Genre – SciFi Action
Movie Total Runtime – 1 Hour 54 Minutes
Spoilers – Yes
Absolutely a Blockbuster Bargain Bin acquisition, I never watched this because I never had any interest in doing so.
The movie starts in a prison where a cancer-stricken researcher is trying to get a convicted murderer to sign himself over to science with the cybernetics division of Cyberdyne. He is then executed by lethal injection. They linger on the sequence as though there were any suspense to it. It cuts to a text summary of the Skynet strike and the war. That transitions to a raid on the VLA… or rather a Skynet facility. The interior of the facility looks like a sewer level. Who puts a cybernetic lab in a sewer-like environment? You’ll get too many losses from biological contaminants. At least keep the area clean. Apparently this facility is supplying the T-800 project with materials. We don’t spend too long here as the whole place nuclear self-destructs and off-brand John Connor’s helo crashes. As far as we can tell, he’s the only survivor of this operation on the human side.
After off-brand Jonny is evacced, someone else crawls from the wreckage. I can’t tell who it is because all these postapocalyptic hollywood white guys look alike. It might be the muderer from the opening.
Suddenly off-brand Jonny is jumping out of an osprey into the ocean to be picked up by a submarine who didn’t want him. They still tell him what he wants to know, despite having told him to go away.
Soon we find a big flaw in the cinematography. The individual scenes are too short to even establish who and where. I can’t really get a bead on who these characters are. However, we find another element of the post apocalypse. The guys are all dirty and sweaty, while the girls are perfectly clean, groomed, and wearing just a touch of makeup. I guess those Fallout Mods aren’t wrong after all.
The reuse of the line “Come with me if you want to live” when rando guy finds re-alived murderer is more of an annoyance than a memberberry. As are the looney tunes contraptions used against the T-600 chasing him. I’m supposed to believe the rando is supposed to be Kyle Reece. He isn’t.
The writers are trying their darndest to make me dislike any character with more than two lines – which is scant few. The extra-short scenes do not help the storytelling. Why do these people not ask why the re-alive murderer does not know anything from the past 15 years? We’re talking enough red flags for a mayday parade.
How does the resistance still have A-10 Warthogs in the air? I’m not asking if they can maintain them – how do they keep them supplied with fuel, bombs, and 30mm rounds? I suppose the filmmakers are trying to distract us by having a four story robot attack. The CGI action scenes are supposed to distract from a lack of storytelling engagement. But I don’t care about these characters, I don’t know these characters. The improbable luck needed to survive these action scenes doesn’t help any. Wit? Skill? Foreshadowing? Who needs them when we have CGI robots and ‘splosions? Though the action scenes are at least longer than the micro scenes used for everything else.
Halfway through the movie and I’m not angry, just bored.
After the reveal that re-alived murderer is *gasp* a cyborg, we get one scene with decent effects when he’s immobile. Once he starts to move, the bad CGI becomes obvious. It is worse than what we had in the first movie.
After shouting at command, off-brand Jonny incites insubordination among other resistance cells poised to attack. Mostly because Not Kyle is in the line of fire.
I literally paused and mouthed an “oh fer fuck’s sake” when they had off-brand Jonny drop an “I’ll be back.” It’s as if the filmmakers are going “See, see, it’s something from those films you liked.” I would prefer something of quality in this film rather than references to better works.
More looney tunes technology nets off-brand Jonny a terminator bike which he rides to the climactic encounter of the movie.
For whatever reason re-alive murderer has Skynet console privileges and after walking into the base is able to pull up any info he wants and turn off the perimeter defenses. He does get a database update with the events of judgement day in exchange. And the autodoc repairs his human parts because cheap CGI is expensive.
I also rolled my eyes at the Vaio product placement during the infiltration.
I am having trouble with Skynet’s motive in having a conversation with re-alive murderer rather than just re-encoding for the next mission. I know the bad writers need to do exposition, but it makes no sense to even have a conversation.
In a case of the memberberries, CGI Ahnold beats up off-brand Jonny some leading re-alive murderer to rip out his machine interface so he can end the cutscene. Uncanny valley Ahnold is expensive, so they hit him with a few grenades to make him into an endoskeleton. That’s cheaper to animate. They fight and they fight and they fight until T-800 punches the heart out of re-alive murderer.
Fatality!
I wish. It was just a punch that incapacitates the re-alive murderer for a bit.
T-800 is immobilized while off-brand Jonny tries to revive re-alive murderer. Shockingly, an electrical jolt does it. T-800 breaks free in time to impale off-brand Jonny so re-alive murderer can take it out. Getting skewered doesn’t really bode well. But apparently an open field is the perfect place for field medicine. It just tracks, right? I mean, who doesn’t want to do a cardiac transplant with no walls and dust blowing through? They take the heart out of re-alive murderer to fix up off-brand Jonny. I can’t let this go. The middle of a field under some camo netting is no place where they can do a heart transplant. When you crack open the rib cage, the lungs can’t do their job. When you cut out the heart, it’s no longer doing its job. To cover these problems we use a heart-lung bypass machine that takes over circulation and respiration until the new heart is stitched in and the ribs closed. These delicate machines are only found in specific transplant and trauma centers today. In the post apocalypse, I doubt your average emergency medical team is going to be carrying one around.
I do give the writers credit for one thing – the events could be fit into the regular continuity without retcons. I may not like their movie, but it doesn’t do what other later installments do. It does, however leech off of audience attachment to characters from earlier films rather than try to establish any connection themselves. The references and callbacks don’t add anything, and in fact detract.
Insultingly, a film with such bad special effects that I constantly rag on them is dedicated to the memory of Stan Winston.
It’s not really worth the two hours.
Production Code S01E012
I think this covered my thoughts in this one.
I gave up after the third one, it covered the bases and filled out the story.
The End
Sounds good! I’ll have see what streaming service offers it.
I was about to say I don’t have any streaming services, but I technically have access to Prime since I pay for the cheap delivery subscription. I can’t recall the last time I’ve used their streaming service.
To me, Terminator is a zombie franchise. Everything after T2 isn’t worth watching.
But then, I’m not a fan of sequals. Most movies need to be a one and done.
I liked T3 but yeah the later ones are crap.
I’m mostly of that opinion — but Sarah Connor Chronicles has too many good moments (like “Self Made Man”) for me to dismiss it.
Linda Hamilton > Lena Headey
I wouldn’t kick either out of bed…
It’s Headley…
I’m pretty sure I never even watched the original one all the way through. It probably showed up on free TV at some point, but I don’t remember enough for it to count.
relevant:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/experts-warn-ai-stuffed-animals-could-fundamentally-change-human-brain-wiring-in-kids/ar-AA1LAF7j
I can’t find the clip, but it was a parody redub of the Skynet sentry guns talking as Marcus enters the base. It gave me a good laugh.
I have been told, maybe by someone here, that the reason for so many crappy movies these days is the movie companies cranking out anything, no matter how shitty, to preserve copyrights.
What good is a copyright on an outdated, ruined storyline? The story is played out, the characters reduced to two dimensional cardboard cutouts going through the motions with recycled tired schtick ….to what end?
It’s not copyright, which lasts nigh on forever, but the lease on the right to make the movies, which reverts if no product is made.
These days? Generally to make money in China would be my guess.
Oh. *headslap* Of course.
It’s a combination of things, but movies are crap because they are made by people who are significantly less talented than the people who used to make movies. It’s cliche to blame DEI, but when you start casting writers and directors based on skin color or vagina-status over talent, you end up with shit.
Of course, there’s another reason studios latch on to young and inexperienced creatives. They can control them easier.
Right along with the casting of creatives based on diversity, you get the need to insert the progressive message into anything and everything.
Hollywood no longer knows how to make good shit by and large.
Don’t forget #metoo.
Right or not, that movement had a big effect.
I think it must have something to do with risk / reward strategy that the studios are using, as well. It’s why you’re seeing fewer, bigger bets placed on movies that are derivative works (sequels, remakes, movies based on comics, movies based on TV shows) of something else familiar and successful, rather than more, smaller bets on original concepts.
Which is probably directly related to, as Rhy points out, Chi-Na.
Make Hollywood Great Again?
“ I guess those Fallout Mods aren’t wrong after all.”
🤣😂
Bring back Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!
Fuck. Yes.
That was a good show.
If you hated this, you’re in for a very special time with Dark Fate.
Thankfully, I don’t own that one.
I think Blockbuster went away before it showed up.
That one was so terrible I am pretty sure I erased it from memory.
I’ve never told anyone, but powerful Firsting AI sent a machine back to murder the unborn me, but my mother survived.
Terminator is in fact based on me.
If he didn’t have cyborg protecting him, John Connor would have regularly had the snot beat out of him in middle school because he was an annoying little twat.
I was Firsting your mother when I was in middle school.
Hello, Harlan Ellison? Is that you?
Despite his reputation for being particularly surly, towards the end of his life, Harlan tried making humorous short form video content. His jokes didn’t go over so well with internet puritans. He gave it up after the comments got to him.
“Repent Harlan,” said the TikTok man.
/shpip
(golf clap)
Bravo!
watching last night’s Mark Levin. He is on one of his usual spittle flecked rants.
Everyone knows the Obumble admin was a bunch of tin-pot, banana republic monkeys but it looks like the proof is coming out.
Watched MTG on Tucker skewer Levin perfectly.
Tonio sighting
Not Tonio.
Leandros did nothing wrong.
/End of Line
https://twitchy.com/amy-curtis/2025/08/31/greta-thunberg-global-uprising-gaza-n2418213
Where’s OMWC?
That begs the question: What hair style would look good in that face?
Shaved, as needed for a lice check.
You led me to this. I now have to know that this shit exists. And someone above asked why Hollywood can’t make good shit anymore.
It aint the Chinese commies. It’s the homegrown American ones.
😂🤣
I can’t wait for the ripped-from-the-headlines tranny shooter episode.
They aren’t even good commies. They are bad at everything. Crap like that is all over Apple TV and Netflix like white in rice.
Today’s meal was Cajun seafood boil: taters, corn, crab, halibut, shrimp, crawfish, and andouille sausage. My 8 gallon pot was about 7-3/4 gallons full – about 1 gallon per person. We put a good dent in it.
Steak, unfortunately overdone because it was thinner than I thought, with a red wine from Portugal’s Dão DOC.
Perfectly done porterhouses here with grilled Kabocha.
Venison, corn on the cob, garden salad.
Roast beef sandwiches with dipping sauce. Tomorrow are nice New York Strip steaks.
Since we are discussing food, any thoughts on pickling vs. fermentation? I have Okra and green beans to experiment with.
I have had poor luck with fermenting things. I made a batch of fermented dill pickles a few years, but it got overtaken by mold. Same with two batches of sauer kraut last year.
Classic pickling has worked best for me. Dill pickles, pickled beets, dilly beans…
Okra should be picked…and then thrown in the compost pile.
I will defend okra. Okay, I only like it one way.
Corn meal breading, deep fried, covered in cheese sauce. Or a good gravy.
You can deep fry anything and cover it in cheese to make it tolerable. At that point, what’s the point of the okra?
I have had okra twice. I forget where the first restaourant was, the second was the Big tecan in Amarillo.
Both times it was fried and it was just fine.
I understand that if cooked wrong it can get slimy, but my small sample size has not suffered that fate.
I usually grill it with light oil and chili seasoning. I do not cut it. Delicious.
I also enjoy it pickled whole.
Of course I am a green monster…
True. That being said, sauce/gravy is meant to complement the dish, not drown it. Plus, we must remain Glibfit.
I say this as one who loves gravy , don’t over sauce your food.
Rotisserie chicken on the new rotiserator for dinner, with potato salad. Fried tofu and mashed potato for the missus.
Finely diced chicken thighs in spicy alfredo sauce and egg noodles.
Smoked Chicken drums. Four variations, SP&G as a control, Chili powder and hot sauce, Italian seasoning, and some generic Sam’s club Steakhouse rub. We also smoked some bacon wrapped stuffed Jalapeños. And some of the degenerates smoked some devils lettuce.
The Chili powder was the favorite but they were all tasty.
I can’t wait to get teeth again so I can have proper chicken.
Salmon on the grill – meant to be cedar planked but no planks available, so just on foil (olive oil, s&p, a bit of butter and lemon slices on the fish).
Grilled zucchini and a avocado/tomato salad thing. And a lovely Chablis.
All with a beautiful view of Sugarbush (greetings from Vermont, glibs)
Re: “Hollywood can’t make good movies anymore”. At least you people are consistent with your inane “Kids these days” broad brushing. During whatever golden age you think there was when your favorite movies were made there were 100 shitty movies made for each gem, just like today. I don’t want to live forever but if i’m here in 50 years I’m sure people will be bitching that they don’t make movies like they did back in the 2020’s.
Hollywood may be a dead industry in 50 years. It’s dying as we speak.
There have always been shitty movies in greater numbers than good ones, but you didn’t have to years between the good blockbusters as we currently are. There’s a reason no one is going to watch them in theaters at this point. And even most shitty movies back then were better written than the crap being churned out today.
You have guys who are very familiar with the history of film making the same comments on the state of the industry that nuts like me are. They don’t blame DEI, but they notice the decline just as much. But I’m sure your dopey ass knows more.
Go look back at the ’80’s. Every year there were a slew of good movies like we haven’t seen in a decade plus.
“There’s a reason no one is going to watch them in theaters at this point” – Yep and it isn’t the quality of the movies it’s the quality of the home entertainment systems. Why would I go to a sticky floored theater to be surrounded by a bunch of idiots and spend 20$ for a watered down coke and over salted popcorn when I could recline on my couch and watch the movie on my big 85″ and drink an Old Fashioned and munch on BBQ pork rinds?
“Go look back at the ’80’s. Every year there were a slew of good movies” Bullshit just because you grew up watching them doesn’t make them good. Ask OMWC about “Jaws” , Fucksake “9 to 5” had Dolly’s tits going fot it Jane and Lily’s commie bullshit was already on full display, “Smoke and The Bear” had a great theme song but other than taht and Jackie Gleason’s adlibs the rest of the movie is crap. Have you watched “Stir Crazy” Lately – it’s not good. Hey this black guy and this jew are funny together lets make four or five dumb movies pairing them up. It’s not like they were making “ORCA: The Killer Whale” over and over again.
People will gladly go see good movies. We see examples of that when one breaks the mold. From the already mentioned Top Gun Maverick to Spider Man Far From Home to the recent release of Weapons.
People aren’t going to go watch the franchises that have been brutally destroyed by the studios with the already mentioned issues.
“They don’t make them like they used to”
“And it’s a good thing too.”
I’m struggling to think of a recent “gem”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s the occasional good movie, but they are few and far between. Anyone saying it was always that way is ignorant. The blockbusters have gotten particularly awful.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ was just great. Delivered exactly what it said on the tin. I’ll call it a gem.
The ‘live action’ How to train your dragon was impressive. Only one scene that felt out of place.
A lot of people really like that movie. I thought it was solid and it says a lot about the current state of the tentpole films that it was hyped as much as it was. Something that was exactly what was promised – a fun good time without being preachy or having to belittle…certain demographics? ! Amazing.
But a lot of people disagree and just seem to think it’s a good movie, so…
Ditto on Maverick, Luca, a family movie was great.
Admittedly I’m a sucker for westerns but “The Thicket” is very good, even if it stars the Midget from GOT that you people hate and they gender swapped the villain and they got rid of the pig, other than that they kept pretty true to the Joe R Lansdale novel it’s adapted from. And I don’t know if 2019 counts as recent but “Never Grow Old” is another slow burn western thats great and it has America’s greatest living actor John Cusack as the bad guy, which is nice.
Can I have some of what you are smoking?
He’s smoking meat. And I’m not talking about brisket.
Cusac in another western?
Nice.
The Jack Bull was great.
And I’m down with the midget. He is a good actor. Who cares if he’s a moron, he’s good at his job.
The Thicket, Juliet Lewis as a crazy killer?
I’m sold.
Could say the same about Cusack. He is in a lot of movies that I like despite being a ass in real life.
Top Gun: Maverick and Inside Out 2 were both good, but both sequels. Good + Original? Ummmmm…..
Sorry I was late for this, but thank you for these. Even after, always a good read and talk.
Night, for now. I’ll be awake in 4hr. I’m oddly excited by it. Wolf’s Lodge immediately after work, but incredible progress on CC. No intent to do anything, unless it ‘just comes about,’ but she’s delightful company on the factory floor.
A fun gear in it all.
That’s part of my idea a piece describing how we work. It’s such an odd factory. Hard to boil down.
(She invokes many emotions in me, she. Such an expressive face.)
Still stand by Me+UCS being a hilarious idea for a sitcom (tragedy?).
You guide *me.*
[cue Odd Couple theme]
Yeah, I had that idea too.
The two of us would be more of a Thelma and Louise vibe.
Or Easy Rider. That movie almost made me want to ride a motorcycle.
A couple of my favorite episodes, the one where Warty drags you off to the gym or the one where OMWC invites himself to your cousin’s Bat Mitzvah.
Hilarity ensued.
Ha!, that deleted the lede.
Thanks for these, tho I can only (really) read much post- submission.
There are plenty of gems in recent internet short films. Here are a few:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/07/more-of-my-favorite-sci-fi-short-films.html
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/07/my-favorite-sci-fi-short-films-from-dust.html
In the past 10 years, the only movies I saw in theaters and liked were Rogue One, Life, The Shallows, John Carter, and Repo Men (that one is about repo’ing artificial organs).
Some of the stuff on Dust has been fantastic.
John Carter needed several sequels. It’s massively underrated.
Hollywood has bottomed out before. Late 60’s through mid 80’s was really a godawful period of filmmaking. Pretentious douche nozzles using crappy techniques to set themselves apart.
People are still making good films. Morning all — have a good Labor Day and don’t give any credit to the commies.
Is it time to be awake yet?
Certainly, I expect, for some….
Yes, it is, UCS. Clocked in. Let’s see if I line up w CC …
Shopping audiobooks, and am annoyed at the amount of obvious fiction misfiled under “History”.
Your tales of Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu might be entertaining, but they’re not history.
But but… “Ancient astronaut theorists believe….” it is! Who are you to deny the
grafttruth of the crap my wife likes to listen to and heckle!Funnily on topic — I think it was just yesterday she commented after one of those shows something along the lines of “There would have had to have been something like 30 Atlantises all around the world according to these people…”
Which funnily enough does spin into the various videos / theories I’ve seen about pre-historical record civilizations that were actually at or above our tech level but collapsed.. and we just don’t have any signs of them because artifacts don’t survive that well over hundreds of thousands of years. It might be true… but personally, I doubt it.
These are the dregs of my thoughts you get at 5:30 in the morning as I wait for Squardle to finally unlock itself.
Above all else, I would like evidence. If you have none, the fiction section is over there.
Evidence, schmevidence… they have oral histories vaguely implying things and vivid imaginations. That’ll
sell booksdo for the foundations of an academic theory, right?You sell Anunnaki books, don’t you?
I probably should have. And crystals, copper bracelets and “infused” socks… and all the other snake oil I’ve seen through my life. Being a con artist seems pretty straightforward if you can promise people an easy fix to their lives.
Drat my moral compass and sense of shame!
UnCivil: If it is labeled “History”…Never mind.
Happy Labor Day, comrades!
🫣☕️🥩
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUtnwcv-quE
🎶🎶
Happy Labor Day to you as well, Sean… a little more appropriately commie from my randomizer playlist this morning… Still think it is a great song.
I plan to exploit the proletariat today.
I’ll just hang on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society myself….
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 09/01:
*24/24 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 09/01:
*24/24 words (+2 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 926
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 09/01:
*24/24 words (+10 bonus words)
📖 In the top 2% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 09/01:
*24/24 words (+12 bonus words)
📖 In the top 1% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 789
I played https://squaredle.com 09/01:
24/24 words (+15 bonus words)
📖 In the top 1% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 1
Fine. I went back and found more bonus words…
I played https://squaredle.com 09/01:
*24/24 words (+17 bonus words)
📖 In the top 1% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 789
🤣😂
Gotta say, if I’m picking my team for the apocalypse, Reese from T1 is right at the fucking top.
He’s got to learn not to shoot aliens with acid for blood with a shotgun at close range though.
I’m not sure I’m in the mood for the Polish festival today.
https://polishamericanfestival.org/
Hey Glib-Glibs
Its my birthday
thats for real-real
not for play-play
TALL CANS!
Enjoy your special day, TC!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfy18ynhWNU
HBD! 🥳
+1
++
Best wishes for today, and another year of only being horizontal some of the time.
Good morning and labor on. There are no days off for the wicked.
In a time long ago school always started the Tuesday following Labor Day. That was the end of summer, mothers rejoiced, kids forced into a structured environment.
Now, on the other end of life we can only savor those distant memories.
Back when Labor Day was the first Monday after the first Sunday in September. Too complicated for teachers and school administrators I guess 🙄
GM 🙂
HLD
Are you sending these messages via telegram, and thus are getting charged by the character?
Mornin’ all!