It picked Arnold to huntbig mistake. My Fav Arnold Film.

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2011)

Arnold stars in what would become one of the best sci fi action movies of all time. The movie begins with a shot of space and small craft jettisoning a pod to earth. Flash to a small base somewhere in Central America, a helicopter arrives with a group of soldiers for a mission. Their leader "Dutch" (Arnold) is briefed on the mission by Dillon CIA (Weathers) and General Phillips (Armstrong), that a cabinet minister went down in hostile territory. Just for fact it's the fictional country of Val Verde, not Guatemala. Dutch smells trouble but has to go along and then we meet the characters on the helicopter ride. Blain (Ventura) packing a mini gun, Poncho (Chavez) special grenade launcher, Billy (Landham), Mac (Duke), Hawkins (Black), all with distinct personalities and weapons. Billy picks up the trail, Dutch is suspicious and more so when they come across Green Berets he knows, who have been killed, skinned and strung up. They take out the commie guerrilla base, and take a female guerrilla Anna (Carrillo) captive. Dutch finds out Dillon double crossed them to do the mission, time to go home right? Wrong. Soon one by one his men are picked off with seemingly no enemy to fight back at and weapons never seen before. Eventually they make a stand against what seems to be something not of this world. After his men are killed, Dutch virtually unarmed makes run for the jungle telling Anna to run and "Get to the choppa!" Dutch by accident learns the creature can't see him while covered in mud. Using this to his advantage he fortifies grounds for a final showdown. After a lengthy fight Dutch is forced into a hand to hand fight, which becomes a route. Beaten to a pulp he crawls to his main trap. The Predator smells it and thinks he out smarted him only to have Dutch kick the trap and smash the Predator with a massive log, immobilizing him. Dutch gets up and is going to lay a rock to his skull, but just asks "What the hell are you?" The Predator repeats it, then reaches for his wrist sets a bomb and starts laughing. Dutch gets the, message and runs for his life before a small nuclear explosion takes out the area. Standing tall at the end, ravaged by battle he is picked up by Phillips and Anna and taken off into the sunset.
This is my favorite Arnold film and basically the perfect male flick. There's virtually nothing in this film a female could like. The only one in the film is there for some info and nothing more. No nudity, senseless character development, or any garbage to slow it down. You get a little here and there on some and that's it, we don't need to here about the characters stupid kids on weekends, short and sweet, no nonsense. Recent films bog down in character development.
Where the movie really shines, is probably the cast. Its one of those films that's just perfect. It happens rarely but there are some. Arnold, need I say more? He is the ultimate leader from the start arm wrestling with another great Carl Weathers. No skinny boys from new films, these are guys you actually believe could kick ass. Other greats, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves and even Shane Black, the smallest guy manages to be good, just on his stupid jokes. Even if you hated the film, you remember the guy telling the gross jokes. Arnold is needed to take on 7 ft tall Kevin Peter Hall (RIP) who, in costume made Arnold look mortal. It just doesn't work having a guy who can't match up to a big guy, see "Predators", an obvious miscast.
The characters are another strong point. Almost all have a unique weapon and personality. This helps you to remember them. The obvious one is Blain carrying around the mini gun, pointless yes, but in a comic book type film it works. He chews tobacco, curses and just wants to slaughter the enemy. Some of those classic lines "I ain't got time to bleed" are his people. Dutch all business and bicep's, Dillon devious, Billy spiritual, Poncho underrated toughest to the end, Mac loyal friend looking for revenge and Hawkins the comedic guy. But the other star is the Predator itself. Thanks to the great Stan Winston (RIP) who created this creature that has become an icon of sci fi fans everywhere. With KPH's performance it just jelled perfectly and became a classic. This movie does contain lots of memorable one liners from many of the characters that also makes it great. You can't put these in other films and expect them to work, this is why this is a classic. You get bits a pieces of what the creature is that is flushed out more in Predator 2.
As far and direction and special effects, it all works. John McTiernan takes the cast and delivers a solid action flick as he would with another classic Die Hard. Stan Winston's creation probably delivers the film in then end. The original design was bad, so call in Stan to save the day. The obvious active camouflage has become a staple of the predator series along with the heat vision that the predator sees in. All work out while keeping the enemy basically hidden till the end.
The Special DVD has plenty of stuff behind the scenes, effects, interviews and commentary that should not be missed by any fan. I've been watching this since being a kid in the 80's, overall a big 10 out of 10 for one of Arnold's greatest films and top 80's action flick. Followed by a worthy sequel Predator 2, anyone who remakes this should be hunted.