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Terminal is a film I never *got* from the trailer, but it looked great and had a decent cast including Margot Robbie, so it was one I certainly wanted to give a whirl.
Firstly, if you are going to watch this very twisty-turny-plotted movie, to avoid spoilers, DO NOT read the cast list on IMDB.
When it comes to the title, is it based around a terminal illness, or like a train station, or at times, terminally dull? It’s some, all or none of these things.
Annie (Robbie) is a waitress-turned-lapdancer, while former Austin Powers, aka Mike Myers, is Clinton, the train station night supervisor. There’s a mysterious Mr Franklin dishing out dodgy jobs including an instruction for hitmen Vince (Dexter Fletcher) and Alfred (Max Irons) to take out someone specific. Meanwhile, seemingly unconnected to all of this is Bill (Simon Pegg).
Bill’s story will pan out while you watch this, but I didn’t even recognise Simon Pegg at first. He looked more like Robert Glennister (brother of the more famous Philip), given the aged appearance he has. Similarly, Mr Myers is made to look about 300 years old.
I quite enjoyed an early scene where Pegg comes across crap robbers Lenny (Matthew Lewis) and Raymond (Thomas Turgoose), as well as the visuals, since the set is dressed in lots of individual colours within the scene, as if we’re still in the era of Joel Schumacher’s Batman films (although I enjoyed those more than the po-faced Tim Bruton ones)
In addition, there’s a great turn in one scene from Dexter Fletcher’s former Press Gang co-star Paul Reynolds as a doctor, and I’d like to see more of him onscreen. He was in a recent epsiode of BBC’s soap Doctors (NOT as a doctor), but he really should be in more things.
However, overall, it’s rather a mess and doesn’t have any sort of coherent storyline. It starts off well, but then falls apart as it goes on and on and on. The last third is a bigger mess than the government are making of Brexit.
That said, I’d give 10/10 for set design and lighting as it looks amazing, particular the metal mesh corridor with red shimmering along, around 37 minutes into the film.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio and in anamorphic widescreen, and like most DVDs – which is why I stick to Blu-rays where posible – the picture is very soft, indeed, if you’re used to a HD picture.
The audio is in Dolby Digital 5.1, and the soundscape is such that it reflects the cool visuals in terms of atmosphere.
Like with The Cured, this doesn’t feel like an Arrow release. Their titles are usually stuffed with extras. This disc only has just two:
- Building the World of Terminal (5:56): The first of two brief pieces which mix on-set footage with chat from the cast and crew, and here, they look at the ‘film noir’-style in the film and how they also wanted to make that style their own, rather than just copy it wholesale.
- The Cast of Terminal (5:57): Similar, but with the cast all blowing smoke up each others’ backsides. Between both pieces, they come across as the kind of filler Sky uses inbetween films.
There’s a bog-standard 12 chapters and subtitles are in English. It’s all very bare bones.
Terminal is out this week on DVD, Amazon Video and DVD.
|
FILM PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
4 8 7 1 |
| OVERALL | 5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 95 mins
Year: 2018
Distributor: Arrow Films
Released: August 6th 2018
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: FCD1796
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1
Disc Format: DVD9
Director: Vaughn Stein
Producers: Tom Ackerley, David Barron, Arianne Fraser, Molly Hassell, Teun Hilte, Josey McNamara and Margot Robbie
Screenplay: Vaughn Stein
Music: Anthony Clarke and Rupert Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Annie: Margot Robbie
Bill: Simon Pegg
Vince: Dexter Fletcher
Clinton: Mike Myers
Alfred: Max Irons
Chloe Merryweather: Katarina Cas
Illing: Nick Moran
Young Clinton: Les Loveday
Conejo: Jourdan Dunn
Lenny: Matthew Lewis
Raymond: Thomas Turgoose
Danny: Jay Simpson
Toby: Benjamin Griffin
Priest: Robert Goodman
Doctor: Paul Reynolds
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.