STARRING Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura, Elpidia Carrillo, Sonny Landham, Shane Black, R.G. Armstrong, Kevin Peter Hall and Peter Cullen. Written by Tim and John Thomas, directed by John McTiernan. Produced by Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver and John Davis. Creature design Stan Winston. Budget $15-18 million. Running time 107 minutes. Originally released in 1987.
There are some films that are timeless and Predator is one of them, with a rare 'perfect' three-act structure, and adhering to the classic Syd Field school of plotting, with the 10 minute hook, the midpoint confrontation, and the end of act two crisis before the third act de-acceleration.
Written by two brothers, Tim and John Thomas (their first film script) Predator sees Major Alan 'Dutch' Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) lead his squad of combat veterans on a so-called rescue mission deep inside a South American rain forrest, there to locate and rescue a captured Senator and his pilot following a helicopter crash behind enemy lines. Along for the ride is Al Dillon, an ex-comrade in arms of Dutch, now a C.I.A operative. When the squad finds the skinned corpses of three Green Berets hanging from a tree they begin to suspect something isn't quite right and soon discover they're being tracked and hunted by an extraterrestrial creature who's come to Earth to hunt the most dangerous prey in the galaxy, Man.
What follows is a fantastically well made, acted and tense action adventure that 33 years later still holds up. A film that spawned a much unneeded franchise and a total of four sequels, including a prequel, and two 'team-up' sequels, countless video games, books, toys and comics.
Shown as part of Cineworld's 'Action' season, this was a glorious opportunity to see Predator back on the big screen and boy did it deliver! Packed with memorable lines, "Stick around.","I ain't got time to bleed.', "Knock knock.", Get to the chopper!" and my favourite, "L.Z is clear. Go for insertion." and some spectacularly O.T.T. action scenes directed with perfection by John McTiernan who was on something of a roll back then directing in the space of three years - Die Hard, Predator and The Hunt for Red October, sadly he ended up helming the absolute sac of shit remake that is Rollerball.
Anyway, this is perfection and I can't fault it.
10/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments, unless they're how to make money working from home, are gratefully received.