T2: Extreme DVD

T2: Extreme DVD

It's strange to realize there's a constantly sliding continuum of the heights of cinematic achievement. James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day cost $100 million when it came out in 1991, and at the time it seemed an unstoppable orgy of eye-popping effects and brutal, nonstop action pacing. You could just watch the clichés being born right there, with a villain and hero so powerful that by the end they must bash one another with iron I-beams they find at a conveniently unguarded steel mill. After T2, every movie had to have a steel mill. More than a decade later, it's still pretty impressive, but now it's film history, and you watch T2 as a lesson in what makes a good action picture. The character work here is top-notch, and that -- rather than the budget -- pushed the movie into immortality. The new T2: Extreme DVD features a version only hinted at in the last DVD release, a 16-minutes-longer T2 that allows some old choices to be unmade. Cameron is now free to put back in scenes he cut because of running-time constraints -- but thankfully he does so sparingly. The dual-DVD set comes in a slick metal case hammered out to look like Schwarzenegger's glowing-eyed T800, and features DVD-ROM morphing programs to help you melt the heads of loved ones. The two documentaries are well-made and informative, not ads. But most welcome is the wonderful commentary from director Cameron, who with co-creator William Wisher spins out a feature-length recollection of every cut, scrape, edit, and near-death that occurred on and near the set. When so many commentaries these days are gossipy snoozefests, Cameron's has just the right amount of chutzpah and showmanship to be well worth listening to: "You see that helicopter going under a freeway overpass?"