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Terminator Salvation (WARNER BROS.)

I Sell the Dead

"AFFECTIONATE" may not be the first adjective to spring to mind regarding a movie about grave-robbing.

But that cold-blooded activity elicits a certain warm nostalgia in this cheap direct-to-DVD release from Anchor Bay.

A fondly realized throwback to the Hammer horror movies of half a century ago, this film by Irish director Glenn McQuaid casts erstwhile hobbit Dominic Monaghan as Arthur Blake, an unrepentant thief of dead bodies who works the night shift with mentor and partner Willie Grimes (played by Larry Fessenden, himself the director of the offbeat 2006 horror offering The Last Winter).

Arthur confesses his miscellaneous sins to the sinister Father Duffy (Ron Perlman) on the eve of his execution, beginning with a misspent youth appropriating corpses for Dr. Vernon Quint (Angus Scrimm). Arthur's subsequent recollections spawn flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks detailing the pair's adventures in, pardon the expression, the underworld.

In contrast to the typical ghoulish Burke-and-Hare content of the subgenre, this movie takes a few freewheeling diversions, playing down any of the genre's necrophilic thrills in favour of more supernatural frissons. The lads encounter vampires, zombies and even aliens, yet they treat each episode with workmanlike imperturbability.

The DVD actually comes with a 40-page comic book that follows the film so closely, it's like the ultimate spoiler. Don't even glance at it without watching the movie first.

The DVD is rated 18A in Manitoba, an excessive rating given the comparatively innocuous horror content. 3 stars

Terminator Salvation: Blu-ray

IN order to secure a PG-13 rating for his fourth instalment of the Terminator franchise, director McG trimmed a topless scene involving Moon Bloodgood's warrior woman Blair Williams. (Bless his heart, Terminator originator James Cameron didn't mind getting R ratings for his first two Terminator movies, a strategy that evidently didn't negatively impact on their box-office takes.)

Such as it is, that scene is restored in this "director's cut." Alas, nowhere does McG explain which post-apocalyptic Pilates class Bloodgood attended to maintain her lovingly sculpted physique.

That absurdity aside, T4 aspires to live up to the excellence of the first Terminator movies, fleshing out the violent man-vs.machine future world briefly glimpsed in the first Terminator movie.

The human Resistance fights the good fight against the mechanized fascist force, led by the prophesied saviour John Connor (Christian Bale is the third and, pardon the pun, most baleful actor to play the role). Connor pursues a plan to destroy Skynet's robotic troops through a hidden glitch in the Skynet system.

At the same time, a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), supposedly executed in 2003, wakes up in 2018 with the recollection of donating his body to a scientist (Helena Bonham Carter). He finds himself in the ruins of Los Angeles where the population has been reduced to a resourceful teen named Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and a mute child called Star (Jadagrace).

Director McG, hitherto known as the man who gave us the giddy-silly pop action movie Charlie's Angels, does his best to give gravitas to this movie, eschewing the dark humour of previous Terminator movies for bleak, blasted landscapes and bravura single-take action sequences.

But McG went too far to establish his serious-movie credentials, jettisoning elements of fantasy and fun.

It's appropriate the character of Kyle Reese is the man destined to go back in time to father John Connor, given that, of all the cast, Anton Yelchin is the only actor in the cast with some real life in him. 2-1/2 stars

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Top 10 DVD Rentals

1. Angels & Demons

2. Four Christmases

3. Funny People

4. Star Trek

5. The Ugly Truth

6. My Sister's Keeper

7. Up

8. The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

9. The Goods

10. The Maiden Heist

-- Rogers Video, week ending Nov. 29

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 3, 2009 E5