This maybe a surprise entry for my list as this was an action movie and I will level with you here and say I was surprised to see this one so high on my list. That said ‘Predator’ was given a 91% from me and as a result it is up here in 22nd place. It deserves to be here as well which I will get too a little later. Released in 1987 this was a sci-fi action movie ridden hard on the back of Arnie’s success as an action movie star. This movie was directed by John McTiernan and written by the brothers of Jim and John Thomas, producers credits went to Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver, and John Davis. The last of those behind the camera that I will mention is one of my favourites, with the music credit of Alan Silvestri. In front of the camera the movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Shane Black, R. G. Armstrong, Kevin Peter Hall, and Peter Cullen. Saying that you may not actually see these people, but you will see them inside a costume or hear them. Release in 1987 this makes the collection of 80’s movie but this is more of an action movie, made on a budget of less than $18m it went to the box office and came back with $98.3m and was so successful that they made a second movie that then merged with the Alien franchise to make more and more movies. The challenge won’t be touched with this one as I liked it much more than the other critics did with a 7.8 out of 10 from IMDb and 81% from Rotten Tomatoes. I think it’s time for the plot, now don’t you?
Set in a south American jungle a group of mercenaries led by an ex-US Army Special Operations soldier and Vietnam Vet called ‘Dutch’ is leading his troop on a rescue mission. The team consists of Mac, Billy, Blain, Poncho, and Hawkins and they have been tasked with rescuing a former cabinet minister and aide who are being held by insurgents. Landing in the jungle the team soon find a crashed helicopter and the skinned bodies of three people and Dutch released they are green berets. Reaching the point, they capture one of the surviving guerrillas a woman called Anna. So, with captured women in tow the troop head for the extraction point. Its at this point that the story takes a change as they are stalked and ambushed by an invisible enemy killing them off and appears to be able to take them at will. Why can this troop of serious bad asses get picked off so easily and are unable to fight back at. I will let you work it out for yourself if you don’t know already.
This is a great action movie with enough gore to break it into the horror category. Everything you would want from a horror movie is here, a small group of people banded together in a place where they cannot easily escape from (easily), evil presence lurking in the darkness prepared to pick them off at will. No way of fighting back and desperately seeking a way of working out firstly what they are competing with and then seeing if they can find a weakness that they can use to their advantage. With the group you have a real balance and bouncing of characters off each other and they are all dealing with this in their own way. The special effects are great for its time and the predator itself was a stunning idea for an alien creature. Something that is out for the hunt for hunting’s sake. Able to be completely invisible to the naked eye and willing to kill. This creature has got some legs in it and could have gone onto too many movie sequels and it had a Predator 2 movie which really wasn’t great. It was Ok but it wasn’t as good as this great one which started the slide before the alien tie up which made the worst of two great franchises. Do not be critical of this movie if you have seen those over movies and not this one. This is a great movie and should be watched on its own merits as they seem to want to take franchises in different directions and just make them worse, but this was the first idea, and it was great one. It is more of an action movie with a bit of raw gore thrown in and it just works. It’s a big butch brut of a movie and its loved by this one typing at the second.
Next up is one of very few war movies on the list and it’s so high up as well…
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