‘Terminator’ or terminated?

“Terminator Salvation” is the big movie of the week. Now that the whole Christian Bale on-set rant from hell has been remixed and moved out of the news cycle, we can now focus on the movie. But do we want to? The original “Terminator” is one of the classic sci-fi movies. “Terminator 2″ was great — in fact, it was the first R-rated movie I ever saw in the theater (thanks, Dad!), where Cinema Arts Theatre now resides. (That’s how old-school NoVa I am.) But “Terminator 3″ was TERRIBLE.

It was cool on paper — the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the unveiling of the whole sexbot Terminator — but sucktastic in delivery. Now they’ve brought Bale on board to resurrect the franchise as John Connor in an action-packed, post-apocalyptic future with lots of killer robots and such. I don’t put a lot of faith in the Rotten Tomatoes’ vaunted “Tomatometer,” but still … 33 percent? That’s like an F minus — even with a hefty curve.

Speaking of Cinema Arts, they open “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” this week — which features scenes filmed locally at the National Air and Space Museum downtown — as well as “Every Little Step.” The Broadway lovers will want to check out this documentary chronicling the casting of a 2005 revival of “A Chorus Line” and a history of the musical. At least that’s hangin’ tough at 88 percent.

It’s a slow-ish week coming up for DVDs. The Z-grade “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” offers Deborah Gibson, Lorenzo Lamas, a mega shark and a giant octopus, and is worth a spot on your Netflix list for the title alone. The science nerds will be down with season three of History’s “The Universe.” “New in Town” is a fish-out-of-water romantic comedy featuring Harry Connick Jr. and Renee Zellweger. Fans of “The Closer,” “Designing Women” and “Law & Order: SVU” can get the latest of those shows’ seasons. And Universal is rolling out new Blu-rays for a lot of its back catalog, including “Children of Men,” “Spy Game,” “Seabiscuit,” “Cinderella Man” and my all-time favorite movie, “Field of Dreams.”

If you see “Terminator” this long weekend, tell everybody how it is in the comments. Now go have yourself a safe and merry Memorial Day after checking out the video of the week:

Tags: dvd, geek, movies