The inverse cost and quality law attempts to formalize any Hollywood cinema production characterized by a large budget and, by negative correlation, poorly perceived critical attributes. American writer David Foster Wallace [1] [2] coined the term and established the genre's attributes, symptoms or diagnostic features in a 1998 article titled, "F/X Porn" [3] by which Wallace primarily critiques the weaknesses of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), a blockbuster [4] film directed by James Cameron.
David Foster Wallace, in a 1998 essay which first appeared in Waterstone's Magazine and was later anthologized in the essay collection Both Flesh and Not , posited that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the archetype or apotheosis of the inverse cost and quality law: [5] [6]
"'T2' is thus also the first and best instance of a paradoxical law that appears to hold true for the entire F/X Porn genre. It is called the Inverse Cost and Quality Law, and it states very simply that the larger a movie's budget is, the shittier that movie is going to be. The case of "T2" shows that much of the ICQL's force derives from simple financial logic. A film that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make is going to get financial backing if and only if its investors can be maximally – maximally – sure that at the very least they will get their hundreds of millions of dollars back – i.e. a megabudget movie must not fail (and "failure" here means anything less than a runaway box-office hit) and must thus adhere to certain reliable formulae that have been shown by precedent to maximally ensure a runaway hit."
Despite the dislike by Wallace, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is critically acclaimed. It won four Academy Awards, and review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 92% positive reviews. [7]
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".
Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress. Known for portraying tough, resilient characters, she made her film debut in 1979 before coming to prominence with her starring role as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) and two of its sequels, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Hamilton is the recipient of various accolades, including two Saturn Awards, two MTV Movie Awards, one Satellite Award and one Romy Award, as well as nominations for three Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a 2003 science fiction action film that is the third installment in the Terminator franchise and a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). It is directed by Jonathan Mostow and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. In its plot, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a T-X (Loken)—a highly advanced Terminator—back in time to ensure the rise of machines by killing top members of the future human resistance as John Connor's (Stahl) location is unknown. The resistance sends back a reprogrammed T-850 (Schwarzenegger) to protect John and Kate (Danes).
The T-1000 is a fictional character in the Terminator franchise. A shapeshifting android Terminator assassin, the T-1000 is the main antagonist of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as an antagonist in Terminator Genisys and the theme park attraction T2 3-D: Battle Across Time. A similar Terminator, referred to as a T-1001, appears in the Fox television series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Terminator is an American media franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The franchise encompasses a series of science fiction action films, comics, novels and additional media, concerning a total war between Skynet's synthetic intelligence – a self-aware military machine network – and John Connor's Resistance forces comprising the survivors of the human race. Skynet's most famous products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800, who was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original Terminator film in 1984. By 2010, the franchise had generated $3 billion in revenue. The film franchise is considered to be of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.
A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production intended for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it.
Edward Walter Furlong is an American actor. He won Saturn and MTV Movie Awards for his breakthrough performance at age 14 as John Connor in James Cameron's 1991 science fiction action film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was followed by a mini-sequel, short attraction film T2-3D: Battle Across Time.
The Terminator, also known as a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 or the T-800, is the name of several film characters from the Terminator franchise portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and numerous actor stand-ins digitally overlaid with Schwarzenegger's likeness. The Terminator himself is part of a series of machines created by Skynet for infiltration-based surveillance and assassination missions, and while an android for his appearance, he is usually described as a cyborg consisting of living tissue over a robotic endoskeleton.
Near Dark is a 1987 American neo-Western horror film co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein. The plot follows a young man in a small Oklahoma town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires.
Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy is a 2001 American documentary film based on the life of porn actor Ron Jeremy. The film is directed and written by Scott J. Gill. The film features Ron Jeremy describing his life and career, and co-stars Larry Flynt, Adam Rifkin, Seymore Butts, Alisha Klass, Phoebe Dollar, Kenny Dollar, Jenna Jameson, and Troy Duffy. The film is produced by Kirt Eftekhar, and Scott J. Gill.
John Connor is a fictional character in the Terminator franchise. Created by writer/director James Cameron, the character is first referred to in the 1984 film The Terminator and first appears in its 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2). In the character's first appearance, John is portrayed by Edward Furlong as a child, and briefly by Michael Edwards as an adult in a small role. Other actors have portrayed the character in subsequent films, including Nick Stahl, Christian Bale, and Jason Clarke. In addition, Thomas Dekker portrayed John Connor in the two-season television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Bolero is a 1984 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Derek and starring Bo Derek. The film centers on the protagonist's sexual awakening and her journey around the world to pursue an ideal first lover who will take her virginity.
Flesh for Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging. Interiors were filmed at Cinecittà in Rome by a crew of Italian filmmakers.
William Howard Peter Wisher Jr. is an American screenwriter, known for his work with long-time friend James Cameron on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) is an adult entertainment convention and trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada and is sponsored by AVN magazine. AEE is the largest pornography industry trade show in the United States. The 2007 AVN Expo had over 30,000 attendees, which included 355 exhibiting companies.
In the Terminator franchise, a Terminator is an autonomous cyborg, typically humanoid, conceived as a virtually indestructible soldier, infiltrator, and assassin. A variety of models appear throughout the franchise. Within the fictional storyline, Terminators are created in a post-apocalyptic future by a computer AI known as Skynet, after it has launched war on humans. The machines are created to aid Skynet in its quest, and most are designed as infiltrators with a human appearance. Several Terminators throughout the franchise are reprogrammed by the human resistance to instead serve as protectors.
Matt McColm is an American actor and stuntman, and former model.
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories. In addition to writing, Wallace was employed as a professor at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, and Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong, it is the sequel to The Terminator (1984) and is the second installment in the Terminator franchise. In the film, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a Terminator—a highly advanced killing machine—back in time to 1995 to kill the future leader of the human resistance John Connor, when he is a child. The resistance sends back a less advanced, reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity.
Both Flesh and Not: Essays is a collection of fifteen essays by American author David Foster Wallace published posthumously in 2012. It is Wallace's third essay collection.