Rewatched a few old movies on Saturday - these 3 had a pretty big impact during my growing years..
Independence Day (1996)
Yeah man, the good ole times. I was in Form 4 when this first came out, and I remember clearly the intense hype and anticipation everyone had for it, with the ominous shadow over cities and the White House getting blown up trailers. Watched it on the opening day too, and I remember leaving very satisfied. Whole lotta fun mindless testosterone kicking alien ass here. Super apocalyptic scenes, cool crazy aerial dogfights - it was a teenager’s dream movie come true. 
Terminator 2 : Judgment Day (1991)
This is one of the BEST action movies of all time. I’ve probably watched it like 4 times now, and I still love every moment of it. I mean, it’s The Terminator! and then of course there’s the T-1000 - the most fearsome, terrifying and invincible villian in the history of moviemaking. It’s just too bad our hero ended up becoming a governator, and the sequel to this became such a disappointment.
On a side note, it’s been confirmed that there will be a new trilogy of Terminator movies - this time focusing on the war between humans and Skynet. It will be featuring an entirely new cast of heroes. The first installment for this will be probably be released in early 2009.
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Gosh, I remember watching this as a small kid, and it was in a way, traumatic for me. Not through any violent scenes (I’m kinda immune to onscreen violence now) - but rather, it imprinted in me a deep sense of loneliness , desolation and hope. It introduced me to the ravages of war, as I struggled to understand what was happening during the movie.
Steven Spielberg has proven himself to be one of the greatest directors in Western cinema, and I was utterly surprised to discover that my favorite actor of all time - Christian Bale - was playing the lead of the displaced boy in this movie! On top of that, Christian Bale is as of now finalizing talks to play the role of the adult John Connor in the upcoming (see above) Terminator movies!
*Strange, all 3 movies had nuclear explosions in it in one form or another (a missile, a holocaust, and a WW2 A-bomb).
It’s nice to look back once in awhile, but then we should remind ourselves to always keep looking ahead too. After all, more great movies are on the way, rare as they may be… And I guess I ain’t just talking about movies..
