Bump to 5 stars because I return to it too often. It's among Spielberg's great films, with ostentatious highly technical camerawork, and paced like a rollercoaster ride until its final stretch.
Some of the best horror imagery done by Spielberg to imply the sheer scale of destruction: the speeding burning train stayed in my mind since the first viewing, a few years after the initial release of the film.
Arnold probably had it in his contracts to deliver at least 10 zingers per movie during that period as everything from Commando until Terminator 2 is full of them.
As time passes, a film like this, that actually looks like a film (great set design, matte paintings for backgrounds, properly storyboarded to hit every action bit like clockwork), reveals itself as something truly great. Never a dull moment in this one, it's screenwriting 101, save the cat and move to…
The Soviets sent a man in space before the Americans, and made a Wes Anderson film before Wes Anderson.
The closest narrative film has ever come to pure cinema. Bodies in motion, synchronized, choreographed for a single purpose, the scorching heat felt through closeups on the human skin, the ever present threat of violence, the routine of work and the rhythm of the night. A mesmerizing work of art so beautiful yet so opaque that I am sure will come to haunt me many times from now on.
