Good Work Mac!

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2003)

'You know bro' whoever did this to you is gonna' comeback, and when he does I'm gonna' cut yo' name into him. I'm gonna' cut yo' name into him.'
If you find yourself struggling to find a good sci-fi action pick this weekend on your weekly trip to Dave's Video or wherever the hell it is you rent your movies from, allow me to make a suggestion. Why don't you try renting an Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 classic, Predator. I mean you cannot go wrong with that.
This is a movie I watch maybe once or twice a year. It has a few signature '80s action movie touches. There are the one-liners, all pretty good and every body seems to shoot from the hip. Also there seems to be a lot posing oil handy, which is a good thing I suppose as our team of skilled commandos just can't seem to keep their shirts on. Director John McTiernan wanted us to know, to have absolutely no doubt, that our heroes were absolutely, 100% badass. Well trust you me, we get the bloody picture. The films '80isms are not excessive though, and on the whole a little bit charming.
Predator is a sci-fi flick that starts out as if it were going to be nothing more than a standard action film. (I must admit there is a neat little scene in the beginning that lets you know that it won't be) It begins with the arrival of a crack rescue team at a tropical U.S. military installation in dark bodied Hueys. The team is lead by a man we will know only as Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenenegger). The arrival of the rescue team is truly great film-making. The scene essentially establishes the intrinsic toughness of our heroes and their cohesiveness as a team of shooters. They arrive on the island and man they walk like the own it. They don't talk. They move like a highly coordinated unit, speech is unnecessary for men such as these, they know what they are supposed to do, they almost know each others thoughts. These guys have been together for years. And we the viewer understand all of this from just few quite scenes and remarkably good acting. It's all in the blocking of the shots and the carriage of the actors and it is all perfect.
The teams mission: save three U.S. diplomats whose chopper has been shot down. Dutch thinks to ask why this Cabinet Minister's chopper was traveling on the wrong side of the border. 'They got off course.' Says Gen Phillips. The diplomats also seem to be carrying information mighty sensitive to the CIA, because Dutch and his team are going 'in country' under the authority of a guy named Dillon (Carl Weathers). He is an old friend of Dutch's but our hero is a bit uneasy about having his authority pulled out from under him. Dutch even delivers the most famous of 80's action hero lines, well a variation of it anyway. The line typically goes something like this, 'I always work alone.' In Predator the line is, 'My team works alone.'
This is all standard action movie stuff. Well done to be sure but still material we have all seen before. What is great about this stuff though is how well done it is. The movie was filmed some where in South America, and it looks like they are moving through a real jungle. This is jungle with a capital J. They are not on a soundstage and that adds a lot to the movie. It is also during this material that we see that there may be more in store for them than just guerrillas. I won't say what they find, but it is unsettling. The other thing that is established during this material is the way the team is really one unit. Everyone is important. During the rescue operation for instance, while we see them dismantling their opposition the camera doesn't just follow Arnold around, but it kind of keeps a running tab on all members of the team. My only real problem with these scenes is the way everyone is always shooting from their hips all the time. I mean it is okay for Blain (Jesse Ventura) he is carrying a big gatling gun, but everyone else? Come on! Just a minor complaint.
The rescue doesn't go as planned, and instead of affecting the rescue (the 'diplomats' are dead), they pick up a prisoner, Anna (Elpidia Carrillo), and have to hike twelve miles to their extraction point. It is at this point that things begin to go terribly wrong for our heroes. The team's skill at killing has attracted the attention of different kind of hunter. And one by one he begins to pick them off, until finally there is just the Predator, and Dutch. Moreover it is a Dutch with out many of his modern weapons. He has his knife, a couple of rounds from is grenade launcher, but no launcher, and his wits. This is classic stuff.
The showdown between the Predator and Dutch is quite a pay off. It is a tense game of cat and mouse, with the roles of hunter and hunted changing more than once. Predator is maybe not a great action-sci-fi movie, but it certainly is one of the most fun. Rent it and enjoy.