My 5 favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movies

Hey, did you notice, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back! Again! This time for real! Granted, he hasn't technically been gone for too long but in terms of film generations he definitely has to make up some ground to compete with the Katniss Everdeens and Tony Starks of our times. While his most recent films have bombed (The Last Stand made a laughable $12 million on a $45 million dollar budget and Escape Plan with his buddy Stallone slightly improved to an equally dismal $24 million on a budget of $50 million), it is important to remember what made him such a big star in the first place. That's why I present to you my 5 favorite movies starring the Austrian Oak!

5. Commando (1985)

This film is just incredibly silly. But it is also incredibly fun and awesome. Arnie is John Matrix, some kind of retired military super-badass whose daughter gets kidnapped and who then goes out to take the bad guys down while coining one catchphrase after another.

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It is a film from simpler times where political correctness wasn't a basic ingredient of motion pictures and where muscle-packed alpha males could go around raising hell in malls, hijacking planes and having intense fist fights while mugging like crazy. Commando is basically the ultimate simple Schwarzenegger movie, and it goes perfectly with beer and pizza.

4. The Terminator (1984)

The Terminator is very dear to my old heart as it scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Nowadays the film series is mostly associated with action but if you look at the original, you got to admit, it is a legitimate horror movie. I was previously entranced (and similarly scared) by Yul Brynner's role as a deathly robot in Westworld, but The Terminator takes the same concept of a cyborg killing machine, turns it up to 11 and creates a science fiction classic in the process.

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Arnold is perfect in the title role, and Michael Biehn as resistance fighter Kyle Reese and Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor are on their A-game as well. The atmosphere is loaded and suspenseful, and the pace will keep you on the edge of your seat. While other science fiction films of the era just slip into curiosity, The Terminator becomes better and better with time, it's required viewing not just for Schwarzenegger fans but for all movie lovers.

3. True Lies (1994)

True Lies was the film that helped get Arnie through the 90s. Coming off the notorious bomb Last Action Hero (whose production history and ultimate failure is chronicled in cringeworthy detail in the excellent book Hit & Run by Kim Masters and Nancy Griffin), he buddied up with James Cameron again and delivered a funny, fast-paced actioner that shut up all the naysayers who thought that Arnold's reign was over.

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He is Harry Tasker, secret agent who leads a double life while his unsuspecting wife Helen, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, thinks he's just a simple salesman. When he has to stop terrorists from a nuclear attack he is forced to reveal his identity to her and then it's time for great action set pieces including Schwarzenegger on a horse chasing a guy through the city onto the roof of a hotel. It's great action with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, True Lies will entertain the living hell out of you.

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Don't kid yourself, you knew this film would be on the list. While the original Terminator is simply a great movie, Terminator 2 is nothing short of revolutionary. Together with Jurassic Park in 1993 it pushed the boundary of what special effects can accomplish when used to enhance and drive the plot forward. But not just that, instead of simply being a retreat of the first one, Terminator 2 turns the tables and makes Arnold the good guy who has to protect John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance.

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Even after more than 20 years the action scenes are nothing to sneeze at. The truck chase and the final confrontation between the T-101 and the evil T-1000 (played menacingly by Robert Patrick) are breathtaking in their execution and glorious to look at. And say whatever you want about Schwarzenegger as an actor but he was born to play that role. If you only want to watch one movie on this list, it has to be this one.

1. Total Recall (1990)

Big surprise, ey? Terminator 2 might be the more groundbreaking movie, but for me personally there is no doubt, Total Recall is the taker of the cake. Arnie's trip to Mars is both dumb fun as well as mindbending science fiction, it concerns the age old question of our perception of reality. He is Douglas Quaid, a regular guy on Earth who dreams about going to Mars. Enter Rekall, the company that lets you experience predefined adventures in your head. Quaid takes the mind trip, and soon crazy things start happening around him and we ask ourselves, is it all real or is Quaid still in his mind?

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Initially developed by the always interesting David Cronenberg (who would have probably put a lot more emphasis on body horror), the project was taken over by Paul Verhoeven who toned down some of the more cerebral elements of the script and blew up the action and fun to make it an Arnie movie. With the terrible remake starring Colin Farrell released last year, don't make a mistake, stick to the original. Total Recall of the 1990 variety is the real deal, it's my favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.