Richard Vidan Movies
Set in a future in which society is controlled by an omnipotent corporation, this sci-fi thriller centers on a pair of fugitives from prison who attempt to survive in society addicted to virtual reality. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Costas Mandylor, Billy Wirth, (more)
A sequel to the sci-fi action thriller that made him and star Arnold Schwarzenegger A-list Hollywood names, writer/director James Cameron upped the ante with this follow-up by employing a more sweeping storyline and cutting-edge special effects. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, now a single mother to rebellious teen John Connor (Edward Furlong), during the late nineties. Having been informed by a time-traveling soldier in the first film that John will one day grow up to become humanity's savior from a computer-controlled Armageddon, Sarah has responded by becoming a muscle-bound she-warrior bent on educating John in survival tactics and battle strategies. Her ranting about humankind's future has landed Sarah in an insane asylum and John in the foster care system. The rebellious John has responded to his situation by getting into scrapes with the law. When a new and improved Terminator android called the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) arrives from the future to eliminate John, an older model T-800 (Schwarzenegger) is sent to protect the boy. The T-1000, however, has the ability to morph itself into any shape it desires, allowing it chameleon-like powers and near indestructibility. The T-800 saves John's life and helps break Sarah out of the institution. Staying only one step ahead of the dogged T-1000, Sarah leads her son and the T-800 to the headquarters of Cyberdyne Systems, the company that will invent a robotic intelligence that will eventually take over the world. There, they attempt to convince inventor Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) to help them stop the future from ever occurring by destroying his work. Dyson sacrifices himself in an explosion to save the world, leading to a final showdown between the two Terminators at a steel foundry. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which won four Oscars in technical categories for its groundbreaking effects, was followed by a short sequel filmed exclusively as an attraction for theme parks, Terminator 2: 3-D Battle Across Time (1996). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, (more)
A suspenseful and chilling exercise in supernatural horror, this film opens with some speedy exposition during a mood-setting opening credits sequence, inter-cut with radio news reports of a violent paramilitary-style robbery on the Camp Pendleton payroll carried off by a thuggish team of commandos. Making their escape by hijacking a cargo plane -- along with its pilot and his teenage daughter -- the robbers are betrayed by one of their own number, Bert (B.J. Turner), who parachutes with the crate of stolen loot over a Florida cornfield. The team makes a landing in the same field, filled with eerie scarecrow effigies, and begins to sweep the area in search of their defector, working their way toward an abandoned farmhouse. Once there, the team members find themselves cut off from their means of escape by a band of living scarecrows, who stalk and kill the commandos one by one, gutting them and stuffing their bodies with straw; the victims then return to life as scarecrows themselves, joining their undead comrades and closing in on the rapidly dwindling group of survivors. Tightly paced and consistently tense, this low-budget film has slick production values (making it appear more expensive than it probably was) and only falters in some laughably overwrought performances. Taking a cue from Night of the Living Dead, director William Wesley eschews any definite explanation for the supernatural goings-on, instead relying on a nightmare logic that adds to the paranoid atmosphere. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
