Thursday, December 6, 2012

Predator


Buy it, Rent it, Net-Flix it, Skip it or. Why aren't you watching it right now.










The movie Predator. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weather, with Kevin Peter Hall playing The Predator. When you look at the movie it starts off with a strange looking alien ship shooting a pod of some kind to the surface of the earth. Next we meet Arnold and his team of badass soldiers. Bill Duke as Mac explosive expert. Jesse Ventura as Blain heavy weapons. Sonny Landham as Billy the indian tracker. Richard Chaves as Poncho marksman. And last but not least Shane Black as Hawkins the radio man. Along for the ride are Apollo I mean Carl Weathers as Dillon with Eilpidia Carrillo as Anna. Everyone in the jungle, things go boom. People die. Spines ripped out. Arms cut off. More things go boom.

The movie: After being called into do a snatch and grab operation by war buddy and now a CIA officer Dillon. Arnold playing Dutch is lead to believe that it is simple job. After being briefed on why he and his group were called. Dutch has doubts about the mission. But trusting Dillon he goes along. Dropping into the jungle the group finds the helicopter that was carrying the package that they were looking for with no one there they instead find a squad of Army Green Berets dead. Dillon stating he has no idea who they are states that they need to find the package. Billy tracks the rebels that shot down the choppper back to there base where we find Russian soldiers killing the hostages that were aboard the helicopter. Dutch and his group super murder. everyone. Blain gets shot in the arm, when Poncho notices and brings in to his attention his reaction is one of the best on-liners ever. "I aint got time to bleed." After the killing is done. Dillon is confronted by Dutch saying he lied to him. The entire story was bullshit. Dillon tells Dutch that his men where in the helicopter and he sent the Green Berets to find them and when they didn't come back he called Dutch. When calling for a recuse copter the team is told that they will have to walk out of the jungle to get across the border. Finding a remaining rebel named Anna the group heads back into the jungle to get out of the hellhole. As they move thru the jungle Anna attempts to escape and Hawkins gives chase. Capturing Anna asking her to stop, Hawkins is killed by The Predator. Finding nothing but his cloths and equipment the group searches for Hawkins. Blain is killed and after spotting a shadow Mac grabs Blain's Mini-gun and lays waste to the forest. The others join in and clear the timber from a section of the area. Dutch asks Mac what he saw. Mac who just lost his best friend is at a loss for words. Poncho and Billy search the area as Dutch and Dillon look at Blain's body. The wounds are inhuman. Poncho and Billy return saying that they hit nothing. After a restless night Dutch decides to set up an ambush for The Predator. Poncho is injuried and Mac snaps running off to chase The Predator. Dutch and Anna grab Poncho with Billy leading the way to the helicopter. Dillon seeing no way out goes after Mac telling Dutch to wait at the copter.The Predator blows the back of Mac's head off. He then blows off one of Dillon's arms. Then impaling him. Billy decides to stay and fight The Predator. It is quickly over for Billy who for his trouble gets his spine ripped out. Poncho and Dutch along with Anna are attacked by The Predator with Poncho getting shot in the head. Dutch tells Anna "get to da copter" Leaving Dutch to fight the Predator one on one.

The movie plays well. The action scences are shot in a way that you don't get lost and you know who is doing what. The opening scence with the alien ship could have been cut. Would have let the discovery of the predator a better payoff. If the opening scence had been left out it would have left audience wondering what the hell was that, when the thermal vision came on. The thermal vision has become a hallmark of the series. The Predator was going to be played by Jean-Claude Van Damme as an uncredited special effect. Not wanting that according to Jesse Ventura led Van Damme to be fired according to Ventura. The thinking that Arnold and his men are all huge guys a smaller and faster ninja like creature would play well opposeing them. The great Stan Winston was contacted by John McTiernan by way of Arnold to help redesign the monster. Arnold had worked with Winston on The Terminator. As Stan went to work he was also working with James Cameron, Cameron is reported to have said that the manibles were something he always wanted to see on a alien. Kevin Peter Hall who was 7'2 had a hard time filming the fight scences with Arnold because the eye sockets on the predator suit blocked his vision. he and arnold would rehearse and walk thru the sequence numerous times to get it right.



Next to True Lies this is one of my favorite Arnold movies.



So is it a skip it, it a rent it, Net-flix it. or a Buy it? Or a why aren't you watching it right now? It's a why aren't you watching it right now.

No comments:

Post a Comment