Ball busting Vietnam allegory McTiernan style delivers wholesale.
I will start this by giving my ratings, yes plural because to me as a sci-fi/action film fan the film has few peers, it is 100% pure suspense testo explosive fun that along side John McTiernan's other action template Die Hard, stands the test of time to the point that it will be thrilling viewers long after we have left this earth. So with that I give it a personal rating of 10/10, it's faultless for my needs in a genre I indulge and lose myself in on a frequent roster. For any other movie fan aware of the genre's traits and peccadilloes without being a fan of sorts, then I rate the film easily at 7 or 8 out of 10, what's not to like here?
The film is without a shadow of a doubt another allegory of Vietnam, a crack unit of soldiers are stuck in a central American jungle being killed off by an invisible enemy, the soldiers are there after being lied to by the powers that be, tactics are paramount but the enemy that stalks them holds all the aces. This crack special rescue team are a testosterone fuelled band of beef, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Sonny Landham, Bill Duke & Jesse Ventura, these five alone have a combined muscle weight heavy enough to have sunk the Titanic, and McTiernan uses the beefcakes to the max in a series of joyous ball busting sequences.
The dialogue is sharp and funny with Schwarzenegger quipping his way thru the first reel, and the score from Alan Silvestri pumps the blood at just the right time, whilst the effects crew have done sterling work to bring this "hardest man in the world versus bad ass alien predator" to life, none more so than when viewing POV heat seeking infa-red shots as our deadly alien killer. The end throws up some interesting thoughts, that have for better or worse? Been fleshed out with further films involving the predator of the title, but one should judge this film as a single entry because it sits at the top of the tree as one of the best of it's kind; so truly this is a benchmark for the genre that will take some beating as far as I'm concerned.
Enjoy 10/10