Don't even try to put this movie in the context of other movies. Not even Terminator. Just watch it.

Will do! I'm pretty sure I had this on VHS at one point but I never watched it. I miss my wall of VHS, that's really the only reason I want more than sublets really. But I guess for movies that I might not watch like Hollywood Hottubs and Lady Terminator until it's too late. :)

I'm not sure but I think this is one of the 75 or so tapes in my collection that survived.

Seeing Species in the theater was my first experience of utterly disappointing, fake looking CGI. Before that there was The Abyss (still looks great) and Jurassic Park (still looks great) and hell, the stained glass in Young Sherlock Holmes (still looks great, all things considered) but Species set the tone for a lot of what was to come. That and the awful CGI aliens in Alien 3.

But at least it had nudity (the cheapest special effect).

Yeah. Special effects are great in those times. I don't have it anymore but if you can pick up the "ULTIMATE EDITION" or something of Terminator 2, among other things it's got an explanation on how they did the actual Judgement Day scene. Some of it was computers but most of it was just blowing up tiny buildings made out of Matzo Crackers and pretty much whatever else they could find that would get destroyed with a really powerful fan. Like, somebody thought of that! Mazel Tov to you whoever you are!

Oh yeah, the T2 CGI was really good, too.

The tile floor scene still looks cutting edge 20 years later.

Yeah but being made in the Phillipines adds at least 20 years.

I mean Indonesia. I'd always heard it was from the Phillipines in the pre-Internet days and my brain still want it to be even though it's full of Indonesian actors and everything that isn't trying to copy Terminator is really obviously Indonesian.

It's interesting to look at it now; the weird, nonlinear editing actually makes a bit more sense if you look at it through the context of traditional Indonesian shadow puppetry, which (from what I've seen anyway) tends to be pretty episodic an nonlinear and has a lot of improvisation. The Javanese variety typically lasted 10 hours or more starting in the evening and you were expected to drift in and out of sleep while it was going on and just kind of piece together what was happening from the parts you saw, which was easier because it would be telling stories everyone there had known since they were children. Which is kind of what this movie does to the Terminator narrative.

The thing I prefer about Manhunter is that they actually try to explore the killer as a real character instead of a cartoon. It doesn't really work but Noonan does his best and I appreciate that.

I will say that Vampire's Kiss is way smarter, more complex, better written, more effectively satirical and has more depth of character that American Psycho (both the movie and the book) and I know I'm not the only person who believes that. Vampire's Kiss is one of the best movies I can think of.

I don't think anyone thought T2 wasbetter when it came out, it grossed well but it got all sorts of criticism for the completely nonsensical, hole-filled plot and shameless product placement. I still love it and have seen it more than the first one because it's kind of more fun, but it's not really as god (kind of like how Alien is overall a better piece of cinema than Aliens but I'd almost always choose to watch Aliens; James Cameron really knew how to make a great action movie before Titanic wrecked him).

Yeah.. I loved the shit out of T2 but I was like 10 years old. I dunno if I mind product placement, for example I loved it in Mad Max Fury Road when they literally tattooed the producer credits and such on Max as a way to keep the story moving. And anybody that complains about Better Call Saul and how he's working at Cinnabon is missing the joke. And Mad Max still has plenty of product placement, it's just hidden. But in the pre-apocalypse, I'd rather if people were taking shelter in a KFC or Starbucks than a made up name. I'm still not going to run out and buy what they're selling. But then again, Terminator 2 is directly responsible for getting me into Public Enemy because of the shirt so maybe I am easily swayed.

MY favorite product placement is still the shot of the Nike swoosh on the foot of the Bob-omb right before it explodes in Super Mario Brothers. I'm not sure if it's in every print, it was on the tape I used to have but I remember not seeing it there when we put it on at the video store where I worked in college.