Three Penny Orchestra

wheeeeee! it's time once again for a doodle infested ramble about a movie. today, get to your choppahs with 1987s predator

This was a pleasant surprise. I watched this fresh off total recall which left me expecting campy fun in the jungle complete with big guns and more one liners than you can shake a big beefy Austrian at. Instead, what we’ve got here is a pretty tense action flick.

Speaking of beefy Austrians, ho boy. Nobody told me I was invited to the gun show. There are biceps in this movie like you would not believe. Actually, the whole thing’s grunting and dripping with pure machismo. OOT shoot outs with guns that should be reserved for taking down air craft, tobacco chomping sexual tyrannosauruses and explosions to eclipse the sun- This movie’s got it all.

But wait, there’s more! There’s a little brain to go with all that brawn. The audience is thrown in with a particularly burly group of mercenaries. much like that other lauded ‘cannon fodder for creatures from outer space’ flick, alien, it’s not long before chests cavities start exploding but akin to that film, the writers actually make us care about these hardened vets with a few scattering of lines busting with character. There’s also the sense of mounting paranoia, not only from the thing stalking our heroes through the jungle, but also from a possible enemy within.

But more about the invisible entity stalking Arnold and friends through the jungle. I don’t know about you, but in today’s CGI sodden movies, I’d forgotten just how awesome practical effects could be. The predator suit is top notch (well, except for the mitts. The predator would be fucked if his quarry was some double knotted shoe laces) and Kevin peter hall, despite being a giant of a man, gives the creature a certain air of grace.



Still, this film is a tone of fun. Best enjoyed with some mates and beers.

Interesting fact: we owe a joke kicking round Hollywood for this one. Following the release of rocky IV, folk were saying that balboa had run out of earthly opponents to butt gloves with and he’d be taking on aliens next. The Thomas brother’s heard this and thought it would make a pretty good premise for a screenplay. Thus, predator was born.

#THE MORE YOU KNOW#