While Cameron would make better, more ambitious, and certainly more successful projects in the decades to come, none would feel so foundational to Cameron’s auteurism as The Terminator

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 1, 2024

Despite its simple plot and uninspired dialogue, The Terminator is an otherwise well-oiled machine propelled forward by the strength of James Cameron’s direction, Stan Winston’s special effects, and Schwarzenegger’s terrifying performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 7, 2024

Perhaps no other villain of the 80s is as iconic as Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator.

Full Review | Jul 18, 2023

This action flick has more than a few moments of intimacy, lyricism and tenderness as it confronts the bleak prospects for mankind from a matriarchal point of view.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 5, 2022

It's a powerhouse sci-fi action adventure which is undeniably the most thrill-packed movie- going experience for ages

Full Review | Jul 21, 2022

Although not a horror movie in the strictest sense, the film also introduced us to one of cinema's most iconic final girls...

Full Review | Jun 10, 2021

Never has a role been so perfectly sculpted for the Austrian bodybuilder, who possesses a powerful screen presence with little more than his menacing silhouette.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 8, 2020

Though the production design is a bit flimsy at times, both the big ideas at work and director James Cameron's brilliance as a proactive, inventive filmmaker generate a powerful flow that cannot help but sweep viewers totally away.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 12, 2020

Sarah Connor's origin feels real and grounded in a way that most (super)hero stories never manage. She doesn't have wealth or fame. She doesn't get dosed with super juice.

Full Review | Nov 25, 2019

A fantastic blend of horror, action, and sci-fi.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Oct 2, 2019

Normally, Schwarzenegger's wooden on-screen presence is laughably bad, but his limited range works perfectly in this role.

Full Review | Jul 4, 2019

Forget that the premise is silly and the acting second-rate because director James Cameron has the action formula down pat.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2018

"The Terminator" brings film violence into the realm of the surreal.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2018

Those nightmares we've all had about being chased by some relentless, unstoppable monster? This is the movie adaptation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 18, 2017

Much of Terminator's greatness is due to its low-budget aesthetic and lo-fi energy; perhaps out of necessity, Cameron's sense of storytelling has a lean efficiency that both he and the series have long since abandoned.

Full Review | May 28, 2016

You almost forget the film's flaws - like the cartoony look of the war-ravaged future. Here, the most absurd excursion is believable and we go along willingly - stopping now and then for a breath or a laugh.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2015

The havoc makes for a genuine steel metal trap of a movie that may very well be the best picture of its kind since The Road Warrior.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2015

Getting the extraordinary physical specimen of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the lead was a stroke of genius and a stroke of fortune. Each of his pecs is the size of a bull's flank.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 25, 2015

Damn close to perfect.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 15, 2015

Cameron maintains the heedless, non sequitur pace of a nightmare without resorting to cheap tactics. The frights of these nightmares, those cracked reflections of reality, hardly feel manufactured or inauthentic. And neither does "The Terminator."

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 30, 2014