Members of an elite commando unit conducting a rescue mission in the jungles of South America find themselves being hunted by a mysterious alien creature. Much entertaining carnage ensues.

CRITIQUE

Feel free to disagree, but I think Predator belongs on the shortlist of quintessential ‘80s action flicks. It’s expertly mounted, features endlessly quotable dialogue, and gave us one of the last truly iconic screen creatures. It’s also lean and mean, with nary a wasted shot or scene to clutter its running time. I know it’s a junky B-movie at heart, but I can think of at least two junky B-movies at heart almost no one would deny are classics.

Forget Rambo and its sequels, the middle Rocky flicks, or anything else that features laughably ripped dudes flexing for the better part of two hours--this is the biggest testosterone fest ever to hit cinema screens. Watching Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, and Shane Black (yes, that Shane Black) tear their way through the jungle is a little like stumbling into a meeting of ‘Roid Rage Anonymous.

Okay, so maybe Black is the odd man out, but every group needs a little funny dude, and Black’s off-color quipping about a certain oversized feature of his girlfriend’s anatomy is more than enough reason to keep him around. I have to admit there are times when I wonder exactly why I find so much enjoyment in a movie this pumped-up and absurd, but I put an end to such questions by telling myself to shut up.

Despite the fact this was their screenwriting, brothers Jim and John Thomas crafted a script that’s a model of genre efficiency; there’s absolutely no flab whatsoever. The characters are established quickly, the plot set up with a minimum of exposition. And twenty or so pages in they included an action setpiece that’s big enough to serve as the finale of a lesser movie, but here simply acts as a jumping-off point to the real meat of the story. (The Thomas boys also wrote the 1990’s Predator 2, a passable timewaster that’s most notable for putting Morton Downey, Jr. and Teri Weigel in the same movie. They would later pen the surprisingly good Executive Decision, which served as the perfect antidote for anyone who sat through On Deadly Ground.)

Furthermore, John McTiernan’s direction is exactly what the movie needs. This was only his second feature, and he was saddled with a very meager budget, but this is no way looks like the work of a tyro filmmaker. The pacing is demonic, with the movie moving like lightning opening to closing credits. (You could make the argument that this is the most important movie in McTiernan’s career, as it landed him the Die Hard gig. Then again it also landed him the Last Action Hero gig, so I suppose it was something of a mixed blessing.) Twenty years on this movie serves as a reminder of a time when action flicks weren’t needlessly bloated and overlong.

I sat down for this latest viewing roughly a week after watching Aliens vs. Predator-Requiem, and at the end of the movie I came away with the belief that no one other than Kevin Peter Hall should be allowed to play the title creature. Not only was the seven-foot-two Hall (who tragically died from pneumonia in 1991 after contracting HIV from a blood transfusion the previous year; the sequel marked his last screen appearance) an imposing physical presence, he also gave the creature an unsettling litheness; his movements are too fluid and easy for a being of that size. The actors who’ve subsequently filled the suit (or suits) come across as pretty much that: actors in suits. Despite appearing in only a handful of roles, I’d say Hall made a pretty good impact, especially for a man whose face most people never saw.

THE VIDEO

The 1.85:1/1080p transfer is incredibly uneven, which in turn makes it incredibly maddening. At times it can look very good, but more often than not image quality is severely compromised by uneven grain and heavy digital noise. Sharpness, depth, and the level of detail are also inconsistent, due largely to softness and very weak black levels.

Brightly lit scenes come off best; there are moments when the jungle foliage practically leaps off the screen, but this is another of those oasis-in-a-desert situations. I imagine much of this owes to the source elements, but given that this is one of the signature Fox titles from the past two decades, you’d think they’d afford it the time and attention it deserves.

THE AUDIO

The DTS HD Master Lossless Audio 5.1 track is also a huge disappointment. Surround action is minimal, and what’s there sounds artificial. Bass is lackluster, with all of the weapons fire and explosions lacking heft and impact. At its best dialogue sounds merely okay. English 4.0 Dolby Surround, French Dolby Digital Stereo, and Spanish Dolby Digital Mono tracks are also included. English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Korean subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The original DVD release of Predator, which came way back in the early days of the format, was a bare-bones, non-anamorphic affair; a few years back Fox released a nice two-disc special edition. Want to guess which one this Blu-ray discs mimics? You got it.

In an incredibly stupid move, Fox has included none of the material from that second release, so you get no commentary from McTiernan, no footage of Jean-Claude Van Damme in the original Predator suit (he played the role for two weeks before being sent packing), and none of the featurettes.

Here’s what you do get: the movie’s theatrical trailer. Impressive, huh? For a minute there it looked like Fox had changed its tune when it came to Blu-ray catalog titles, but they seem to be back to their old tricks. When will this nonsense stop?

Oh, yeah--the disc is also enhanced for playback with D-Box Motion Control Systems.

FINAL THOUGHT