8mm Forum: Terminator 2 Judgment Day

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Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 28, 2007, 08:20 AM:

Terminator 2 Judgment Day (1991)
Was it so long ago that T2 hit the cinema screens? For once it was a film I missed at the cinema, but thanks to Derann I was able to get hold of a super 8 feature copy of the cinema release.

10 years have passed since Sarah Connor was targeted for termination by a cyborg from the future. Her son, John, the future leader of the resistance, is the target for a newer, more deadly terminator. In the first Terminator movie the actual Terminator was the villain, but in T2 he is the good guy and my how the public loved him.

The resistance from the year 2029 has sent a protector back to attempt to save John and his mother Sarah in 1995 which is the films concept. But T2 is far more complex that the first Terminator movie, and Sarah is much more macho wielding armoury and a real attitude played by Linda Hamilton superbly. Her son John Conner is played by Edmond Furlong and can more recently be seen in CSI. You won’t need me to tell you that The Terminator is Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Conner knick named him in the movie Uncle Bob which is a nice fun sequence.

The real baddy is the T-1000. A liquid metal nasty who is out for trouble from the very first moment he hits the screen. Robert Patrick did a great job playing this character, and gave Arnold a run for his money I would say. The T-1000 is all out for John Conner and pulls just about every stunt in the book. The special effects are ground breaking as was quoted many times in the 90’s, but even today they still look superb and dynamic. The film is full of special moments and once seen never forgot.

The super 8mm version is the theatrical release and I my modest opinion far more repeatable than the extended and overlong DVD. The print is just superb and in full Scope, so you will need a Scope lens to view this baby. It is supplied on 5X600ft reels and in white boxes with no artwork. It’s a shame some nice colour artwork was not supplied with this now classic, but I did spend some time coming up with some and this does complete a highly collectable title.

My film was supplied with a mono soundtrack so I re-recorded the whole film into Stereo from the American DVD which completes the presentation beautifully. The night scenes do have a slight blue tint to them, but as all cinema goers will know this is the norm today with modern films.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has some great signature moments within T2, but I won’t spoil your viewing by telling you what or where they are. But he was paid $21,429 per word spoken in the movie so think what a bargain you are getting here on super 8! Ha.

No less that 11 cameras were used on the movie, KY Jelly was used in Arnold’s makeup, and two cannons were used for the sound FX when Arnold fired his gun. It was said that Arnold would only do the Terminator role again if he was friendlier, and that’s why we love uncle Bob so much here.

To sum up.
I take my hat off to the distributors of Terminator 2 Judgement Day. It is a privilege to own this superb film on super 8mm and in Scope. Even more important for me was the fact it is presented here as seen in the cinema release, and if re-recorded into Stereo you can recreate that cinema experience in the home.

Available from Derann Films
5X600ft reels
Re-recordable into Stereo from the American theatrical DVD.
Stripe quality: Both main and balance are perfect and will accept Stereo.

[ February 28, 2007, 09:39 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on March 03, 2007, 10:05 AM:

Lee,

Thanks for the review. T2 is one of my favorite prints and I've also done a stereo re-recording. Just a great job by Derann.

Doug

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on June 03, 2018, 01:30 PM:

I viewed my print of T2 quite late Friday night, not in the mood to sleep and my film room is a nice cool place to be when the weather is overly warm,so here is a review of my own print,
I purchased this copy around 15 years ago, (i think, certainly more than the 10 i thought), from Paul Foster, it was advertised as condition B+ with a price tag of £135. I did not expect it to still be there by the time i rang but to my surprise it was.
It arrived in a very nice orange 16mm plastic round case which houses the two 8mm 1200 ft sized spools perfectly. Ideal storage. One of the spools is a full Elmo 1200ft alloy and the other is an alloy 1600ft super spool, also full.
When it arrived i did the big inspection and gave it a clean and could not wait to view it.
First thing you notice is that the print is absolutely stunning, the sound A1. The print condition itself is,(in my view),very good, just one or two very thin black lines to the very far left, (remedied once you zoom over the black frame of the screen), and the odd light mark here and there mainly to the far right, certainly nothing to complain about on a second hand film.
There is one downside, during the final 200ft of the last reel, originally 5 x 600 foot, there is around a 50ft section where the focus goes in and out, when it goes out the picture moves very slightly to the left then back again,the actual 8mm print is 100% un-damaged, it is actually within the print so i am guessing it may possibly have been a white box special, however, this is the only thing i can pick at on an otherwise perfect print of what must be one of the best action films on Super 8. After the first viewing because it was so perfect up to that point i was considering returning it but then decided that it was, in the bigger picture, a minor fault and especially at the price i paid.
I'm glad i didn't return it as i have never seen another copy for sale since.
A great evenings entertainment, & this one has been re-recorded into stereo.

Posted by Mark Mander (Member # 340) on June 03, 2018, 02:42 PM:

Nice one Tom,Looks a nice print and definitely the best Terminator film,my son and I went last year to see it at the cinema in 3D,we jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen again,looked fantastic,Mark

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on June 03, 2018, 03:25 PM:

Thanks Mark, i bet it was great in 3D [Wink]

Posted by Mark Mander (Member # 340) on June 03, 2018, 03:47 PM:

Amazing Tom,HD and 3D,it is a film ahead of it's time so looked very fresh,looked great when first released and still holds up today,Mark

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 06, 2018, 11:07 AM:

Wow! That was a GREAT deal Tom!

If you ever sell it, you'll mkake a LOT MORE thjan what you paid!

I mean, that 50ft section is during the end credits, so that's no problem whatsoever! Personally, I usually shut off the lamp during end credits anyhow! [Smile]

Thanks for the great screenshots! You lucky lovable slob! (that's a compliment!), I envy the print!!!!

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on June 06, 2018, 11:21 AM:

Hi Osi, Thank you for your comments, unfortunately its a 50ft section within the last 200 odd feet, its well before the end credits. before the bad guy gets it. [Wink]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 06, 2018, 11:26 AM:

Oh, well, it was STILL a great buy ... eh? [Smile]

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on June 06, 2018, 04:03 PM:

definatly Osi, id rather put up with this few minutes of image fault then green lines and repair splices. The re recording of this print is top notch.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on June 08, 2018, 02:56 AM:

I only have the 200ft "Chase" sequence (The truck chasing the motorbikes) and the quality on that is great.

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on June 14, 2018, 01:30 PM:

I bought his new upon the original release, but sold it on years later.

The story was that Corollco distributors had a deal with a certain super 8 film distributer, but they went bust...except that said film distributer had already had the negatives made for the super 8 release.

Sooo...it became an "import" title. And fair play I think.

My copy had lovely images, but pretty dull, muddy, mono sound. I sent it to a bloke that advertised in FFTC and had it re-recorded into stereo from VHS.

Well, it was just awful. Full of wow and bzzzz! I never told him, bless him, even thought he charged about £35.00. He meant well.

Some time later, I was at, a, er, "open day", and asked about re-recording it back into the original fuzzy but non-wowy mono.

Well, I was told that in fact there was a stereo master, but it wasn't generally advertised in order to save the stereo sound heads.

Subsequently, it was re-recorded into fabulous stereo by the original "importers".

All happy memories. You don't get any of this with Blu-ray.
[Wink]

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on June 14, 2018, 03:08 PM:

Thats interesting Rob. By the looks of it we have been very lucky with this one as the sound is stereo, (all be it, on an ST1200HD via an amp twin mono) and it really is a top notch recording whoever did it prior to us getting hold of it. I've come close to selling it more than once but when you view it the image is so good, and so much scope action i just say no every time. [Wink]

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