Eraser (1996)

Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in another action packed role along side Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn and James Cromwell. This time Arnie is a Federal Agent that takes Vanessa Williams in to protective custody and has to protect her from the people who are trying to kill her, they might even be people from within our own government.This is a spy thriller, not in the same realm as True Lies but still a lot of fun.

The set pieces in this film are fun in the unbelievable sense, jumping out of a plane, shooting the glass on the crocodile enclosure and the real threat with a suicide in front of you. This film struggles to find the right balance between fun comedy and serious action. The bad guys are believable but the comedy sidekick is pushing it a little, overall it lends to a jumbled experience.

Saying all of that I did enjoy it and could actually watch Arnie do anything with action as he does have some skill at it on the screen. Overall this is a 6 out of 10 for me, slightly above the middle but obviously not for everybody.

Predator 2 (1990)

Film of 2012 #36

A world I love is that of the Predator, I like the creature and the lore behind it and what it can do and when I saw the sequel on TV again I thought yes I have to watch this. Made in 1990 it takes the original idea of the hunter in the Jungle of South America and moves it into the Urban Jungle of down town LA. A concept and idea that I can get behind and think you can see why there would be excitement behind this idea. You have Danny Glover as a super cop, an idea that I cannot get behind, in an LA that is essentially ripping itself apart through gang war, it put me in mind of Detroit from Robocop. You have the cops fighting the gangs who are fighting each other and while the cops try to win this battle the Predator targets the gangs and starts following Danny Glover as the ultimate target, quite unbelievable really.

I would just like to say that I like this film even though there are several flaws that I know annoy lpeople. The biggest issue I have is the casting of Danny Glover he cannot carry what the role requires. The support cast of Bill Paxton, Maria Conchita Alonso and Reuben Blade as the cops and Gary Busey as the shadey Government official are good and work for me and the story line in essence is solid enough for me. However the Colombian and the Jamaican bad guys are very stereotypical and pull you out of the piece, there are also a lot of set pieces and side characters that could be cut and would not detract from the film. 

Overall this is an enjoyable film that if you switch your brain off at the door, you can enjoy the action packed romp through LA as they fire guns all over the place and you get a really bad impression of LA through the 1990's. I give this 3 stars I think I see a lot of Nostalgia in this film and can enjoy it for what it is, let me know if you agree with me or have a different opinion.

True Lies (1994)

So I was doing a mini marathon with Arnold and decided to re-watch the James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis venture in to spy comedy that was True Lies. I knew I had seen this and knew some points but could not remember everything that happened so was interested to see if I would like it. With Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere and Bill Paxton in supporting roles you know that the acting is going to be pretty good and an early role for Eliza Dushku as well.

Your premise is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a spy and Jamie Lee Curtis is his wife and she knows nothing of what he does. The fact that he is saving the world daily and is never home on time is driving a wedge between them and the story unfolds to some interesting points with a terrorist subplot that keeps the action driving on. The premise works quite well you have a transformation performance from Jaimie Lee Curtis and you have Arnold the super spy a role that he fits into but you actually think would never really work as he stands out so much. You have Tom Arnold as the comedy sidekick and Bill Paxton in a role he was born to play the sleazy car salesman. This has James Cameron all over it with the car chase with a helicopter and the fight with the Harrier Jump Jet you can see his love of special effects and fantastical situations. While there are so many levels of unbelievable there is only a little suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the film.

Overall this was a joyous romp of a film that entertained me with the comedy, the acting and the action and effects, I have to say that this is 4 solid stars and several more re-watches along the years, the scene with the lamppost cracks me up. 

The 6th Day (2000)

So I watched the 6th Day again and loved it again, I think this is another film that falls into my guilty pleasure category. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears in this film twice so you get the double Arnold and it is about human cloning, the real story is a film that can make you think how would you cope if you met yourself and how would you react and feel. I understand that many people do not like the film I think that the biggest downside to people is the science and the believability levels are hard to get around.

Overall your basic story is that Arnold wakes up in a cab and then then some weird stuff happens to the point when he gets home and sees himself in his living room with his wife and the mind games begin with him trying to figure out what is happening and who the people trying to kill him are and what the hell is actually going on. You have 4 characters trying to kill him and the confusion envelopes him as he kills a couple but then sees them again. Now I can see some of the holes with clones remembering how they died even though the "simcard" is a save point in their lives. But I can see past all of that and love the X-Coptors that can be controlled and the action and gun play.

As a Guilty pleasure for me it is 4 stars and overall I would say switch the brain off at the door and you will have a pretty good time, these opinions are my own.

Conan The Barbarian (2011)

So I went to see Conan the Barbarian the remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger 1982 sword and sorcery epic character. Now as I have stated many times before I am not a fan of remakes I am very much why cannot we get some new ideas? However they might not be very good but at least they will be original. It does make me want to see the original films in the series and there is an element in the originals looking back that it is Arnold therefore they were great, which is not always the case. But I think that going back to those films Arnold's muscles are a character within the film and they are not present in the remake.

So I have the problem I mentioned when I looked at the trailer, my thoughts you can see here. I cannot remember the original films that well so I am not that sure with the remake if they are ripping off the original or just taking the characters on a new story, I will look at that when I re-watch the originals. Now to the film, it is terrible, the acting was okay but the film and story was totally dull and pointless. They seem to have so much to fit in that it jumps all over the place, from the fact that in one scene it jumps from night to day with no real transition of time and the fact that I notice it shows me that I was not that enthralled with the film, also the fact that I wanted to see what time it was, showed me how  dull it was. And why should it be dull, big swords lots of blood and lots of boobs and still I did not care about it.

So the only good thing about this is that I am going to revisit the originals and see if they are better than the mess that I sat through in the cinema. This film is totally not worth viewing from the lead actress being really brave but screaming an awful lot to Conan being big but not Arnold a 1 star film that should be avoided, did not miss it being 2D rather than 3D would probably have been more annoying in 3D.

The Running Man (1987)

The Arnold Schwarzenegger film from 1987 based upon the book written by Richard Bachman who we all know is Stephen King, so you have a sci-fi film from the pen of Stephen King, I have never read the book but want to. This is another film that I have seen several times and I love it every time, it is the real height of Arnold's career where he gives all of his best one-liners including the I'll be back repeated from 1984's The Terminator.

I will see this many times again in the future and recommend that everybody gives it a go. You have a future where the corporations are running everything and the number one rated show on the network is The Running Man where criminals are sent in and killed by themed Stalkers, you have Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards who had been previously framed and escaped from jail and he is launched into the game zone. This film works so well as it puts the corporations with all the money as the bad guys and as liars.

This is a 4 star recommend for me, it suffers form being dated a bit and there are laws that some people will not get over but i think it is well worth seeing.