My 'PREDATOR' appreciation thread. (1 Viewer)

[Keir H]

My fav part if it has not been menioned already is the "fly in" scene. Where one guy tells the other guy a dirty joke and he doesn't get it! and when Jesse ask if the guys wants some chew. CLASSIC for sure! Sorry, cannot think of the lines of the top of my head.

 

[John Boutwell]

Reviving a great post, I couldn't wait for a SE so I picked up a used copy of the WS DTS for $11.99
One my favorite movies of all time. A great film transfer considering when it was made, a bit of grain in some scenes but in others the picture is superb.
I would love a SE with some behind the scenes footage.

 

[Eric Bass]

When my brother from Minnesota came down I had to throw in the fly-in scene in salute of his governor

At the end of the film, originally Arnold was supposed to duke it out with the predator, but it was decided that no mere man could duke it out with a predator and Arnold had to use cunning to beat him (thank god!)

That right there could be really what made this movie. Predator takes off all his gear and he and Arnold are gonna duke it out. Pretty darn cheesey except that Arnold gets his butt kicked all over the jungle and then winds up getting a lucky shot. It's all about keeping the bad guy cool right up till the end. If this thing had worked 2 special forces teams just to get beat up by Arnold in a macho showdown it'd be in the B-grade cheese bin right now as opposed to sitting in my collection.

 

[Dharmesh C]

I think the film was a stinker, apparently saved by Stuart Baird who re-edited the film before release date. Any truth to this?

 

[David_N]

Where one guy tells the other guy a dirty joke

 

[Ben Osborne]

My friends and I have a running debate on what the better action movie is, Predator or Aliens. My friends prefer Aliens, but for me it's Predator all the way. Here are my reasons:

First all of Predator's special forces are a lot more macho, charismatic, and memorable than Aliens' space marines. Who can forget characters like Mac, Billy, Blain, or Carl Weathers as Dillon? Aliens' marines, on the other hand, are cardboard cutout throwaways. Vasquez, Apone, Drake, Deitrich--we didn't like any of them and didn't care when they died horrible deaths. Bill Paxton's Hudson may be a little more memorable due to his incessant whining, but we didn't like him even as much as a tertiary character in Predator such as Hawkins (may he rest in peace). Michael Beihn's Corporal Hicks has about as much personality as a rock. No wonder they killed him off between movies.

In Predator, we see what the special forces can do when they raid that enemy hideout, surprising and annihilating a numerically superior force. In Aliens we never see the marines doing anything but getting their *sses kicked. Wouldn't a scene of them on a typical, successful "bug hunt" have added to their mystique?

In Predator, enough of the soldiers survive long enough for us to care about them. Arnold is only alone for about 20 minutes of the movie. In Aliens, most of the marines die before we know much of anything about them, let along care about them, and the ones that survive aren't too likeable.

Second, Predator's "helpless yet informative" character is a fairly attractive Central American woman. Aliens' equivalent is an annoying little girl with a teddy bear. McTiernan has the decency to remove her from the movie via a helicopter when things get too dangerous, whereas Cameron keeps "Newt" around for the whole movie, constantly putting her in danger in an attempt to make the movie scarier (which backfires since the audience knows she's not going to die).

Third, Predator has cooler weapons. You'd think that a movie about space marines battling deadly aliens would be a good opportunity to showcase some cool weaponry. But the coolest weapons in Aliens, the unmanned sentry cannons, weren't even in the theatrical version. Other than that there were the marines' standard machine guns that 1) they were told not to use because they would risk blowing up the place, 2) used anyway, 3) didn't do much good at keeping the aliens at bay, 4) didn't look any more impressive than a modern-day M-16, and 5) didn't blow up the colony's reactor like they said would happen when they used them. The most effective weapon in the movie was Hicks' 12-guage shotgun.

Predator, on the other hand, has truly awesome weapons and demonstrations of firepower. The scene where the soldiers fire into the jungle at their unseen foe, Mac wielding a gatling gun, is an action-movie classic. And the Predator's shoulder-mounted cannon and triple-laser sight are hard to forget.

I could go on, but I think it's clear that Predator is the better movie. Anyone care to make the case for Aliens over Predator?

 

[Chris James]

Hi Ben, just thought I would share a little of what I think. By the way, I like them both. Just like Aliens(actually Alien) for the dark "feel" throughout.
Indeed an impressive sight. How would the Aliens weapons have looked substituted in that scene? Sentry cannons, up-graded "M-16s", and up-graded "M-60s." Most likely would have exceeded what the older weapons in Predator did. Bad comparison, but you used it as the "demonstration of firepower."
This is one of those things that has no answer. It is all in the mind of the viewer, and what the viewer prefers. BUT, I do think Newt should have had her head punctured by a "alien."

 

[Chad R]

Also in defense of "Aliens." Cameron wasn't commanding the budgets then that he is now. Much of the movie had to rely on tricks, and since it was conceived on a grander scale than Predator he did an excellent job with a smaller budget.

 

[Geoff_D]

You guys are gonna go apeshit when Predator:SE hits region 1 land. You will then be able to:
Marvel at Stan Winston's easter egg anecdotes!
Get bored senseless by John McT's commentary!
See how crappy the original Predator suit looked!
Yes folks, this set has it all (BTW I do love the movie and the SE!).
The only problem I have with Predator? Welllll....even though Van Damme got fired, the role reportedly got him his first Screen Actor's Guild of America card - and subsequently unleashed the 'Muscles from Brussels' on us all. He would've got one eventually, granted, but a black mark against Predator all the same. ;-)

 

[Matt Heebner]

Predator is one of my ALL-TIME favorites. This was the very first DVD I bought. I have since replaced it with the DTS version, which does sound excellent! I have seen this movie--no lie--- at least 200 times over the years. This along with The Fifth Element ranks as "most watched movies" for me.

A scene that really sticks out in my head is when the Predator is chasing Ah-nold after beating the shit out of him. He has his "heat" vision on, and the breathing sounds coming from Ah-nold sounds like he is a child, the sounds pitched a few octaves higher than a mans voice. So basically you have the Predator chasing Ah-nold while we see the heat vision, and Ah-nold sounds very scared....Damn this movie rocks.

I would like to see anything else starring the Predator. I liked the second one, but it didn't have the same "charisma" that the first one did.

Matt

 

[Dharmesh C]

I should make clear that I love Predator, but apparently was labelled a stinker by the studio, they called in Stuart Baird to edit the film.
The DVD picture in parts looks appalling :frowning:

 

[Carlos_E]

Hey, it is nice to see this thread revived. But where are John Williamson's threads after the thread's resucitation.:frowning: Common John more commentary will be appreciated.
One question for me. Did Van Damme actually make it to production or was he let go after casting. Did he actually shoot some scenes for the movie. That would be great if they could put those in the SE DVD of this classic.
It is a good thing he left the project. Van Damme would not look as formidable as the actor who actually portrayed the Predator who was over 7 feet tall in real life. Check out the link below for a cool picture of the actual actor who played the predator next to Arnold.
Carlos
http://www.magma.ca/~rsarkar/predkph.html

 

[Rob Tomlin]

This is one of my favorite Sci-fi/Action movies ever. I have been holding out on buying the current DTS DVD as I have heard the transfer isn't very good, and a SE has been rumored. Any updates on a new SE?

 

[Ben Osborne]

Well met Chris, well met. You've raised some good points, but let me respond to the ones I can. I also love both movies and was exaggerating my criticism of Aliens, but I still prefer Predator.

Yes, I think the predator is much, much more dangerous than an xenomorph, even the mature one in Alien^3. The xenomorphs are intelligent beasts, more intelligent than dolphins, dogs, and chimpanzees, but not as smart as humans. If there were, they'd develop their own spaceships, weapons, and stuff. The predators are obviously very intelligent and much more technologically advanced tham humans. If Aliens vs. Predator is made, I suspect the predators will lay waste to quite a few xenomorphs.

I'm not convinced of the marines' toughness by their banter and macho posturing. The only guy who comes off as a legitimate tough guy without doing anything is Apone, maybe Hicks. The rest strike me as arrogant, untested, and unproven. If there were shown on a successful mission, it would mean a lot more when the aliens beat them down.

Yes, the predator does kill all but one of Dutch's special forces team, but since their battle prowess was proven in a previous scene so we knew they weren't just a bunch of poseurs. A lesser director would have been content just showing Harper's team skinned and hanging from trees to establish the predator's remarkable killing power, but McTiernan goes to even greater lengths to show that the predator's prey are the best of the best. This, I think, is one of the movie's greatest strengths and an area where Aliens could have used some work.

As for the weapons, I can't remember off-hand how far in the future Aliens takes place, but judging from their space ships, androids, and other technology it just seems to me that they'd have better guns than machine guns and flame throwers.

I guess I never caught the fact that Drake and Vasquez do puncture the reactor. I'll have to pay better attention next time.

Thanks for the response!

 

[Chris James]

Thanks Ben! I'm glad you enjoyed my post! I love having good conversation about movies, it's almost as fun as watching them! I'll add some of my thoughts to your reply.



True, but how much better can "bullet" firing weapons get? Next step would have been a laser of some sort, but I think that would have made the movie too Trek-ish. For this mere fact, their weapons were as realistic as Cameron could get in 1986. You have to admit, Vasquez and Drake's "M-60s" with the gyrostabilized mount (incedentally, this gun is known as the M56 Smart Gun) was pretty cool back then!

Don't worry, I'm not trying to sway you from Predator to Aliens. I just enjoy these conversations. It is always cool to read how other people interpret the movies they see.

 

[Paul_D]

"Get to the Chopper!"

 

[TedE]

Sorry to resurrect this yet again, but thought I had too. Finally was able to pick a copy up. It's always one of those that I look for in the store, but all they ever have are the fullscreen versions. Finally saw the DTS disk when I was picking up LOTR yesterday. Sweet! Image is grainy, but hey, what do you expect? Sound is killer.

FYI, a little more trivia. You can go see the set where they filmed a lot of the staged scenes in the mountains right near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They definitely used it for the rebel camp that they raided towards the beginning, but I think I recognize some of the scenery from the final Arnold vs. Predator scene. The big pavilion and the chopper from the camp are still there; also a little waterfall and lagoon that can be seen in the firefight (one of the bad guys flies over the waterfall and into the lagoon during an explosion). You can go swimming and bum around, not much else there, but pretty cool nonetheless.

 

[James Fucich]

This was my very first DVD purchase! Nuf said!!

 

[JayDerek]

I LOVE this film! This is a great example of a film that I could never tire of watching!!
One moment of this film that my friends and I always laugh at ( I'm assuming it's not intended to be funny ) is during the assault on the rebel camp. Arnie is walking near the burned out chopper, a rebel walks in front of him, and Arnie just unloads his weapon completely into him. Arnie then takes a couple steps, lifts his weapon and fires maybe one, maybe two rounds (tops!) - then it cuts to a slow motion shot of like 3 rebels getting getting hit and falling backwards.
We are always laughing at that part. I'll try to dig up a timecode if that helps
~Jason

 

[Juan Castillo]

You know, I just picked this new DTS copy yesterday.. Totally excited about the price..(got it at Sams Club) and moreso because I finally got one of my favorite movies off my wishlist. I actually went to do a search in movies and realized this thread was active on the first page!! God, good to know everyone appreciates this flick as much as me.

Lord of the Rings, Predator DTS, and Surviving the Game dvds for 32 bucks.. not a bad night for my collection, or my wallet. My wife says I can still play golf this weekend too!! Hahahaha... Life is good

Da me la arma!

Give me chur weapon!