1987 / 107 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Jason Jones

“If it bleeds. We can kill it.”

Over the course of his career, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been faced with a wide variety of adversaries. In “Commando” it was Dan Hedaya and a refugee from the Blue Oyster Club. In “The Villain” it was Kirk Douglas of all people. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” saw him face off against what many would argue was his most compelling enemy: the T-1000. He even had to fend off Richard Dawson in “The Running Man”. Perhaps his most daunting challenge was in “End of Days” when he had to go toe to toe with The Devil himself.

These are all great movies and villains, with the exception being “The Villain” ironically enough. They are, for the most part, formidable opponents in their own ways, but I never once doubted Arnold’s ability to defeat them. Not for a second. Maybe had The Devil been played by someone more intimidating than Gabriel Byrne, or the T-1000 been played by someone manlier than Robert Patrick I would have feared that Arnold would have been incapable of getting the job done. There were times when self sacrifice was what it took for Arnold to reign victorious, but he was victorious nonetheless.

This all brings us to the case of the Predator. A foe of such strength and ability that one cannot help but question the likelihood of Arnold’s survival against it. I contend that he is the most formidable of all of Arnold’s adversaries. He’s invisible. He’s got a laser cannon mounted on his shoulder. He uses thermal imaging for vision and he can heal himself. Plus, as if you hadn’t figured it out by now, he is not of this world. The T-1000 would piss itself at the thought of having to face this creature.

So what has Arnold done to get himself into hot water this time you ask? As usual he gets injected into events that are of little concern to him, but he has to be the one to make things right again.

This time out he and his elite team of soldiers are sent into a Central American country to kick some guerrilla ass and extract some American and Russian ambassadors in the process. Everything seems routine at first, but then something starts killing Arnold’s men and eventually it becomes clear that they are being hunted. It quickly turns into survival of the fittest with the victor being all but certain.

This movie means business right from the outset. A chopper lands on the beach and there is Arnie smoking a stogie, just waiting to kill somebody. He promptly heads inside and greets Carl Weathers by calling him a “son of a bitch”. More movies need to start this way. I call it the “Arnold Way”. You’ll notice, if you watch a lot of his movies, that they waste no time getting started. This one has us in the jungle within five minutes. “Eraser” has three dead people and a house blown up in the same period of time. In “True Lies” he crawls out of a hole in the ice, hacks into a computer, tangos with Tia Carrere, blows the hell out of a building, kills a number of people, and outruns a herd of snowmobiles all in the opening ten minutes. Nobody opens a movie like Arnie. Nobody.

This time out he even has a quality supporting cast that comprises his team. There’s the Gatling gun wielding Governor of Minnesota, Jesse “I ain’t got time to bleed” Ventura, as well as the always dependable Bill Duke who play closeknit friends within the team. Then there is the pussy joke spewing Shane Black, who is better known for writing screenplays for films like “Lethal Weapon”, “The Last Boy Scout”, and “The Long Kiss Goodnight”. All of which rule I might add, plus Shane is actually quite funny here in his limited screen time. Rounding out the team are an Indian tracker named Billy and an interpreter named Poncho. All involved deliver memorable performances including the young native woman they take prisoner along the way.

Where this movie really excels is in building tension out of the unknown. Anybody can die at any time. This quickly becomes apparent when members of Arnold’s team get gutted and have their chests become yawning craters in what have to be some of the grisliest deaths seen in an Arnold movie. Once his team knows it is being hunted they know that if they are to have a chance they must confront their hidden adversary before he picks them all off one by one. This is where things really start to get cool as they set traps for the Predator and attempt to turn the tables on him by making him the hunted rather than the hunter.

All of this leads to the inevitable confrontation between Arnold and the Predator. The final twenty minutes of this movie demonstrate just how brilliant action films can be when they want to be. Seeing Arnold attempting to exploit a weakness he has found in the Predator, as well as catching him off guard by using his own tactics against him are set up and exploited with such precision that one cannot help but be immersed in the action. It quickly becomes a chess match between two cunning hunters that will end in an unforgettable conclusion.

“Predator” has all the action and suspense that one would expect from the combined talents of Arnold Schwarzenegger and director John Mctiernan (”Die Hard”). It is in an alien being, that has come to Earth merely for the sport of hunting humans, known to us only as the Predator that Arnold finds his greatest match.

On a side note I must say that, that was a refreshing thing about this movie. For once when an alien race comes to Earth it doesn’t want to destroy the planet and take it for it’s own. This time around it is a single alien who is only interested in taking some skulls home to put on the mantle. I thought that was cool as hell and I wish that there were more aliens like this out there. Unfortunately, as evidenced by films like “Mars Attacks!”, “Independence Day”, and “Alien”, there are not any other aliens like this out there.

For now though we can take solace in the fact that the Predator is this sort of alien and that Arnold must face him in the greatest showdown of his career. Whether he will stand victorious when all is said and done is anybody’s guess. One thing is for certain though…

The smart money is always on Arnold.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2002 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Jason's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.