Cameron Back for More Terminator

Written by Jon Williams

Terminator: Dark Fate is in theaters now, and is available for pre-order on DVD and Blu-ray. This big-budget blockbuster is a blast from the past, a unique entry in a franchise that has been entertaining audiences for 35 years.

The Terminator, the first film in the series, was a sensation from the moment in hit theaters in 1984. It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in the titular role of an emotionless cyborg mercenary sent from the future to assassinate Sarah Connor before she can have a son who will grow up to lead the human resistance against their machine overlords. Hailed by fans and critics alike, it spawned a 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in which Schwarzenegger’s cyborg is once again sent back in time, this time reprogrammed to protect Sarah and her young son against a more advanced Terminator model capable of shifting its shape. Another smashing success, this is the highest-grossing movie of Schwarzenegger’s career to date.

These first two Terminator films were written and directed by James Cameron, who has had quite a career in the film industry, to say the least. After the success of The Terminator, he helped Sylvester Stallone write the screenplay for Rambo: First Blood Part II, then went on to write and direct the sci-fi hits Aliens and The Abyss. He followed up T2 with True Lies, an action thriller starring Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. Then in 1997 came Titanic, the tale of doomed romance aboard the doomed ship starring Leonard DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. That film won 14 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and it held the record for highest-grossing film of all time until 2010, when it was overtaken by Avatar—another Cameron film.

While Cameron may have turned his attention to these other acclaimed projects after T2, the franchise did not wither in his absence. In 2003, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines showed how Skynet, the artificial intelligence ruling the machines, managed to rise to power despite the events of the first two movies. Then the series came to the small screen with The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a show that ran for two seasons with Lena Headey starring as Sarah Connor as she protects and trains her son John for his role in the future. Terminator Salvation brought the franchise back into theaters, showing the struggles of John Connor (Christian Bale) as the leader of the human resistance. Then in 2015, Terminator Genisys brought Emilia Clarke into the series as Sarah Connor in a past that has been fractured by time travel.

Genisys was planned to be the new direction for the franchise until James Cameron returned to the fold. He provided the story for Dark Fate, which reunites Schwarzenegger’s Terminator and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor in a movie that serves as a direct sequel to T2. The films and TV show produced in the interim are now considered to be part of an alternate timeline. At present, future films are planned to follow on from Dark Fate.

James Cameron has made some of the most groundbreaking and popular cinema of all time. Keep his movies on your shelves using the links above, or SmartBrowse on our website for more. Also, make sure your comics-loving patrons know there is plenty of Terminator content for them to enjoy on hoopla digital as well!

A Day of Milestones

Written by Jon Williams

August 16 is a significant day across the entertainment industry.

Today is James Cameron’s 59th birthday. The legendary filmmaker has made some of the most successful movies in Hollywood history, including Titanic (for which he won three Academy Awards) and Avatar, the two highest-grossing films of all time worldwide. He also directed the blockbusters The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as Aliens, the second film in the Alien franchise. Cameron certainly knows how to himself busy; it was recently announced that Avatar will have three sequels, to begin filming simultaneously in 2014, with the first installment slated for release in 2016, with the third and fourth films following each year thereafter.

Cameron isn’t the only well-known entertainer celebrating today, as it is also Madonna’s 55th birthday. The Material Girl burst onto the scene thirty years ago with her eponymous debut album, which included the hit singles “Holiday,” “Lucky Star,” and “Borderline.” The follow-up, Like a Virgin, which contained the track that provides her nickname, came in 1984. All these years later, she’s still a force to be reckoned with in the music world. Her most recent album (her twelfth), MDNA, was released in 2012. In addition to her musical career, she’s also carved out a successful role in front of the camera, starring in such films as Who’s That Girl, Dick Tracy, A League of Their Own, and Evita (as well as contributing to the soundtracks for those films).

On the other end of the spectrum, today also marks the 35th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. He is the biggest-selling solo artist of all time, and was largely responsible for bringing rock n’ roll into the American mainstream consciousness. His debut album, Elvis Presley, released in 1956, when he was just 21 years old. Even now, his music is still in great demand, with many of his albums (including his ever-popular Christmas album) recently being certified at gold, platinum, or multiplatinum status. Like Madonna, he also had a significant film career, starring in 31 films, starting with Love Me Tender in 1956.

For more movies and music from these iconic personalities, be sure to SmartBrowse their names on our homepage.

Titanic Gets 15th Anniversary Rerelease

Written by Kirk Baird

Just out on a two-disc Blu-ray, two-disc DVD set is the love story set to tragedy and drama, Titanic. Fifteen years after its release, the film remains an effective combination of a director’s unyielding vision, an audience-pleasing romance, historical curiosity, and arguably the best use of CGI in movie history with the sinking of the ship.

Written and directed by James Cameron, the 1997 Best Picture Oscar winner remains the filmmaker’s greatest triumph and, until Avatar came along, his most flawed work. Titanic is a 90-minute gripping film with a 90-minute warm-up, but given the limitations of Cameron’s workspace — he had to shoehorn a dramatic plot into a historical disaster everyone knows — his script and film succeeds.

Leonardo DiCaprio shoulders some unnecessarily harsh criticism for his role as lower-class and happy drifter Jack, while Kate Winslet was nominated for Best Actress for her role as upper-class beauty Rose, who’s miserable with her station in life. The unlikely couple make for a likable and, more important, believable pair, and without them Titanic’s sinking is simply an exercise in groundbreaking effects.

But this movie is less about the people on board the ship than the film’s namesake, and the spectacle and grandeur of the recreated Titanic and its historically accurate details make for a magnificent display on Blu-ray. While the commentaries with Cameron, the cast, and historians have been imported from the 2005 DVD release of the film, the Blu-ray offers two-and-a-half hours of new material, including a pair of documentaries — Reflections on Titanic and Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron — as well as 30 deleted scenes, and 60 behind-the-scenes featurettes. This is a must-have for fans of the second-biggest film of all time.

To complement the Titanic Blu-ray release is Ghosts of the Abyss 3D, Cameron’s documentary capturing his return trip to the Titanic and its resting place on the floor of the icy Atlantic Ocean. The three-disc combo Blu-ray 3-D/Blu-ray/DVD version offers the original hour-long theatrical release from 2003 and an expanded 90-minute cut. The extra half-hour provides extended trips into the rusting and deteriorating ruins of the ship, as Cameron and actor Bill Paxton, who played treasure seeker Brock Lovett in Titanic, dive in submersibles to the wreckage. More impressive is the footage from special underwater robot cameras nicknamed Jake and Elwood as the crafts negotiate ghostly dark rooms and hallways that have been silent since April 15, 1912. CGI effects provide context and ghostly visions to the often-unrecognizable remains, as the ship is slowly being reclaimed by the sea and sea life.

Ghosts of the Abyss makes a fascinating bookend to Titanic — assuming after more than three hours on the S.S. Cameron you’re up for another 90 minutes with the director and the doomed ship.