This may sound like blasphemy, but I am not the largest Terminator 2 fan; I look at T2 as bloated and rather self-congratulatory. However, the first film is a classic and no matter how you look at either film there is no way to not include it on this list as Arnold Schwarzenegger plays The Terminator, a cyborg from the future sent to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance against the machines. Of course, one could always argue the end is obvious since Connor is obviously alive in the future and able to send Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) back in time to protect his mother, but some logic you can overlook for the sake of sheer entertainment.
This was a title I felt hugged the line of assassin and revenge, but I felt it mixed the two ideas just enough to validate a spot on this list. On top of that, I absolutely love everything about this film. Scoring a 72% at RottenTomatoes and making $70 million on a $54 million budget I still feel like this film is overlooked by many. Of course, its position as #163 on the IMDB Top 250 would tell me it has plenty of fans, but I guess I just feel it should be placed even higher as this stylized and excellently written feature is one of my personal all-time favorites.
For anyone that hasn’t seen this movie or has only seen the god-awful 2004 Jonathan Demme remake starring Denzel Washington you must do yourself a favor and throw this movie in your Netflix queue right now. If anyone wants to combat the mind-control part of this film and call it outlandish or crazy, I point you in the direction of Oldboy if you are a fan of that film and for a 1962 feature this one too is quite violent as Laurence Harvey as Raymond Shaw is downright scary and I am a huge fan of Sinatra. To top it off you have the gorgeous Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury in a wicked role as Mrs. Iselin, Henry Silva as Chunjin and James Gregory is fun as hell as Senator Iselin. I watched this flick again in preparation for this article just as a reminder and it just gets better with age.
