My Top 10: Arnold Schwarzenegger Films

The man, the legend that is Arnold Schwarzenegger has had quite the career, both in and out of the film industry.
After beginning as a highly successful bodybuilder from the mid 60's and throughout the 70's, his breakthrough in the early 80's saw him become the next big action film star. He might not have made many critically successful films. But he certainly brought in a certain type of audience to the theatres that can't get enough of his action blockbusters. He even dipped into some comedies that certain demographics grew fond of.
While now being more into politics and business, he still has time to be involved in a few upcoming features.

Before I give my top 10, just missing out are a couple of films that deserve an honorable mention. Jingle All The Way is a real guilty pleasure of mine, and not just during Christmas.
Despite the obvious silliness of it all, it's funny, it's exciting and has a great Christmas spirit to it.
Dont' forget, this is probably the only film people associate Jake Lloyd with, outside of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. It also gives a great portrayal about consumerism during the holiday season.

Also missing out, is Conan The Barbarian. This was the breakthrough film for Schwarzenegger and one that is much loved by film lovers. It sees Arnie play a warrior on the path to avenge his parents deaths from an evil sorcerer. The action and look of it is solid and the music is much grander then you would originally think.

Out of his 45 films, I have seen 33 of them. I will rank all of the films that I have seen, and then give a short review of each of my top 10:

33) Batman & Robin
32) Around The World In 80 Days
31) Junior
30) Red Sonja
29) The Expendables 3
28) Raw Deal
27) The Expendables 2
26) The Last Stand
25) The Destroyer
24) Twins
23) Commando
22) Sabotage
21) Eraser
20) Terminator: Dark Fate
19) Collateral Damage
18) The 6th Day
17) Aftermath
16) Escape Plan
15) Red Heat
14) End Of Days
13) Jingle All The Way
12) Terminator Genisys

11) Conan The Barbarian

10) Kindergarten Cop - Surprisingly charming, and then some.

The premise sounds like it will fall into his other comedies. But this manages to work, and I think that is mainly thanks to the chemistry Arnie has with the kids and the directing of Ivan Reitman.

Still nothing exceptional. But it manages to work better than many others.

9) Last Action Hero - Really wish I saw this as a kid. A great concept that was a pretty good watch.

Arnie plays fictional character Jack Slater, who's world is turned upside when a boy from the real world gets transported into his latest film.

It's good fun with a surprising stellar cast list. I would certainly not say no to a modern re-make.

8) Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines - A bit of an underrated installment in the Terminator franchise. While it is clearly inferior to its predecessors, it is still a solid fun time.

The action is great to watch, Kristanna Loken does an impressive job as the T-X and I think it has an exciting final act.

7) The Running Man - Based on the Stephen King novel, Schwarzenegger plays a wrongly convicted man who must survive a deadly game show.

The concept kept me interested and Arnie's one liners really worked.

It is interesting to see it now, especially as it's set between 2017 and 2019.

6) Maggie - Something out of Schwarzenegger's comfort zone and one that for me worked rather well.

In the midst of a zombie apocalypse, a father stays by the side of his infected daughter during her finals days before the transformation is complete.

The tone is slow-burn, sombre and one that Arnie managed to never feel out of place.

5) True Lies - A really fun and exciting action film that most people forget was directed by James Cameron.

While he fears his wife is having an affair, a secret agent must prevent nuclear warheads being smuggled into America by terrorists.

It also has a super sexy performance by Jaime Lee Curtis.

4) Total Recall - A gripping sci-fi action thriller based on the novel by Phillip K. Dick.

After going on a virtual vacation to Mars, a series of unexpected events force him to go the planet for real.

While the wonderful practical effects from director Paul Verhoeven steal the show, Schwarzenegger's performance adds to the charm of the first big hits of the 1990's.

3) Predator - The film that proved that Schwarzenegger was not a one-hit wonder. This terrifically tense sci-fi action thriller is so to watch and gave us one of the most iconic movie monsters.

With Carl Wethers, Bill Duke and Jesse Ventura having solid supporting roles, Arnold managed to hold and carry the film as the lead.
It was a real shame that the majority of critics did not praise this on its release.

2) The Terminator - The film that saw the birth of James Cameron and Schwarzenegger's as global successes within the film industry.

This action sci-fi with elements of slasher is gripping from the first minute. It is hard to imagine this being over 30 years old now.

It was the role Schwarzenegger was born to play, a big robot that shows no emotion.

1) Terminator 2: Judgment Day - After the first failed attempt of killing the mother of John Connor, a more advanced Terminator is sent back in time to kill John himself, but as a kid.

This film saw Arnie at the peak of his powers.
After the success of the first Terminator, Schwarzenegger is back. But this time, his character has his comedic moments and he delivers it beautifully to give this the edge over the original.

Review: American Made

Films about drugs usually don't get me going nuts for it, before or after seeing the film.
I'm not sure why. It might be because the people we're supposed to pull for are doing illegal stuff.

However, what was enticing me was Doug Liman being director and it starring Tom Cruise.
In terms of Liman's success, I would say he's made any hits as misses. However, he is currently on a pretty good streak at this moment in time. In 2014, Liman probably made the surprise hit of the year in the form of summer blockbuster Edge Of Tomorrow. It was such a shame the box office never matched the reviews. Liman has actually already released a film earlier this year called The Wall which was reall enjoyable.
As for Cruise, I am always interested in whatever his next project. People may associated him with the 1990's, but I still think he has some big films in him. I would say this decade has been a bit of mixed bag. 2017 hasn't been good so far for Cruise as The Mummy was not that good and the general consensus is pretty much the same.

I ended up being surprised at how fun and entertaining it was. The story really is quite extraordinary and chaotic as they say in the trailers. The pacing is solid throughout, there were moments that made me laugh, made me genuinely shocked and another thing that helped me enjoy this, was the fun nature the director had with the story.

Tom Cruise's performance was also a big help for me enjoying this. It was hard to not see Tom Cruise in this role. His presence and charisma worked really well with the tone.
All the supporting and minor roles did their job well. Alejandro Edda, Domhnall Gleeson was a solid support and did well with the little screen time he had and Sarah Wright was perfectly fine also.
Caleb Landry Jones manages to be a bit of scene-stealer for the short time he is on screen. A final note on the performances goes to a couple of actors that I was happy to see, in the form of Jesse Plemons and Jayma Mays.

There was not anything bad about the film. If I was being picky, the cinematography looked a bit messy at times and the shift in tone did not quite work all the time.
But I think the story just not engaging me enough for an exceptional rating could make this a bit of a forgettable picture.

However, I think the fun nature Liman and his team gave to it will make this an above average film of all those other types of drug related movies such as War Dogs or Wolf Of Wall Street. It even had small similarities to Catch Me If You Can.

It definitely won't reach any dramatic heights. But it is still a fun time and entertaining slice of American criminal history. It's one of the few drug films that I would happily watch again.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Detroit

Kathryn Bigelow has somewhat being creating a true story loose trilogy of sorts with The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and now Detroit.

I don't love The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. I thought the former was really good but not Best Picture worthy and the latter was slow but had a very tense ending.

As for her latest project, all I know about the Detroit race riots in the 1960's was that, there were riots. That's about it. But I have seen enough films set at the same sort of time period to understand that racial tensions were at critical level. So I kind of knew what to expect.

The opening segment is rather strange and unexpected. But once that is over, you are thrown right into the riots. It is some of the most unsettling, horrifying and upsetting content I have seen put to film for some time.
There are countless set-pieces that just felt so raw and truly horrifying. Then the final act starts to mirror those events with today's society and the connection is quite astounding.

Every performance is phenomenal. What was the most impressive part, was that none of the big names in the film are treated like a film star. They felt like real people in this situation and blend in well with the lesser known actors.
I have to start with Will Poulter. His character is a real piece of work. Poulter's performance beautifully sells the ugly nature of the Detroit Police Department at that time. It is the most terrifying performance I have seen for some time. You can almost label as a horror villain.
John Boyega was an impressive stand-out. It felt very sincere and sympathetic. Plus, his American accent is right on the money.
The only other big names in this that I noticed were Jack Reynor and Anthony Mackie. Like I said previously, they are never put in the limelight. But instead are put right in the mix and treated more like minor roles.
There are plenty of stand-outs elsewhere. Most notably Algee Smith. This is a star in the making, both in acting and singing as his character has a number of moments involving singing Motown which is a joyful shift away from the main story. Other actors worth mentioning for their performances are Jacob Latimore, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever and Ben O'Toole.

As well as the opening segment, the only other thing that let me down was the ending. While the stuff on screen was good, it just felt it over-stayed its welcome. It also fizzled out a few character arc's.

Bigelow has given us something so impactful and could end up being one of my films of the year. She most definitely does not let up on the violence, the tension and helped gives us some terrific performances. Herself and her team manages to put the viewer in a situation that many have probably never experienced. It made me to not want to be part of this and I wanted to get out of there. With Detroit in a literal war zone, and the police using extraordinary and inhuman methods to interrogate people amazed me as to what humans are capable of in the worst possible way.
The whole film made me unsettled, upset, angry, but also heavily gripped, very tense and generally astonished at the events taking place on screen.
I have to mention the documentary-esque camera style also. It really added to the chaotic atmosphere.

While this review is heavily praising the film, the rating below might be good, but not a score that reflects the review. It's hard to explain. But there's a certain special feeling I get off films that I give an exceptional for. This came damn close, but not quite. Those extra marks comes to personal views I'm afraid.

Saying that should not detract my overall feelings of the film. So much of the film had the same reactions you would normally expect to have in a horror film. I would not be surprised if this would end up as the scariest film of the year, and yet it was not a horror.
Despite all of what I saw on screen, the scariest part for me was how much of it mirrored today's society, especially in America.

I can see this doing well as a play, because a lot of it was very contained in one spot. It may be a tough movie to watch. But it is one that is essential viewing, because people need to know about these events.
I'm hopeful this gets involved in the major awards, and that it does well.

Rating: 8/10

Review: The Dark Tower

Movies adapted from a Stephen King have a rich history with successes like The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Shining, Carrie, Stand By Me and The Running Man.
However, there have been many disappointments that I have lost count on.

The marketing and hype for The Dark Tower has been building up for sometime now. With it being in the works for about a decade, it is finally being put to film. The buzz was pretty big and the concept sounded great. That is until about a month before its release. Reports were coming in that several people working on it were fearful of the reactions from the fans.

Despite all of that, I as usual went in with an open mind. Now that I've seen it, it is most certainly not a total mess. But it is first and foremost, a disappointment.
That being said, you can see a lot of potential throughout this sci-fi action blockbuster. Whenever it showed you something interesting whether it be character development or within its world, it always seemed to get brushed over and moved swiftly into something else. Then before you know it, it's over in 90 minutes. For something that I believe is nine books, to compile it into a short duration is ridiculous. But I did hear somewhere that it is a continuation from the books. Hearing mixed signals on what it is supposed to be sounds like a combination of bad marketing and that the studio and film-makers had no idea what to do with this beloved source material.

They skim over so much. Something with such a vast amount of world-building should never get out before it even got started. It was like the complete opposite of what Peter Jackson did with The Hobbit. Doing this will never get anyone invested in the story or the characters.

Thankfully, there are a healthy amount of good stuff to talk about. I like the performances. I was impressed by child actor Tom Taylor. He gave me a very believable character and his acting had a lot of range that he used at the right times.
Idris Elba was pretty solid. There was an interesting character in there. But like a lot of this film, it was never fully fleshed out. As for Matthew McConaughey, I enjoyed his performance. He came off as terrifying and was given some great lines that he executed rather well. You can see him having fun with this. But it is a shame that we only scratched the surface of him as I think this could have been a very memorable movie villain.

I have not read any of the installments of the book series, and seeing this made want to read the books. For someone who has not read a book in full in years, that is not a good thing.
This film is a real shame. If the film-makers let this story breathe and give us the duration it deserves, this would have been a real thrill ride of sci-fi action.
I did have fun with it though. I like the mythology, the gadgets and the performances. But the general rushed nature of it just had me thinking this was wasted potential. If this had better directing, if the studio have more faith the story and had a more vast script, this could have been a really good blockbuster with great re-watchability.

You don't learn much about the world. It's like they expected you have read the books or they were setting up a franchise. Every film-maker's goal should be to just make a great film. But sadly, the world we live in has too many examples of films that are set-ups for future films that you may not necessarily get in the end.
For a something like a Stephen King novel, you need to commit to the source material, and they just did not do that.

Despite its problems, there is enough in here that gets a pass rating for me, and that is solely on the potential you can see whilst watching it. This will forever be labelled as a missed opportunity. I can see fans of the book series being horrified by it and thinking this a film that no one wanted.

Rating: 7/10

Review: A Ghost Story

When any film does well at the Sundance Film Festival, it is only natural for me to be interested on what its UK release date is.

The title does suggest a horror film. But if you see the trailers and the film itself, it is most certainly NOT a horror film. It does have some very minor horror tropes. But on the whole, it is more of romantic drama with some small sci-fi elements. It is hard to describe why without spoiling it. Using other movies, I would call it an avant-garde version of Ghost, with elements and similar themes of Interstellar, Donnie Darko, Cloud Atlas and weirdly Troy.

This is definitely not a film for everyone. The pacing is very slow, it is quiet for the majority of the film, there is little dialogue and the themes are quite complex and are mainly told from a visual standpoint. I'm not trying to sound superior. It's just that this type of film is clearly not for mainstream audiences. But if you want to be swept away with this deeply fascinating story, then by all means discover it for yourself.
At first I was really unsure about it. But after a development during the second act, I gradually warmed to it and ended up being gripped by it. Now I want to know more about.

There's only two major roles in it, in the form of Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, and they are great both individually and together. Casey Affleck is really getting into a hot streak of top performances. He has certainly not let up after his Oscar win earlier this year. As for Mara, it was not until her performance in Carol that I felt her to be such a terrifically powerful actor and not just a pretty face.

What I think gives this film that special quality, is that it is definitely the type of film that will be analysed and discussed at length for years to come, whether it is seen as a great film or not. It will certainly make me think whilst trying to go to sleep for the next few weeks.
It is a weird fascination to be confused by a film that you really liked. This fits perfectly. There are some extraordinary scenes that show great symbolism, it has huge and ambitious ideas and to tell it pretty much visually is quite impressive.

I did have some problems with it, and it was all pretty much in the first act. But as the film went on, the more important they felt later on. However, the long takes in that part of the film still felt unnecessary in its length.

The technical side of the film was top notch all-round. The cinematography is gorgeous to look at. That as well as the haunting and dreamy score and the Polaroid screen aspect ratio made this quite an atmospheric experience.

I felt I wouldn't like this at the start. But by the end of it, I was quite impressed by it. Despite some excessive lingering scenes in the opening act, it is a really good human story. It is quite a unique and equally plausible portrayal of life, death and the theory of the occult. It explores grief really well, and that there are a fair amount of recent films with similar themes on grieving that have won me over like Demolition, Rabbit Hole or Moonlight Mile.
It will be very interesting to see if this has a chance of fairing well in the major awards, or its experimental style might not fit in well with the voters.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Atomic Blonde

Despite not wanting to see any of the trailers, the images and the description of this film gave me enough of a feeling of a female version of John Wick.

That is pretty much what you get.

However, it is only in terms of the action choreography and cinematography. The rest of it is something closer to modern James Bond, Jason Bourne or Mission: Impossible. What all of that ends up being is a fun spy action thriller with some of the best fight and car chase sequences you'll see this year.

There are two great performances to speak of. Charlize Theron continues to be for me the best physical female actor ever. Seeing her in Mad Max: Fury Road reminded how good she is, and Atomic Blonde cemented my views on how well she sells the action and how dedicated she is in the training that is required.
James McAvoy's gave the film a welcomed edge to it with a very well done unhinged performance that seems to become his wheelhouse for top roles.
It is always great to see Sofia Boutella. She is most certainly an female action star in the making. But her role seemed to be more dialogue based rather than physical. I thought she did a solid job and that for me bodes well for her future where I hope to see her take the leading role.
Despite not having much screen time, Toby Jones and John Goodman were great in their minor roles. One final actor I wanted to mention was Til Schweiger. He might not have been given much to do. But it was just great to see him on screen again. Most people will probably know him for playing Hugo Stiglitz in Inglourious Basterds.

Many of the fight scenes were brutal to watch and could certainly give the John Wick action scenes a run for their money. There is one stand-out scene that is one long take that is worth the admission ticket alone. Props to all involved as that looked tricky to execute.

Now to its problems, and thankfully none of them are major ones. While on the whole I really liked the soundtrack, it did feel over-used at times. It fitted the period well for the most part. But there were moments that just felt like music for the sake of it and it did not mesh well with some of the scenes.

Another few minor gripes I had was the story, character development and the ending. There were scenes in the final act that felt rushed and the over convoluted plot had me struggling to fit everything into place. The frenetic pace did not help either. I think maybe a better editor could be the first solution that comes to mind.

Despite all of that preventing me from calling this a great film, I still had a fun time. With David Leitch directing this, we seem to be entering a promising new age for action films. It seems directors like Leitch with a heavy amount of stunt work in their back catalogue is the way forward to give us the action we deserve.
While John Wick had the same great action, it also had a intriguing mythology within its world. As for Atomic Blonde, there is little outside of the action. The story is something we've seen before, and the complexities were never fulfilled.
That being said, maybe it just needs a few re-watches to fully get the plot. But on a first viewing, the action did more than enough to have be gripped as well as good performances and beautiful and stylish imagery.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets

Luc Besson is a director that Iam pleased is still around making films today.
Like The Wachowski's, these are blockbuster directors that regularly go outside of the regular formula of summer films.

I always admire there films, as it still gives me hope of summer films that have a style of original film-making and story-telling.
While Valerian is based on a comic book series, the whole look of it is definitely something I don't see that often in a film with a huge budget.

Sadly unlike The Wachowski's who I feel have made a lot of great films, I have only seen two successes from Besson. That is in the form of Leon and The Fifth Element. The majority of his work, I would call honorable failures.
What gave me hope about his latest project, is that it had an air of The Fifth Element about it.

The majority of the content in the first two acts is rather spectacular. It has many striking visuals and imagery and the pacing of the action was rather exciting.  There are plenty of set-pieces in these acts that are visually spectacular, breath-taking, highly imaginative and generally super cool. There were also minor moments of shift in tone that did not quite work and the comedic moments were feeling forced and fell flat.
Sadly, the final act just emphasized those two negatives and the pay-off ended up being generic, weak and had no impact at all.

Firstly, I love the idea of the story that was developed, especially in the opening scene. You can really feel a heavy amount of world-building throughout this film and the amount of detail given to each part. As expected, I definitely saw similarities to The Fifth Element. But I also saw a bit of Avatar, John Carter, Jupiter Ascending, Hellboy and even Star Wars in there as well.

There was a lot of CGI as well as a fair amount of practical sets which was good to see. There were plenty of CGI characters in both major and minor roles that I really liked both in the character itself and their design and I felt they fitted the tone well. The visual effects as well as the impressive costume designs could give this film a healthy amount of Oscar nominations in those categories.

As for the negatives, there are a fair amount of time. Thankfully, most of them just felt like disappointments rather than it just being plain bad.

The final act is certainly the weakest part of the film. After all the build-up, the ending just felt like something out of any other action film, and the very final ending just a big pile of nothing. It was a shame to not have that positive feeling when leaving the cinema.

Another major negative was the casting choices of Dane DeHaan and Cara Delavigne. They just did not work for me. I was already skeptical of their choices. DeHaan has shown great potential. But this film for me proved he cannot lead a blockbuster. For his character being a supposed bad-ass, DeHaan did not show me that. As for Delavigne, being known more for her modelling is enough to doubt the reasoning for her casting. Don't get me wrong, I saw her potential in Suicide Squad, and she did feel more engaging than DeHaan. But sadly they had next to no chemistry, felt memorable or were people I could believe in and support to achieving their goal. I could be cruel and say they were essentially eye-candy. However, I will defend that statement by saying that a lot of their scenes looked to be on green screen. That is always tough for even the most seasoned of actors, so I give them some benefit of the doubt.
Clive Owen felt either wasted or over-qualified for a role that had little screen-time. As seen in the trailers, there is a small role for Rhianna. Her entrance is quite something and is a very pleasing set-piece. Sam Spurell gave a good performance for the type of character he was given. There was a nice surprise appearance from a major actor that effectively played a semi-cameo.

As mentioned before, there are so many moments of comedy and romance that just don't work. You can see them trying. But it just did not feel convincing at all.

Another couple of negatives I want to mention was that I would have liked some backstory of our main characters. And finally, the pacing felt fairly inconsistent. Each scene or set-piece did not seem to flow well into the next one. That bugged me.

While there was certainly a lot too like about it, my overall feeling of it was an almost entertaining sci-fi epic. Yes the visual and practical effects, character designs, world-building and original gadgets involved were top work. Sadly, the main characters and writing were not strong enough to give us something special.
Its heart is in the right place, and there is some fun to be had. It has inconsistent tone shifts at times, highly uneven and the humor on the whole did not work. That is also in relation to the chemistry with DeHaan and Delavigne. If you feel that your main characters aren't gelling well, then the writing will most likely follow suit.

I can see this film begin a cult following and it is certainly Besson's best film since The Fifth Element, which also grew a cult following. Maybe this is the ball park Besson should keep to? However, I would give it at least five more years before Besson makes another feature. I would like to see him give enough time and give us something that remind us how great of a film-maker he can be in todays industry.

Once you've seen this, I would possibly recommend watching/re-watching The Fifth Element to remind how something with a similar scope can be executed with great success, and by the same director.

Rating: 7/10