Also, just won the Desaparecidos album on vinyl on eBay. If anyone hasn't heard Desaparecidos you're missing out. It's a shame they only released that one album.
I also just found about 100000000 bootleg t-shirts that I want online. Control thyself, Alex.
I fell asleep for two hours at work yesterday. I know what you're thinking: "Alex, don't you work at a computer lab?" I do, anonymous inquisitor. Picture this: Alex in a rolling chair, arms folded on the desk, head down for a full two hours. I woke up with both arms asleep, and the only reason I woke up at all is because my coworker knocked on the partition to let me know she was running out for lunch. My eyes were bloodshot from dried out contact lenses, I had a heinous headache from the sub-zero temperature in the lab, and ultimately it just made me more tired for the rest of the day. I don't regret it, though.
Play rehearsal was disastrous yesterday. I picked up a few more lines, though. Sweet deal!
Back to business.
#10: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
I'm going to get my one critical comment about this film out at the outset so I can get right to a few-paragraph love fest: Terminator 1's poster was much better than T2's.
Phew. Now that that's over...
Everyone told me that Terminator 1 was all right but T2 was phenomenal. I had no reason to believe differently until I watched T1 and thought it fantastic. I couldn't imagine T2 being so significantly better. Lo and behold...
I can't speak highly enough about this movie. It's a sci-fi/action movie, undoubtedly, but it should not receive the stigma that is so often attached to the genre. This film is as near-flawless as I've seen. As soon as I finished watching it I desperately hunted around for someone to talk with about it, but alas, it wasn't 1992. So now I can profess my love for this (especially the lovely Linda Hamilton) right here.
The improvement in the quality of special effects between T1 and T2 is incalculable. I was impressed with the effects in T1, but what T2 accomplished was comparable to what movies use nearly 20 years later. The representation of Robert Patrick's T-1000 character, especially, showed the leaps with which this series grew between the first and the second. The crazy gelatinous thing that T-1000 periodically turns into captivates me every time.
And speaking of captivating: Linda Hamilton. From a cinematic standpoint, it is surreal how astounding a job they did in documenting her evolution between the first and second films. Her physical changes made a great deal of sense in the context of the story but more importantly were so dramatic that they simultaneously gave you the effect of the long span of time that passed and the life-altering experiences she'd undergone. Her performance in the mental facility, specifically, was incredible. The manic exchanges she had with Earl Boen's oh-so-hateable Dr. Silberman were so tangibly tense that before any terminator even shows up you got a strong sense of urgency. She is, without question, the most bad ass movie character I have seen to date, and bear in mind I've seen The Dark Knight, Sin City, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, etc. And, from a personal standpoint, so is drop dead gorgeous. There, I said it.
All right. Back to the film.
I wondered how they were going to possibly get Schwarzenegger from the bad guy role to the good guy role for the sequel and I expected it to be an awkward and elaborate change that occurred in the future after the occurences in the first one that would distract me and subtract from the movie. Wrong wrong wrong. T2 went with perfect simplicity with a scenario that makes perfect sense and is easily explained: the Terminator is sent back by John Connor, himself to protect his mother. BRILLIANT. No convoluted time-warp talk, just a simple transition. That's how plots need to be written.
Another way the film surprised me: I typically like my movies to be straightforward. If it's a comedy, it's a comedy. If it's horror, it's horror. Mixing genres rarely works effectively, in my opinion. However, the subdued but still playful comedic moments in T2 did not at all diminish the gravity of the conflict and they flowed effortlessly. One minute you're chuckling at Schwarzenegger's inability to high-five, the next you're biting your nails wondering when his shot gun is going to run out of shells and what he's going to do when that happens. Kudos to you, T2.
Edward Furlong also came through as a solid child actor. His character was likeable and believable and I think he was perfectly cast for the part. Child actors make for another complaint I often have for movies, as until modern parents became willing to commit to selling their children's souls they had often been awkward and distracting. Not Mr. Furlong, though. Masterfully done.
I could go on for days--really, I could. This movie was that good. Anyone who has somehow let this one slip through the cracks like I had needs to indulge because you will not be disappointed. When Schwarzie says "I'll be back" in T1, he wasn't joking.
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