

When I first bought my DVD player two years ago. DVDs made by Colombia/TriStar were among my first purchases. Since then I kind of don't have much interest in movies made by the Colombia/Tri-Star studios. In almost thrity years of regularly going to the movies, very few pictures that I have enjoyed have actually come from Colombia Pictures. GroundHog Day was among the very few, and when it was released in 1993, I enjoyed it very much. I liked the fact that it's an honest romance. It made a good screenplay. Harold Ramis directed it with a good professional manner that is rare in many of today's film makers. Bill Murray and Andie McDowall are wonderful in the roles, and it make a fine film to add to any video/DVD library. Regretfully on this disk, the film itself is the only good thing about it. This "Special Edition" is not so special. It just has one making of featurette that runs barely 15 minutes. It's really only a collection of interviews with five people, some outtakes of the production, and some still photos, and that's it. One would have liked to have seen more here, but there isn't. And it's enough for me to say, that I will not be buying anymore Colombia-TriStar DVD disks in the future,(unless I come across a movie that I really enjoyed). but I am not sorry to have bought this one, because there is a good movie on it.

Phil Conors ( Bill Murray) is a TV weatherman that is rude, conceited, and full of himself. Every year he gets stuck having to go to Punxsutawney, Pensylvania to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. Going with him this year is his sexy and cheerful producer Rita ( Andie McDowell), and his smart-mouthed, yet somewhat nerdy camera man Larry ( Chris Elliot). Phil wants to get out of town as soon as possible, but is snowed in when an unexpected blizzard hits. But things are about to get even worse. Phil wakes up the next morning to discover that it's Groundhog Day all over again. He is forced to live the same day over and over. But the more Phil is forced to repeat it, the more he comes to care about the town and those around him. But life really starts to get complicated when he finds himself falling for Rita.

"Groundhog Day" is one of the funniest and most original films ever made. Bill Murray has made a lot of outstanding films. But in my opinion, "Groundhog Day" is his best one. The repeating day is amazingly done. All of the actors do an extremely good job making each day look the same. The laughs that this film brings are non-stop. I even found myself rewinding scenes for a second and third viewing at times. Bill Murray is amazing as Phil Connors. Watching him play both roles is great. The first being the one who hates everybody and only cares about himself. Watching him try to kill himself over and over will make you laugh extremely hard. The other is the one that adjusts to live in Punksatawney and learns to care about those around him. No matter what he does, he will make you laugh. Andie McDowell is great as Rita. Her sweet and caring nature works well against Murray's negative attitude. The chemistry between her and Murray is amazing. One of the best romance stories I have ever seen. However, my favorite character was Stephen Tobolowsky's Ned Rierson. Every different time Ned and Phil meet, provides for the funniest scenes in the film. "Ned, I'd love to stay here and talk with you. But I'm not going to." Chris Elliot and the rest of the town are also all outstanding.

No matter how many times you see this film, you will never find it boring, repetitive, or less funny. In fact, you laugh harder with each viewing. The story, romance between Phil and Rita, and the great all around acting make Groundhog Day one of the best comedies ever made. The DVD is great, and the documentary : "The Weight of Time", is worth the price alone

It just might be. It is certainly something to have in your collection because there is so much more you discover every time you see it. Perfect vehicle for Bill Murray's lovable scoundrel personna. Thought provoking and funny.

"Terminator 2 - Judgement Day" really pushed the envolope of special effects and CGI. In 1991 when it first came out it was a huge deal. People hadn't seen effects like that so realisticly inserted into films. The story is almost secondary, but it is still strong. Arnold Schwarzenegger is another cyborg sent to the past to protect John Connor as a teenager. The enemy this time is the T-1000, a superior model terminator played by Robert Patrick (eventually with the 'X-Files'). Patrick dose a pretty good job as the creep Terminator. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, who has now somewhat lost touch with sanity. Her dooms day prophacy is true and no one believes her (except the audience). She is however, neurotic, paranoid, and maybe dangorous to herself and her son John Connor. Arnold is pretty good as the Terminator, and some of his scenes tring to immatate humans is funny. The drawback is Edward Furlong's John Connor. He is a whinny, foul mouth little brat, far from the hero of the human race we are supposed to believe him to be. He was hard to take. But this is still an excellent movie, great chases (loved the sewer drain race), funny dialog (sometimes) and some hope for the future that isn't as bleak as part 1. The extras in the DVD are worth it, especially the deleted and alternate scenes.

If you are wondering whether you should buy the Ultimate or Extreme edition of Terminator 2, the right choice to make in the Ultimate Edition. It has nearly 4 hours of extra content, while the Extreme edition has about 4 minutes of bonus features. The Extreme edition says that it has a much better transfer (picture & sound), but it really doesn't. You have got to be one hell of a nerd with one hell of an entertainment system to tell a scrap of difference. Besides, the Ultimate edition has DTS, unlike the Extreme. The only good thing about the Extreme edition that you can't get in the Ultimate edition is the audio commentary from James Cameron. The commentary on the Ultimate edition seems a bit thrown together, but is that really all that important. The Ultimate edition is by far the best choice to make in buying this flat-out incredible flick.

Sequels are a large and largely ironic part of director James Cameron's film career. There are those of us who remember one of his earliest films, "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning," which was a sequel of sorts (same type of fish, but not the same fish), and he made two of the most successful sequels of all time in "Aliens" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." I was going to say that the irony extends to the fact Carmeron directed the most successful film of all time in "Titanic," for which a sequel cannot be made, except "Ghosts of the Abyss" is out there in Omni-Max Theaters across the land and tends to subtract from the point.

Unlike Francis Ford Coppola who still had half of the origianl novel to work with, or George Lucas who was working on a trilogy (or Peter Jackson who is doing both), Cameron was faced with trying to build upon a pair of fairly success first features. After transforming the "haunted house" movie "Alien" into a military movie with "Aliens," Cameron starts with an equally significant change in the premise for "Terminator 2," turning the T-101 from the villain into the hero. When you are dealing with a machine it is just a question of reprogramming it accordingly. Consequently, Cameron is basically able to repeat the entire opening of the original movie (two naked guys come from the future, one is good and one is bad) and then pivot the entire film on the basis of that one little change.

Now, you do not want to think about time paradoxes too closely because they tend to fly apart once logic or the laws of physics are invoked, but since the original T-800 failed to kill Sarah Connor the machines of the future and their overlord Skynet, send back a T-1000 (Robert Patrick) to kill John Connor (Edward Furlong). Sending back a dozen Terminators of pretty much any model number would probably work better, but the idea here is qualitative improvements rather than quantitative (i.e., this is not "The Matrix Reloaded" with its infinite versions of Mr. Smith). John is saved by another T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and proceeds to rescue his mother (a buffed up Linda Hamilton) from the crazy house, with the T-1000 in close pursuit.

The final significant difference between this film and the original is that Cameron and his co-writer William Wisher have Sarah Connor taking the offensive. While the T-1000 is hunting mother and son, she is going to do her own manipulation of the time line by taking out Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton), the scientist whose creative fingerprints end up being all over Skynet's creation. Dyson is helped by having a couple of significant bits and pieces from the T-800 of the original film (which is where we get right into a "Planet of the Apes" time loop, so let's just not go there). For me, Dyson is the most interesting character in the story, and a clear break from science fiction film stereotypes in a whole lot of ways.

It is easy to get taken away with the special effects in "Terminator 2" because of the quantum leap that films took from the water tentacle in Cameron's "The Abyss" to the liquid metal of the T-1000, but the human dimension of the dysfunctional Connor family dealing with their particular fate in terms of future events. The Terminator is now the father figure for John Connor, but the boy has a few lessons of his own to impart to his personal Terminator. Of course, the "Judgment Day" sub-title is something of a misnomer give not only what happens in this film but in the 2003 finale to the trilogy, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," but this 1991 film (and all its myriad variations available on DVD) is a textbook example of how you can intelligently go about putting together a sequel in this genre that will make a lot of money and not insult fans of the original.

"Terminator 2 - Judgement Day" really pushed the envolope of special effects and CGI. In 1991 when it first came out it was a huge deal. People hadn't seen effects like that so realisticly inserted into films. The story is almost secondary, but it is still strong. Arnold Schwarzenegger is another cyborg sent to the past to protect John Connor as a teenager. The enemy this time is the T-1000, a superior model terminator played by Robert Patrick (eventually with the 'X-Files'). Patrick dose a pretty good job as the creep Terminator. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, who has now somewhat lost touch with sanity. Her dooms day prophacy is true and no one believes her (except the audience). She is however, neurotic, paranoid, and maybe dangorous to herself and her son John Connor. Arnold is pretty good as the Terminator, and some of his scenes tring to immatate humans is funny. The drawback is Edward Furlong's John Connor. He is a whinny, foul mouth little brat, far from the hero of the human race we are supposed to believe him to be. He was hard to take. But this is still an excellent movie, great chases (loved the sewer drain race), funny dialog (sometimes) and some hope for the future that isn't as bleak as part 1. The extras in the DVD are worth it, especially the deleted and alternate scenes.

If you are wondering whether you should buy the Ultimate or Extreme edition of Terminator 2, the right choice to make in the Ultimate Edition. It has nearly 4 hours of extra content, while the Extreme edition has about 4 minutes of bonus features. The Extreme edition says that it has a much better transfer (picture & sound), but it really doesn't. You have got to be one hell of a nerd with one hell of an entertainment system to tell a scrap of difference. Besides, the Ultimate edition has DTS, unlike the Extreme. The only good thing about the Extreme edition that you can't get in the Ultimate edition is the audio commentary from James Cameron. The commentary on the Ultimate edition seems a bit thrown together, but is that really all that important. The Ultimate edition is by far the best choice to make in buying this flat-out incredible flick.

Sequels are a large and largely ironic part of director James Cameron's film career. There are those of us who remember one of his earliest films, "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning," which was a sequel of sorts (same type of fish, but not the same fish), and he made two of the most successful sequels of all time in "Aliens" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." I was going to say that the irony extends to the fact Carmeron directed the most successful film of all time in "Titanic," for which a sequel cannot be made, except "Ghosts of the Abyss" is out there in Omni-Max Theaters across the land and tends to subtract from the point.

Unlike Francis Ford Coppola who still had half of the origianl novel to work with, or George Lucas who was working on a trilogy (or Peter Jackson who is doing both), Cameron was faced with trying to build upon a pair of fairly success first features. After transforming the "haunted house" movie "Alien" into a military movie with "Aliens," Cameron starts with an equally significant change in the premise for "Terminator 2," turning the T-101 from the villain into the hero. When you are dealing with a machine it is just a question of reprogramming it accordingly. Consequently, Cameron is basically able to repeat the entire opening of the original movie (two naked guys come from the future, one is good and one is bad) and then pivot the entire film on the basis of that one little change.

Now, you do not want to think about time paradoxes too closely because they tend to fly apart once logic or the laws of physics are invoked, but since the original T-800 failed to kill Sarah Connor the machines of the future and their overlord Skynet, send back a T-1000 (Robert Patrick) to kill John Connor (Edward Furlong). Sending back a dozen Terminators of pretty much any model number would probably work better, but the idea here is qualitative improvements rather than quantitative (i.e., this is not "The Matrix Reloaded" with its infinite versions of Mr. Smith). John is saved by another T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and proceeds to rescue his mother (a buffed up Linda Hamilton) from the crazy house, with the T-1000 in close pursuit.

The final significant difference between this film and the original is that Cameron and his co-writer William Wisher have Sarah Connor taking the offensive. While the T-1000 is hunting mother and son, she is going to do her own manipulation of the time line by taking out Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton), the scientist whose creative fingerprints end up being all over Skynet's creation. Dyson is helped by having a couple of significant bits and pieces from the T-800 of the original film (which is where we get right into a "Planet of the Apes" time loop, so let's just not go there). For me, Dyson is the most interesting character in the story, and a clear break from science fiction film stereotypes in a whole lot of ways.

It is easy to get taken away with the special effects in "Terminator 2" because of the quantum leap that films took from the water tentacle in Cameron's "The Abyss" to the liquid metal of the T-1000, but the human dimension of the dysfunctional Connor family dealing with their particular fate in terms of future events. The Terminator is now the father figure for John Connor, but the boy has a few lessons of his own to impart to his personal Terminator. Of course, the "Judgment Day" sub-title is something of a misnomer give not only what happens in this film but in the 2003 finale to the trilogy, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," but this 1991 film (and all its myriad variations available on DVD) is a textbook example of how you can intelligently go about putting together a sequel in this genre that will make a lot of money and not insult fans of the original.

"Terminator 2 - Judgement Day" really pushed the envolope of special effects and CGI. In 1991 when it first came out it was a huge deal. People hadn't seen effects like that so realisticly inserted into films. The story is almost secondary, but it is still strong. Arnold Schwarzenegger is another cyborg sent to the past to protect John Connor as a teenager. The enemy this time is the T-1000, a superior model terminator played by Robert Patrick (eventually with the 'X-Files'). Patrick dose a pretty good job as the creep Terminator. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, who has now somewhat lost touch with sanity. Her dooms day prophacy is true and no one believes her (except the audience). She is however, neurotic, paranoid, and maybe dangorous to herself and her son John Connor. Arnold is pretty good as the Terminator, and some of his scenes tring to immatate humans is funny. The drawback is Edward Furlong's John Connor. He is a whinny, foul mouth little brat, far from the hero of the human race we are supposed to believe him to be. He was hard to take. But this is still an excellent movie, great chases (loved the sewer drain race), funny dialog (sometimes) and some hope for the future that isn't as bleak as part 1. The extras in the DVD are worth it, especially the deleted and alternate scenes.

If you are wondering whether you should buy the Ultimate or Extreme edition of Terminator 2, the right choice to make in the Ultimate Edition. It has nearly 4 hours of extra content, while the Extreme edition has about 4 minutes of bonus features. The Extreme edition says that it has a much better transfer (picture & sound), but it really doesn't. You have got to be one hell of a nerd with one hell of an entertainment system to tell a scrap of difference. Besides, the Ultimate edition has DTS, unlike the Extreme. The only good thing about the Extreme edition that you can't get in the Ultimate edition is the audio commentary from James Cameron. The commentary on the Ultimate edition seems a bit thrown together, but is that really all that important. The Ultimate edition is by far the best choice to make in buying this flat-out incredible flick.

Sequels are a large and largely ironic part of director James Cameron's film career. There are those of us who remember one of his earliest films, "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning," which was a sequel of sorts (same type of fish, but not the same fish), and he made two of the most successful sequels of all time in "Aliens" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." I was going to say that the irony extends to the fact Carmeron directed the most successful film of all time in "Titanic," for which a sequel cannot be made, except "Ghosts of the Abyss" is out there in Omni-Max Theaters across the land and tends to subtract from the point.

Unlike Francis Ford Coppola who still had half of the origianl novel to work with, or George Lucas who was working on a trilogy (or Peter Jackson who is doing both), Cameron was faced with trying to build upon a pair of fairly success first features. After transforming the "haunted house" movie "Alien" into a military movie with "Aliens," Cameron starts with an equally significant change in the premise for "Terminator 2," turning the T-101 from the villain into the hero. When you are dealing with a machine it is just a question of reprogramming it accordingly. Consequently, Cameron is basically able to repeat the entire opening of the original movie (two naked guys come from the future, one is good and one is bad) and then pivot the entire film on the basis of that one little change.

Now, you do not want to think about time paradoxes too closely because they tend to fly apart once logic or the laws of physics are invoked, but since the original T-800 failed to kill Sarah Connor the machines of the future and their overlord Skynet, send back a T-1000 (Robert Patrick) to kill John Connor (Edward Furlong). Sending back a dozen Terminators of pretty much any model number would probably work better, but the idea here is qualitative improvements rather than quantitative (i.e., this is not "The Matrix Reloaded" with its infinite versions of Mr. Smith). John is saved by another T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and proceeds to rescue his mother (a buffed up Linda Hamilton) from the crazy house, with the T-1000 in close pursuit.

The final significant difference between this film and the original is that Cameron and his co-writer William Wisher have Sarah Connor taking the offensive. While the T-1000 is hunting mother and son, she is going to do her own manipulation of the time line by taking out Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton), the scientist whose creative fingerprints end up being all over Skynet's creation. Dyson is helped by having a couple of significant bits and pieces from the T-800 of the original film (which is where we get right into a "Planet of the Apes" time loop, so let's just not go there). For me, Dyson is the most interesting character in the story, and a clear break from science fiction film stereotypes in a whole lot of ways.

It is easy to get taken away with the special effects in "Terminator 2" because of the quantum leap that films took from the water tentacle in Cameron's "The Abyss" to the liquid metal of the T-1000, but the human dimension of the dysfunctional Connor family dealing with their particular fate in terms of future events. The Terminator is now the father figure for John Connor, but the boy has a few lessons of his own to impart to his personal Terminator. Of course, the "Judgment Day" sub-title is something of a misnomer give not only what happens in this film but in the 2003 finale to the trilogy, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," but this 1991 film (and all its myriad variations available on DVD) is a textbook example of how you can intelligently go about putting together a sequel in this genre that will make a lot of money and not insult fans of the original.