Film 295/365, Day 323/365 – Red Sonja

Fantasy action, adventure and swords.  It’s by no means the best fantasy film out there but it is still entertaining plus I do enjoy a film with a strong heroine.  There is lots of elaborate scenery and fantastic costumes.  Good old fashioned fun.

Synopsis:  An evil queen steals a magical talisman so that she can conquer the world.  The queen kills the talisman’s keepers and then goes about using her new weapon.  Red Sonja, with the help of an eclectic group of allies, seeks to stop the queen and return the talisman to the darkness.

Film 241/365, Day 254/365 – Conan the Barbarian

I have lots of fond memories of Conan growing up and the film is still as enjoyable today as it was back then.  However as a story there are a lot of things that don’t really add up, like what the hell were they milling, what happened when Conan, the last child chained to the mill, was bought and lastly how did Conan manage to set a stone temple on fire???

Synopsis:  Conan was made a slave and his people were murdered by an evil warlord when he was a child.  Now he is all grown up and looking for revenge.  Will he be able to find the warlord and finally avenge his people or will the warlord finish of what he started? 

Film 229/365, Day 243/365 – Batman and Robin

Completely and utterly rubbish!  The script is crap, the acting is terrible, in fact there isn’t a single redeeming feature in the whole film.  And when you consider the budget and the actors involved it is inexcusable.  It’s as if they tried to merge Tim Burton’s Gothic Batman with the Batman from the TV series from the ‘60s.  Appalling!!!

Synopsis:  Batman and Robin continue to protect Gotham City.  Now they are facing with Mr Freeze and Poison Ivy, but maybe the real problem is the friction between Batman and Robin.  Will they be able to stick together long enough to save the day?

Film 178/365, Day 188/365 – Total Recall

Pure science fiction gold.  Arnie is great, but it is the story,based on a Philip K Dick short story, that is the real star of this show.  Total Recall is up there with the Terminator and the Predator as one of Arnie’s best films.  There is plenty of action for the regular Arnie fans but Total Recall also comes with plenty of suspense and sprinkling of horror.  Still Great today and probably will be for many more years.

Synopsis:  Douglas Quaid has a good job, a good life and a stunning wife, but for whatever reason he feels like something is missing.  He goes for a virtual holiday to Mars which awakens some dormant memories that he has long since forgotten and soon finds himself in the middle of the struggle to control the Mars colony.

Film 140/365, Day 151/365 – The Running Man

Still brilliant and quite an accurate view on the media of the future.  Sure it’s all about Arnie running around fighting ever increasingly difficult opponents giving him more and more opportunities to throw one liners after dispatching each one but I can’t help but enjoy the way the media is shown to cut and edit footage to show the public what they want them to see… Excellent, one of my favourite Arnie films.

Synopsis:  In a dark and depressing future humanity is almost entirely reliant on the TV.  The top rated show is the Running Man which gives convicted criminals the chance to win their freedom by taking part in an extreme version of gladiators.  Ben Richards is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and must now take part in the Running Man in an attempt to win back his freedom.

Film 121/365, Day 131/365 – True Lies

Everything you would expect from an Arnie film and whilst you probably wouldn’t expect Arnie and Jamie Lee Curtis to necessarily work together, they are actually very good together.  If I’m going to be critical I would say that Arnie is probably the least convincing secret agent.  I mean no one would believe he was a computer salesman.  Worth watching for the Harrier jump jet scene alone.

Synopsis:  Secret Agent Harry Tasker suspects that his wife may be having an affair.  And when it turns out that the man she is meeting with is pretending to be a secret agent and taking claim to all of Harry’s missions he decides to teach them both a lesson.  During the lesson Harry and his wife are kidnapped by terrorists, the only problem is that she thinks she is the secret agent.  She is in for a shock!

Film 103/365, Day 107/365 – Conan the Destroyer

Good fantasy adventure with lots of swords and over the top music segments.  For the most part this is just a glorified montage of Arnie swinging a sword around and showing off his oiled up muscles.  Other than that is still an enjoyable fantasy film.  Good if you like fantasy films.

Synopsis: Conan is enlisted to take a princess on a quest to recover a mystical stone from a wizard which will enable them to steal a magical treasure.  To aid him in his quest he collects together an unusual group consisting of a thief, a wizard and an Amazon.  What he doesn’t is that the magical treasure could bring about the end of the world!

Film 78/365, Day 81/365 – Predator

Complete and utter mindless fun, a bunch of beefed up guys running around the jungle with huge guns being hunted by an invisible alien with bigger guns.  Surely the only way they could have made this any better would have been to have a bunch of oiled up beauties with big guns running around the jungle being hunted by an invisible alien with bigger guns… I am so going to write that script!!!  Watch it, it is excellent.

Synopsis: Dutch and his team of commandos are the best of the best and consequently are hired by the CIA to go deep into the Central American jungle to rescue some of their men.  The mission is a walk in the park for these guys however it soon becomes apparent that something is tracking them and one by one killing them.  Will anyone make it out alive?

Film 23/365, Day 23/365 – Eraser

When it comes to witness protection Us Marshal John Kruger is the best there is. But even he is going to have a hard time protecting his latest assignment. She is the lead witness in a case against a large weapons manufacturer who has some questionable customers. They’ve got all the latest state of the art weaponry and a couple of US Marshals on their payroll.

If you've ever seen an Arnie film then you will know exactly what to expect from Eraser, if not, well, where have you been? Eraser is packed full of non-stop action, big guns and cheesy lines. It isn't close to being one of his best but still worth watching if you enjoy your action films.

Film 18/365, Day 18/365 – The Terminator

Sarah Connor doesn’t kow it yet but she will be responsible for humanity’s last hope in the war against the machine army. All she’s got to do is stay alive. To make that a little trickier than it should be a cyborg has been sent back in time to 1984 to kill her. Now she needs to rely on Kyle Reese, a soldier sent back to protect her by her son that she hasn’t yet had.

I wasn’t sure how The Terminator would stack up after all this time but it was excellent and an example of how to make an action film. There is enough story to grab your attention and keep you interested, but not at the expense of the action which is non-stop from the very beginning. Arnold Schwarzenegger is fantastic as a bad guy, shame he didn’t get to do it more (nobody mention Mr. Freeze).