The Ringer:
The path from the hallowed 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Predator to Friday’s Shane Black–directed The Predator—the sixth movie in the series, counting a ludicrous two-flick hookup with the Alien franchise—is fraught with chaos, wild-eyed diversions, grody overindulgence, and geysers of blood both red and fluorescent green. Sometimes these films are gross, and sometimes they are super gross. They get relatively little critical respect and always make money. Each dangles the tantalizing threat of total apocalypse, and each, to some tightly controlled degree, delivers.
If I ever had a movie franchise guilty pleasure, the Predator movies would qualify. Citizen Kane they ain’t.
I saw the first one in a theater. I remember Ventura being funny and Arnold being boring. The Alien crossovers sound like fan-fiction won a pitch on a slow day.
I suppose it’s cool that a few genuinely talented actors still have action-movie franchises where they can widen their potential audiences.
“Each dangles the tantalizing threat of total apocalypse, and each, to some tightly controlled degree, delivers.”
I have only seen the first two predator movies, but the theme was never anything even close to apocalypse. They were hunters, out for a weekend hunting trip. So unless you consider deer hunters the cause of a deer apoclypse, I’m not sure how Predator movies are either.
I probably had fun seeing it with my friends back then. I’ll take your word for it, if nobody else’s. 😉
I loved the original, it was brilliant. All those dudes, greased up with big guns. Yes!
I own copies of it in various forms. Gotta watch it again soon…
I don’t understand the smugness of film criticism. The original Predator is a great film, and a great sci-if film. Period.
Guilty pleasure deserves for film that has low quality. The original Predator isn’t one.