Movie Review: Predator (1987)

Predator (1987) directed by John McTiernan

Arnold Schwarzenegger (his character has a name, but let's be honest, Arnold is playing Arnold) and his crew of commandos is called into a Central American jungle to extract a cabinet member whose helicopter crashed in hostile country. They fly in and discover things aren't as Arnold was told. They find three skinned corpses of a previous extraction team. And no cabinet member. They do find an invisible hunter who is offing Arnold's crew one by one. Can they make it back out of the jungle, or will only Arnold survive?

The movie is a great action picture. There's enough plot to string everything together and the villain, the mostly unseen (until the end) Predator, is menacing and effective. The special effects, even though they are almost thirty years old, hold up. John McTiernan's direction is straightforward and doesn't distract from the story or the action. Schwarzenegger gives a good performance as himself, though he doesn't have as many cheesy one-liners as in other of his '80s action films, which can be good or bad depending on how you feel about that kind of humor.

Predator is a fun Friday night action romp.