RV!: The Terminator (1984), 168) Commando, RV!: Predator (1987) and RV!: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992)

RV!: The Terminator (1984) Dir: James Cameron Date Released: October 1984 Date Seen: May 11, 2010 Rating: 4/5

168) Commando (1985) Dir: Mark L. Lester Date Released: October 1985 Date Seen: May 11, 2010 Rating: 3.75/5

RV!: Predator (1987) Dir: John McTiernan Date Released: June 1987 Date Seen: May 12, 2010 Rating: 3.75/5

RV!: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992) Dir: James Cameron Date Released: July 1991 Date Seen: May 17, 2010 Rating: 3.75/5

A whole mess of Arnold pics for a big ol' essay about what I think are his three best/most complementary roles as an action star: Predator, Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Not going to publish this piece just yet as it's tied up with another project at present. But it's more than 3000 words long. So it's been written. As for Commando: the kind of cartoonish, half-cognizant violence I expect from Shane Black. And you by now should know how I feel about that guy's style of humor. Still: a lot more violent than most Black films and hence more entertaining.

408) The Last Action Hero (1993)

408) The Last Action Hero (1993) Dir: John McTiernan Date Released: June 1993 Date Seen: November 21, 2009 Rating: 3.25/5

Though Lethal Weapon creator Shane Black's rewrite of Zak Penn and Adam Leff's script for The Last Action Hero was in turn later rewritten un-officially, Black's finger-prints are all over the blustery, too-cool-for-school action spoof. The Last Action Hero is, in patches, a fairly entertaining, though patently cynical, parody of the amped-up excesses of Hollywood action films in the late '80s and throughout the '90s. Trouble is, it's also often off-puttingly smug and overweeningly cocksure and only modestly funny, a hallmark of Black's overheated comedy of cliches. He spends so much time winking at the viewer in his jokes that he effectively sucks all the fun out of his jokes, which are all decent, though mostly unmemorable. Still, any excuse to watch a semi-self-aware Arnold Schwarzenegger confront his own immateriality is a good one. Hell, any excuse to watch Arnold just do his thing, really. The man really is the most charismatic member of the "None Of Us Do Our Own Stunts" Club that ruled Hollywood actioners for so long.