Critics Club II: 05 - Arnold Schwarzenegger

[QualityChimp]

It's not streaming anywhere and it's never been on Blu-Ray. Boo!

[monel]

I used to like most of his films growing up. The hype around Terminator 2 was huge, I can even remember the Guns N Roses video and single and footage in it that wasn't in the film. Less of a fan now, I probably prefer Stallone's better films.

I saw Running Man a couple of years ago after decades and really enjoyed it. I'd say his best films to me are Predator or Running Man. The Terminator is a classic that holds up. But lol I'd vote Commando! Every time. Oh yeah my fave has to be Total Recall as it's a Verhoeven film.

[JazzFunk]

Total Recall. It's pure Arnie madness combined with pure Verhoeven madness. It is meta-genius.

Schwarzenegg is STILL cool, despite looking saggy and papery-skinned. An archetype of the 80s.

Just too cool. They didn't stand a chance, all of them.

Let's just face it, every mother****er on here is like 4000% inferior to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

'Til that saggy old **** dies, we shall all be in his ever-present shadow.

[Cassius_Smoke]

STUPD HWORSE!
I do like true lies. Its probably Arnolds best 'acting'.
T2 is my favourite, with predator coming in a close 2nd.

[Dogg Thang]

Arnie has a very impressive amount of classics and it’s tough to choose one for me. I think part of it is, as mentioned, separating his performance from the films. Although he is so great in most of them, mainly because he suits the role so perfectly. Conan, Predator, Commando, Terminator, Running Man, Total Recall - all classic and none would have been the same without him. Ultimately I’ll go with Terminator. The reason is that his sense of relentless and coldness was perfect here. Fun Arnie is great but he played the machine so perfectly in Terminator that it has to get my vote.

[QualityChimp]

Same reason I voted that way, DT.

Had he been a bad guy since T1?

He fits the role so perfectly and is so menacing it's hard to think Arnie originally tried out for the role of Kyle Reese:

"They wanted you to read for the other guy, right? So you read it thinking about the other guy, about Reese? Do you remember what you were thinking when you read it?" asked Cameron.

"The more I read the script, the more I remembered I got fascinated by the Terminator - the bad guy - which I thought was the real cool guy," responded Schwarzenegger. "We were talking along the lines of me playing the heroic character."

Cameron said he thought Schwarzenegger was also coming in to read for the part of Reese, but then when they both went to a lunch meeting they both were thinking that it would be great if Schwarzenegger played the Terminator.

"When I went to that lunch ... in the back of my mind I was thinking the Terminator, you were thinking the Terminator, but we sit and we had this polite lunch because we'd never met each other and neither one of us mentions it," recalled Cameron. "And then we both go back to our guys and say, 'Terminator.'"

Schwarzenegger says Cameron then had a painting sent over to his office of Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.

"I looked at this painting and I said, 'I am the Terminator,'" Schwarzenegger recalled.

Schwarzenegger says right after that he called both his agent and Cameron to tell them he wanted to be the Terminator.

[Asura]

I saw Running Man a couple of years ago after decades and really enjoyed it. I'd say his best films to me are Predator or Running Man. The Terminator is a classic that holds up. But lol I'd vote Commando! Every time. Oh yeah my fave has to be Total Recall as it's a Verhoeven film.

This might seem a weird thing to say, but Running Man has "de-aged" to me.

Like when I watched it originally, it felt really sci-fi (if a bit camp). Then when I watched it in the early 2000s, it felt really dated. Now it feels surprisingly relevant again.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah that happens. Even the camp thing I think can go around in a circle a bit, mainly because each decade likes to burn the previous decade to the ground. Revisit it after that and some things that didn’t hold up only because we wanted something new in the next decade holds up all over again. It’s like the synth scores of the ‘80s. For a long time, they made a movie feel old and cheap. Now, they’re totally cool again. You just have to get past that “burn it to the ground” phase to really see how it holds up. And yeah, Running Man is very relevant and enjoyable.

[monel]

Running Man seems quite relevant now if I remember right because of the so called reality television genre and the cynical nature of the media. It goes well with the original Robocop, perhaps. Funnily enough I always loved synth scores as I enjoyed them as a kid. Some of the popular 80s films take digs at the establishment too which is much rarer nowadays at least in mainstream stuff.

[Dogg Thang]

Definitely. Some felt more overtly subversive.

[QualityChimp]

The Running Man has aged ridiculously for me.
It's fun and there's some great lines but it's a lot simpler than I remembered.

The main thing for me is that I've discovered the book and the audiobook especially. It's read by Kevin Kenerly, who delivers a sublime performance.

It's clever, dark, thrilling and terrifying.

If you mooch around, there are copies floating about the web, but Amazon have it.

The Running Man https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01H0INT..._cDIsBb8W6T184

[Neon Ignition]

Hmm, see between the two poll front runners atm I think I'd go with Total Recall there too over T1.
So much to love over T1 which is more limited for Arnie despite how well he does imposing.

[JazzFunk]

BANG OOOOOON!!!!!!

[QualityChimp]

Again, it's whether you're voting for film or performance. I think I still prefer T1. It's that low-budget 80s vibe that I love.

Remember when rmoxon went a bit bonkers over two threads when I kept suggesting Quaid really was still trapped in the fantasy and the fade out at the end is his lobotomy?

http://bordersdown.net/threads/115201-Best-Blu-Ray-of-Total-Recall?p=1983338

http://bordersdown.net/threads/96569-Total-Recall-%28remake%29/page3

[QualityChimp]

To clarify, I was being a bit of tinker winding him up.

I also liked rmoxon, he was really knowledgeable and enthusiastic, but I couldn't understand why he could never accept different people have different opinions.