Dutch (Schwarzenegger) and his team of crack marines are sent in to the South American jungle with an old CIA friend (Weathers) to rescue hostages. It doesn't take them long to realise that there is something else in the jungle, faster and tougher than any marine, and it's hunting them...
This film flatters its age. Hitting cinema screens back in 1987, it heralded in a new breed of action thriller. Well regarded for its action scenes and as a major Arnie vehicle, this casts a shadow over a great ensemble movie with some classic cinema moments. If you haven't seen it for a while, you will have forgotten that Arnie's part is, for the majority of the film, one of a member of a team, and that most of the characters get a good turn in the movie. This is shown well by the camp attack, and continues along the same line until the team members meet their various grisly ends. The acting is good from the likes of Weathers, and especially X, whose "it's over there" scene with Weathers is great stuff.
John McTiernan's first studio film, it's a well-directed piece with plenty of humour and fun poked at the genre. The story runs at a good pace, though the first fifty minutes are a bit of a tease for the running and screaming that we are all waiting for. It's a well presented story that is tense yet full of action, and a thoroughly enjoyable ride that has lost none of its entertainment over the years, and remains, to me, a bit of a classic.
What is very interesting to me is that the widescreen version actually removes one of my pet hate continuity errors. In the pan and scan version, you can see Carl Weather's real arm tucked behind the fake one when he gets his come-uppance. In the widescreen version this isn't really visible as his waist is cut from view. I personally am very pleased with this.
It is disappointing that there isn't an anamorphic image here, apparently due to an issue with the optical effects, and the picture I must say is a little rough compared to most new DVD's - a little blurred and grainy throughout. For a special edition that is clearly going to sell a lot of copies, they could have gone back and enhanced this. It needed it too - a lot of the special effects look very dated. This is made up for by two good soundtracks, especially the DTS track which just rocks, and really draws you in to the movie during tense sections.
The first disk comes with two commentaries, one from Director John McTiernan, which is very interesting. He goes off on a few tangents, but nicely ties in the supplementary documentaries with an overview of the production. His views on film-making are interesting too, particularly his loathing of the sequel, Predator 2, and it is good to hear him watching a movie he holds in some fondness, yet hadn't seen for many years (by his own admission). The text commentary runs with a number of support staff and is equally good. I like text commentaries as you can ignore them when the movie gets interesting. The first disk also holds a demo of the great PC game Alien Versus Predator. Come on guys we've spent £20 on this disk and the game is really old, lets have a full copy or just don't bother!!
Second disk - lots here. Best of the bunch is the "If it bleeds we can kill it" documentary, which lifts the lid on a movie with as much story surrounding the production as is in the screenplay, and shows previously unseen footage of the original, naff predator, and the fact that the production had to shut down because it ran out of money. Some great interviews with cast and crew now and during production, which tell an interesting story. The additional featurettes are more in-dept explanation of issues mentioned during the documentary, and should have been inserted in to the main feature in my opinion. Outtakes are interesting but there for completeness, and don't show any insight in to the original cut of the movie. The featurettes are all very good and worth watching, there are even a few decent easter eggs to keep you occupied. There are also some stills from production that will satisfy the fans. All this and a smart presentation pack, and I would say you have a package that deserves to sit on your shelf until they one day revisit the picture. Until then this is as definitive a package as you're ever likely to see. Thanks Fox!
