Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) *****

Years after the original Terminator was crushed in a hydraulic press and Sara Connor was forced to wait for the end of the world, two more futuristic warriors are sent back with conflicting missions in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. James Cameron returns to his calling card with a film that is one of the most action packed films ever made. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the almost unstoppable Terminator, but this time he's here to protect the life of future resistance leader John Connor (Edward Furlong) from a new, high tech Terminator (Robert Patrick) that can morph into anyone it wants to be. What starts out as a simply film about protecting the child turns into an attempt to re-write history and do to the Skynet program what Skynet had planned to do to John Connor- elimination in the past.

Terminator 2 is actually a look at what the first film would have been with a limitless budget. This is a pure action film that delivers from start to finish some of the most explosive and amazing sequences ever filmed and has never really been surpassed in that regard. The T-1000 may be CGI, but those explosions and the building being blown to hell is good old, natural pyrotechnics. The film is pushing 20 years old now but it still is an edge of your seat film that surpasses expectations to the extreme.

Arnold returns to his iconic role like an old pair of shoes. This is his signature role and Cameron is able to allow him to show a little humor without being too campy. He's a little lighter, but it isn't hokey as hell. Linda Hamilton also returns as Sarah Connor, but this isn't the same Sarah Connor that drove off into the Mexican desert in 1984. She is a hard built soldier of fortune who has learned the trade of survival so that she can pass her learnings to her son. Hamilton plays Connor as this maniac, yet when you look into her eyes you still see that poor girl that was thrown into this mess years before. Edward Furlong makes his first appearance in this film and runs with it, sadly peaking in his career so far, but the real standout is Robert Patrick, who plays the role of the T-1000 as a mechanical cougar, always on the prowl, sleek, and fast as hell. He is state of the art and he knows it.

The amazing thing about Terminator 2 is that James Cameron is able to create a story and film that is filled with action and stars a robot to also be an emotional film that really pulls at the heartstrings. This is Cameron's kind of film: big budget, action packed, with a nice story thrown in. As I said before, this is the holy grail of action films because it is so over the top, but it doesn't feel that way. All the explosions feel perfectly natural. This is the peak of action film making and everything that has followed it has been a disciple of this film, especially when we talk about CGI. This is the ultimate action film.