Original Desmond

Looking for my old school action fix, i've been watching some of Arnie's tier 2 movies, some i have only seen once before. Currently watching Eraser

So Arnie Tier 1 are movies like Terminator, T2, Predator, Commando, Running Man, Total Recall, Twins etc

Tier 2 movies like

Raw Deal
Eraser
Junior
Jingle all the way
End of Days
Collateral Damage
6th Day
Red Heat

What do you think are the best of his Tier 2 movies ?

Hazel Motes

The only tier 1 Arnie movies are The Terminator. Terminator 2: Judgement Day. True Lies, Total Recall, Predator and Pumping Iron.

The rest are Tier 2, tier 3, and lower. My favorite Tier 2 are Kindergarten Cop and Twins.

Nesbit

Last Action Hero

Mike86

For something recent I really like Escape Plan. I guess it isn’t fully his movie though. Red Heat is fairly fun. He’s one of my favorite actors and I enjoy most of his movies to varying degrees.

GoldenJCJ

I’m not a huge fan of either but I think the two Conan movies could be listed in tier 1 and tier 2.

Conan the Barbarian in tier 1
Conan the Destroyer in tier 2

or is it the other way around?

GoldenJCJ

I kind of break Arnold’s movie career up into “Pre-Governor” and “Post-Governor” films. There’s just a different feel to them.

I’d put:
Escape Plan
Sabotage
The Last Stand

in tier 1 of Arnold’s post-Governor films. Nowhere near as good as his Pre-Governor but still good.

d2cheer

Red Heat all the way.

Mike86

I can agree with that. Still like most of his post-Governor/later career films. Maggie is another good one with a bit of a different performance from him.

davidh777

I had a hankering to rewatch Eraser the other day, but that won’t help the OP.

I haven’t seen a lot of the tier 2 stuff but thought the Last Stand was pretty good.

Original Desmond

Eraser wasn't bad, had consistently decent action, but not much big set pieces. had decent support talent with James Caan as the baddie and Vanessa Williams. A noticeably smaller Arnie who didn't show his muscles much at all

Only including "Arnie' movies, not ensemble pieces like Expendables

Toddarino

I think I’ve seen almost everything. I’d say out of the ones you listed, Red Heat and Jingle All The Way are the best. I really found Raw Deal boring.
I’m not going to rank all his movies but Commando, Kindergarten Cop and Twins are all the top of tier two.

GoldenJCJ

I don’t think I’ve seen Eraser since I saw it in the theater. All I really remember is the horrible CGI alligators that looked terrible even back then. They were on the same level as Jabba in A New Hope.

TheBang

i haven’t seen it since the theater either, but I’m pretty sure that scene ended with “You’re luggage!” right?

Mondo Kane

Red Heat

brayzie

Red Heat is probably then best. It’s has elements of being a tense cop thriller, and the enjoyable gimmick of Arnold playing some strange outsider with his deadpan humor. Belushi and Gershon are great.

Kindergarten Cop was also really good. I haven’t watched it in a while but I think it’s one of his best comedies.

Raw Deal was extremely average. Maybe even below average. It was the first time I saw an Arnold film that wasn’t exciting. I saw it not too long ago and it plays out as if it’s parodying 80s tough guy cop movies. An Austrian going undercover into the mob? Red Heat did a better job of conveying a serious tone.

Barth

I would throw True Lies in to your Tier 1 list. Put Red Heat at the top of Tier 2 and include Kindergarten Cop, Eraser, and Raw Deal. The rest are all Tier 3 or below for me.

d2cheer

I am actually surprised Raw Deal didn't kill his career that was a huge stinker even at the box office. Lucky Predator came out next and he hit the jackpot.

brayzie

I’m reading the plot at wiki right now.

The Chicago mob guys are named “Luigi” and “Paulo” and Schwarzenegger plays Mark Kaminski who goes undercover as “Joseph Brenner.”

I get that the screenplay was probably written before Arnold signed on, but couldn’t they at least change his character’s name to make it more believable? No one’s going to believe this giant with a German accent’s real name is “Joe Brenner.”

The stereotypical Italian names for the American wise guys is funny. Most of the more accurate mafia movies and real life info about the mafia of the 80s feature names like “John”, “Paulie,” “Frank” etc.

Why is Twins first tier but Kindergarten Cop second tier? I thought both were highly successful.

Boba Fett

TIER 1:
Conan the Barbarian
Terminator
Commando
Predator (best of the tier)
Total Recall
T2
True Lies

TIER 2:
Running Man
Red Heat
Twins
Kindergarten Cop (best of the tier)
Last Action Hero

TIER 3:
Everything else.

asianxcore

rennervision

From that first list, Eraser would be my "favorite." And as others have mentioned, Escape Plan was a lot of fun and made me miss the good old days with Arnold.

d2cheer

I haven't seen it in years but I busted out reading that.

Decker

If we considered Running Man to be tier 2, that would be my choice. If not, maybe Raw Deal.

I loathed Last Action Hero. The worst kind of self aware nonsense. I can roll with a character talking to the audience like Ferris Bueller, but when the whole movie is “Look at me, I’m in a movie and I know it’s a movie”, there s literally nothing left to care about. The story becomes meaningless

Deftones

Yeah if Running Man is tier 2, it is definitely the best. Love that flick.

Shannon Nutt

Running Man and Kindergarten Cop - both excellent movies and better than many of Arnold's Tier-1 films.