Great, underrated action film

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2005)

Some will tell you "Predator" is another dumb '80s action flick. It's not. It's very different from anything else Arnold Schwarzenegger has starred in. First of all it begins as a standard Military war film, setting up the plot for about 45 minutes! It then morphs into a suspense-thriller/sci-fi film: Like some sort of Agatha Christie novel meeting "Rambo" via "Aliens." It's quite intelligent and thrilling, not revealing the Predator creature fully until the very end. Part of the reason this film works, and the sequel does not (as successfully anyway), is the level of suspense and mystery surrounding the Predator.
Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers one of his best performances as Dutch. Granted, he isn't required to do much more than shed his upper-body clothing and look ripped, but he _does_ do more than that - I felt sympathy for Dutch, he seemed like a realistic character, and I forgot that I was watching Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has a few good one-liners ("Stick around!" being the cream of the crop along with "Knock knock!") but especially later in the film, his confidence stumbles and he turns into the flip-side of the typical Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero.
The sequel worked as a comic-book-style creature feature but the original "Predator" is a much better film than most people give it credit for, being the rare smart action film that is solidly constructed and worth watching far more than just once.