"Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here, this stuff 'll make you a god damn sexual Tyranosaurus. Just like me!" Arnie, aliens and big explosions, what more do you want?

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2005)

Predator opens to a shot of space. An alien craft shoots past Earth and jettisons something which enters our atmosphere. Major 'Dutch' Schaeffer (Arnold Swarzenegger) and his team of five men, Mac (Bill Duke), Blain (Jesse Ventura), Billy (Sonny Landham), Poncho (Richard Chaves) and Hawkins (Shane Black) arrive near a Central American jungle and are briefed by General Phillips (R.G. Armstrong) and one of Dutch's old friends George Dillon (Carl Weathers). Dutch is told that two important cabinet ministers were taken hostage deep in the jungle when their helicopter was shot down by rebels and it's up to Dutch and his men to bring them back. Dillon says he will be going along as well. Once in the jungle they discover the helicopter which looks like it was shot down using heat seeking missiles. Soon after they also find another American soldier, Jim Harper hanging upside down from a branch and totally skinned, ouch. The men find the rebels camp. Dutch witnesses one of the hostages (Steve Boyum) being executed. The unit storm the camp, kill all the enemy soldiers and blow lots of things up. They find the other hostage dead too. They also come across Anna (Elpidia Carrllo) who Dillon insists he wants to take back and interrogate. Dutch finds out that Dillon lied and it was never meant to be a rescue mission but an assassination which causes hostilities between the two. They radio in and ask for an air lift but are told that they can't send a chopper that far into the jungle as the area is still too hot for a pick-up. They must track across miles of jungle to a safe rendezvous point. While making their way to the pick-up point Anna tries to escape and runs into the jungle, Hawkins is sent after her and he is killed by something which seems able to camouflage itself against the trees. Soon after Blain is killed by whatever it is. Dutch quickly comes to the conclusion that this isn't mere human enemy soldiers but something else, something much more deadly and brutal, something that maybe doesn't even belong on Earth and something with a primal and basic motive for hunting them, sport! But will Dutch be able to turn the tables on the ultimate predator (Kevin Peter Hall is the man in the monster suit) and lead his surviving men to safety? Directed by John McTiernan I thought this was a cracking piece of big-budget Hollywood entertainment. The script by Jim and John Thomas moves like a rocket and it never becomes boring or dull. It mixes action, horror and sci-fi very well. It is a little silly at times and some of the macho stuff is a bit corny. The one-liners are there too, the infamous "knock knock" after Arnie kicks a door in and blows an enemy through a wall and "stick around" after Arnie impales someone with his machete are stand outs. Only occasionally did I remember that I was watching a Hollywood product, the 'happy' Arnie gets the girl ending especially. There is only one big action scene and that's where Dutch and his team wipe out an entire enemy camp, it's a fun sequence with lots of gunfire and big explosions. And that mini-gun Jesse Ventura carries around blowing people away with is the coolest, meanest and sexiest looking gun in film history! (it was so cool Arnie had to have one of his own a few years later when he made Terminator 2) There are, rather surprisingly it has to be said, some very gory moments, skinned corpses, someone has their brains splattered over the camera lens, someones chest is blown open, a severed arm on the ground still firing it's weapon, a pile of guts on the ground and the predator rips someones spinal column and skull out. The special make-up effects generally speaking are excellent, as are the predator effects by Stan Winston. It's obviously a man in a monster suit, but hey what a cool monster suit it is! One thing that did annoy me is when the film switched to a point-of-view shot from the predator itself, it's sight is based on thermal imaging and the effect really got on my nerves after a while, don't know why really it just did. It's well made with nice production values and a special mention goes to the music by Alan Silvestri which I thought was appropriate and excellent. The acting is OK, but the cast is great with Arnie, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke and Carl Weathers making it fun to watch. I really liked this and throughly recommend it, along with Terminator 1 (1984) & 2 (1991) this is easily Arnies best film. This is probably on T.V. all the time and is widely available on a special edition DVD so there is no excuse for letting this cracker of an action/horror film pass you by. Watch it now!