Predator - re:View

well Jack we're here today to talk about predator not to be confused with predators or the predator or alien vs predator or alien predator so we're talking about the one with the guy from lethal weapon sort of yeah that's true [Music] predator predator 1987 mm-hmm one of the best action movies ever made followed up a year later John McTiernan same guy directed predator made die hard also one of the best action movies ever made you know predator is is so rewatching it after so long it's so fascinating because it's an action movie in the sense that alien is a sci-fi movie we're really it's this it's an action movie but it's a hidden slasher flick yeah so I was gonna mention that it's it's a lot of different genres in one and it's it reminds me looking back on it of from dusk till dawn where it's like the characters think they're in one type of movie and then all of a sudden BAM they get interrupted by another type of movie and then they have to deal with that yeah so it's this you know commando esque schlocky action movie that that gets gets like creeped on by a horror movie yeah and it's beautiful by a horror movie and simultaneously a sci-fi movie because it's an alien from outer space right and it starts off I guess real briefly the basic set up is Arnold Schwarzenegger has a team of mercenaries that are hired by Carl Weathers to to go in and rescue these refugees in Central America and while they're there they discover that Carl Weathers actually at other plans for them but more important than that they are being stalked and preyed on by an alien from outer space that is on earth for the sole purpose of sport basically of hunting humans of game hunting and so they're like oh [ __ ] now we gotta deal with this situation and that's that's it it's like the simplest prime as ever there's no standard film structure to this it just descends it just unfolds there there is in the sense of like we always talk about the structure when you have a monster movie of like you wait 30 minutes before you show the monster and it kind of follows that a little bit there's a couple little hints early on of the predator I think it's like 45 minutes in when he finally takes off his cloak device that's the first time you actually see him just briefly just just briefly there's little glimpses of them they don't blow their water Leon I actually wish there was less because the movie starts out it's the exact same opening as the thing which is we see earth we see an alien spaceship fly down and hit the earth and in both movies I wish they didn't have that I wish you were dropped into this commando situation and then you along with the characters realized what was happening because that's the way from gustl Don is they have no idea they're in a vampire movie and so halfway through the movie I agree with that and you know listening to some of the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the blu-ray that was added later that was added without I think without even the director knowing I think the studio added that but even then you forget about that alien spaceship by the time Carl Weathers and Arnold are doing their handshake [ __ ] what spaceship that's true well that matter yeah because of muscles cuz muscles this is the the manliest movie ever made I think that's what I love most about predator is it's the movie that your dad rented because he thought it was commando yes it's it's like it's like it tricks you yep because that opening action scene we got was set up her characters we had Carl Weathers we got our own Swardson ager we got Jesse the body Ventura I'm sorry well I guess he was the body at the time but now he's known as the mind now he's the mind although he shouldn't even be that anymore no now he's the lost yeah Shane black who is a screenwriter who wrote Lethal Weapon and you know he's doing the new predator which is kind of neat but the reason I guess the reason he was cast in the movie is because they wanted someone to punch up the script while they were making it and that shows there's lots of very clearly Shane black s Cline's and the script delivered mostly by Shane blonde I don't know their most famous one in the movie I think is Ventura but people always quote that as like oh that's so badass they always ignore what happens right after that we ain't got time to leave that's so that's what sells that line like he's acknowledging that it's absurd little comedy mo alright dude yeah yeah so yeah Pancho who is not Shane black right who is the only other not ridiculously buff guy that's not Shane it's confusing because you have Shane black and then you have the guy who looks just like Shane black but doesn't have glasses mhm yeah Bill Duke and then Who am I missing no Billy Billy yeah and Lady who they pick up a lady who they pick up along the way yeah who just kind of stares off for most of the movie [Music] but you got these guys these these these big 80s action movie guys and you have they infiltrate the camp and it is the most excessive ridiculous display of guns and violence because because it's a sneaky horror movie they knew that they could take an entire movies worth of action sequences and just do it on one go yeah it was great explosions stuntmen fallen into lakes classic Arnold puns stick around which are see horribly out of place later on in the movie but yes they are well the movie it kind of like all those elements Sora gets stripped away as the movie goes along so then by the end when it's just the predator in Arnold it's like it's just this primal thing they get cut like it's life the way yeah but and like a lot of that action again reading or listening to a lot of the behind the scenes stuff the guys that shot all that action stuff was like the a-team guys it's what you get lots of people falling and you get people on fire you get people falling while on fire that's never everything you want and one of the guys there's a part when Arnold goes into one of the huts and he shoots a guy that goes flying through the wall that guy that gets shot through the wall is then old Thorsen who was like a good buddy of Arnold Schwarzenegger and there's like a stuntman in his own right he's in a bunch of movies he's actually the head of mall security and mall rats oh that guy but most importantly he was in another movie with Jesse Ventura he was in Abraxas he was the villain in Abraxas praxis the touching story of Jesse Ventura falling in love with a little boy do you want to sit up here with me story it's about John McTiernan new directed us he's like for a while he was like one of the best action directors I mean this diehard I like last action hero I know that movies kind of got a mixed perception but I think it's fun but yeah you know he directed lots of great movies until he was directed to prison for perjury well that's a whole other story [Music] INRI watching this movie I noticed how contemporary it feels it doesn't feel like a dated 80s action movie like a lot of movies from that era like a commando or something which is the best movie ever made but that's because it's so dated and silly but this movie like it feels like a modern movie and I think it's just the way John McTiernan shot action and the way you edited like lots of lots of fluid camerawork lots of lots more coverage lots more angles and a lot of movies from that era lots of quicker cutting like it really it does not feel like like a corny old movie it still feels like a modern movie predator is an incredibly balanced movie like on an editing side where they have they do have these long fluid shots and then you know a little quick cuts here and there but then long he knows when to use handhelds like now every action scene yeah constant handheld the go-to as always I think this has become a meme but there's one of the taken movies where Liam Neeson is trying to jump over a fence and there's like 75 cuts over a fence in 20 seconds yeah and this is a movie where yeah there's lots of you know lock down shots lots of slow-moving shots and then to punctuate the action that's where the handheld kicks in and a lot of there's a lot of artistry and not just in the long shots but you know the the take where it starts a focus follow away and then you rack focus to something close you know like there's a lot of effort put into these little moments that help build the tension actually very very heavy real jungle is cinematically not very interesting because you can't see anything we would wind up going through and trimming out leaves so that you could see through at some distance I think that's where John McTiernan kind of put his stamp on it where he said we're gonna take our time I love that that base infiltration sequence where you know before the action kicks off and everyone's just kind of being sneaking a lot of longer shots really really good craftsmanship and and in that sequence too when they're sneaking up they establish I kind of I haven't honestly don't think I've watched this whole movie since I was a little kid because I watched it so much as a little kid I never needed to see a gun but I kind of forgot how I know that was sort of gory but I kind of how like blunt some of the violence's and so that sequence when they're sneaking up we see I think it's then old Thorson shoot someone in the head and it's just really like matter-of-fact like real grounded violence like ooh and that kind of lets you know like the danger that they're getting into showcasing actually I think I think this is this movie because this is relatively early in Arnolds career yeah relative to his entire career I'm ready but this was the height this is 80s 80s Arnold well I think I think a lot of this movie showcases why he succeeded so much as an actor his expressions are amazing and you can like he just has really expressive eyes and you can see that he was trying to emote and act I think that's the key he was trying there and there's I don't think Arnold could have been a star any other decade or could have risen to that level of stardom in any other decade yeah people were willing to Fort Lee cuz I mean rewatching this some of his line delivery you're kind of like oh I may not as expendable but he has so much charisma and you can you like him just because you can tell he is trying the closest equivalent we have now to like someone who gets by on just sheer charisma is the rock the difference beat weld 1 the rock can actually act and lets a difference but the other big difference is that every movie the rock is in is like complete garbage he does nothing but crap and people still love him he seems like a really likable guy he does and he gets by completing Arnold not a great actor in lots of really great movies The Rock everybody loves him despite the fact that he's a good actor but he's in terrible movies and they all take place in the jungle this is where this movie is where everyone learned their Arnold Schwarzenegger impression the only other addition would come a Total Recall which is just the Arnold's agony noises Wow [Music] I think you know because of Arnold's expressiveness in fact all the actors expressiveness and just the the clever way it's shot I think a lot of predator can be watched without any sound and you will understand exactly what is going on you miss out on some great one-liners but ya know it's and like I mentioned earlier the way the movie kind of strips down as it goes along like it strips out the action movie one-liners it strips out the characters as it goes along and then by the end when I say watch this movie a lot as a kid what I should say is I watched the last half hour a lot as a kid when it's just Arnold versus Predator and there's hardly any dialogue it's just so like primal and simple and that's that like so as the movie goes along everything just gets stripped away until that's all you're left with is two things in the jungle fighting each other not great dude two two slabs of steak just put it but it's also like clever and you understand what's going on you know Arnold building is Boy Scout traps and the Predators doing his predator things like now get it you get it all and there's no dialogue and I think I think that it reminds me a lot of there was a series of comic books kind of in the in the early 2000s called nuff said and it was basically an experiment and exercise in drawing comics where it like can we make an entire comic book with no dialogue like just through art alone and they were pretty they were pretty neat and it reminded me a lot of that works just like I I would guess that you could strip away every element of dialogue and understand exactly what is happening in predator well that's they never over explained the predator which is great which we should talk I guess now we should talk about the predator yes one of the best movie monsters ever but yeah you you you get to understand what's going on with them without a lot of over explanation there isn't like that scene or they where our heroes kind of stumble upon I don't know some piece of exposition or a character that knows what's going on that explains everything about the predator to them right but you get it like the predator is just here to hunt which is so great he's got technology so he's a little futuristic he he has his rituals you know like there's so many great little pieces of like predator lore every P every ever that's what I love about the predator not only the design but every piece of tech II has everything about him is so clearly thought-out yeah and everything is awesome knowing that like that shoulder cannon you know whether that that sequence went Arnold is is hiding and you see the shoulder cannon perfectly follow where he's looking and he's like ah yeah I get it wouldn't know no exposition like the fact that all we've seen the predator do is like disembowel and skinned people but then when when billy challenges him to a duel the predator removes his skull and the spine because that was that was more of a challenge not just skinning he's he's earned a trophy in combat you're like oh we didn't even get to see the fight but you get like their thing is if we don't see the fight because he Billy's given like a more dignified death all the other characters the Predators dispatches them and we see it in gory detail yeah but Billy's a little more advanced than that well because bit you know Billy puts it Billy understands what's happening even though as the audience we don't necessarily understand what's happening Billy gets it and he's ready for you know one-to-one combat losses of course Wow but but then he gets he earns you know the predator earns his trophy and just like little pieces of lore that are never like there's there's never like the hologram yeah going like let me tell you about the predator yeah another another creature from space that the our characters run into that explains it all to them and they do a good job I know some people don't like predator 2 but they do a good job on like subtly expanding on that stuff in the second movie zoo like some of this a little bit in the first one but we see a little bit more of like the Predators technology as far as like medical like it's like fixing itself if it hasn't wound sure and at the end danny glover kills one of the predators so they give it they give him like a gun like his trophy for killing a predator right also it shows like oh the predators have been coming to Earth for a long [ __ ] time that's a little little things like that they like they never over explain it and the design the great late great Stan Winston predator design the little vagina mouth with the dreadlocks well you know the vagina mount that wasn't Stan Winston no according to the according to the rumors according to Stan Winston himself in fact Stan Winston was was contacted to you know make the predator after they had already failed to make their own predator oh yeah I guess we should talk about that a bit too the goofy bug monster yeah which famously was originally cast jean-claude Van Damme as the predator I I don't know if this is completely true I really hope it is but they were filming for the the predators like cloaking vision they had this completely red suit because they needed something that they could kion the jungle yeah so it couldn't be blue and it couldn't be green cuz it's the sky in the trees so I had this like red suit in the shape of the predator and supposedly jean-claude Van Damme was uncomfortable because he thought that was the monster I really hope that's true because that's amazing that's I've also heard that he didn't like that you didn't see him well that moved that would make sense that he might would be more true but I mean it looked like something straight out of was that movie with the meet the Andersons where they were big big what do you call praying mantis monsters Oh meet the Apple gates the Apple game I can't believe you remember that movie of course it looked like a big dumb praying mantis yeah and like I said it's all like and it's not even read it's like pinky salmon II read it's it looks it looks like a muppet it looks like a joke and they knew right away that they needed something better yeah so well you need something and this is a lot of movies like when they have a monster sometimes it can be distracting when it just looks like a person in a suit like some some shots an alien where it's clearly got like most of the way that movie shot is like brilliant and perfect but yeah there's some parts where you can tell it's a person but that works for predator because it's like oh that might be why he likes to come down to earth and hunt because it's something that's similar to him yeah yeah it completely makes sense in that context so so after their first failure at the predator because Arnold was good friends with Stan Winston after the Terminator Arnold apparently called up his buddy and said can you make us a better monster and the story goes according to Stan Winston that he was on a plane with James Cameron and you know sketching up the the dreadlock mask monster that we know and James it was James Cameron's idea to give him the mandible mouth okay according to the legend James Cameron wanted more horrific vagina monsters I don't know what James Cameron has against vaginas but well as I say there's probably a way you could look at this movie as being like the most misogynistic movie ever made because you have all the manliest man ever being destroyed by a vagina you gotta drop a tree trunk on that vagina Oh tree trunk you got to drop a log on a nice hard long yeah yeah oh my god and the person who talks about vaginas is the first on camera killed the predator [ __ ] chase you got it we got it we got it we got it we got a thesis now the unintended misogyny of predator that's the clickbait title of this video they're you by the way oh it's no not unintended you have to make it if it's a clickbait title you have to make it sound like that was their secret that hidden the hiddens misogyny of a predator that's it no III know I think this movie is incredibly it's that kind of masculinity that I think defined like our parents generation well just like the only thing that matters is muscles you had Arnold yet Stallone and then a little bit later jean-claude van damme - it slightly to a much lesser extent Dolph Lundgren yeah oh no and just everybody like and and just the way [ __ ] the opening scene of this movie is just two muscles seeing which muscle can be muscle ear I know that's a super memed shot that's but it's it's it's hilarious and I think unlike a lot of action movies from that time it's self-aware hilarious like I feel like that shot is a wink to the audience like we know what we're doing but like it's just everything Arnold in this movie is an excuse to show off his muscles yeah like you know there's one sequence where he is kind of our Billy Billy are our tracker is really spooked and Arnold is kind of walking up slowly to him and he's holding his gun in a way that no human being would ever hold a big rifle yeah but it but it's showing off his biceps and that's all that matters as he's walking and just showing off his muscles yeah every time he does like a commando signals it's just muscle yeah beautiful it's beautiful well and you know like it's like that the handshake scene it's a wink nod to the audience I'm sure but it's also a bit of characterization between the two of them oh yeah I know weird macho man we like to goof around the power structure yeah there's some art in the muscle look the rendezvous is 10 to 12 miles away from me you think the choppers gonna wait bill we make a stand now where there would be nobody left to go to the choppa well there's this great thing that the movie does usually in like a movie where you have characters in a situation where they're their lives are at stake like a especially like a slasher movie which is sort of a slasher movie it's it's all about the characters trying to figure out just how to get out of the situation alive and I love in this movie they don't they don't do that they say let's just stay here until we kill this [ __ ] thing we can kill it for for how like you know big and dumb they all are you're like oh no these are professional soldiers these are the best of the best they're not just gonna get to the choppa they're not gonna run away all right well wait wouldn't when is this well that's after the that's after the deforestation where they kill the forest no it's it's absurd and it's terrifying that all of these professional soldiers don't know what they're doing they're just firing into the neces what they've been reduced to yeah that's great but you know just whether this is clever directing or clever writing you know it mirrors that the first time where they they come across the dead bodies it was a firefight they were shooting in all directions can't believe that Jim Harper walked into an ambush I don't believe he did I can't find a single track they were shooting in all directions but I can't find any tracks and it was like oh that's really weird and then they're doing the same thing we see their descent into madness that parallels the thing the movie the thing because it's like we see early on they in the thing Kurt Russell goes to the the camp he sees everybody's dead and like oh this is weird and then we see what happens at that camp essentially happened to the characters of the thing so it kind of is similar to that it's it's also it's funny just because like I think predator is also kind of like the the illegitimate father to a lot of movies that we watch on best of the worst I wanted to bring that up yeah this movie inspired an entire generation of terrible b-movie filmmakers that said you know Predator Lee just shot in the woods so he can just do that [Laughter] [Music] [Music] I don't mind predator - yeah I like that it continues the theme of the predator hunting in super warm locations because for whatever reason the movie came out in like 1990 and it takes place in the far distant future of 1997 I don't know why they only said in a few years in the future or in the future at all but it's like this massive heat wave in LA which is why it's more baffling an alien versus Predator that they set it in Antarctica it's like completely the opposite of everything that the predator has been established as a place so whatever and with that what did you see alien versus Predator it was a whatever oh yeah the whole movie was or whatever they just needed a place like a film in the studio it's a Newark or whatever yeah okay I like the contrast of the first movies all in the jungle the second movies in the city sure there's this really clever opening shot where it's a helicopter shot of the jungle or what looks like the jungle no we pan over and realize it's like the hills in LA and let me see you know downtown LA it's it's it suffers a bit have you watched it Rinat recently I I'm running on fumes as far as predator 2 is concerned okay it's it's very like like mean and sweaty which I kind of like but it's very easily cartoony direction like the first movie feels very like grounded and real yeah and like if this aside from some of the comical one-liners but it's like if a predator was you know hunting you in the jungle it feels like I wasn't believable and the the second movie is directed by Stephen Hopkins who did Nightmare on Elm Street 5 stylish movie as far as nightmare no street sequels go but for predator he's lots of like kind of wide-angle lenses it all looks kind of silly it doesn't have that sort of grounded real look at the first movie it suffers from that the weirdest thing in it Gary Busey isn't it and there's a part when they're in like a meatpacking plant they lure the predator into this meatpacking plant and there's all these slabs of cow hanging up and we see awesome we didn't mention the maybe didn't have in the first movie but he's got like this disc he didn't have in the first it's like this with the razor's all around it and so he throws that and it goes flying through and cuts things and then it cuts through Gary Busey but all we see because there's things obscuring the foreground we just see his legs fall down and all this blood spew out but the just the legs fall down was like what happened to the top half of his bodies was he holding on is it just floating that was always Mazar to me we did a commentary track for alien versus Predator mmm and this was a few years ago now and I think we even said at some point in it like none of us have seen alien vs. predator Requiem maybe we should watch that at some point still haven't done it because why don't care because why biggest detriment for that for me like because I heard it was r-rated like his alien vs. predator was pg-13 so the cows are rated it's supposed to be really violent but then why I heard is that they color graded the movie so dark that you could barely see what's happening in it well I guess we'll have to see it now on the next review keep it here that'll definitely be the next review very next review so you'll definitely watch that film but those two movies kind of killed the franchise for a while and then I liked predators it benefitted from one going into it with low expectations sure but it also benefited from keeping it simple which is what the the the previous two movies did it's not like because it's always that that kind of like idea with a sequel or you have to go bigger and more elaborate with the plot it didn't really do that it kept it nice and simple sure it's it's sort of a soft reboot of the first movie except now we're on the aliens home worlds and we're being hunted on the home world well I know they do a couple similar things yeah I haven't seen the movie but I know they do a couple similar things I know you know if you look at predator it's kind of a magnificent seven situation you know yeah dudes group of dudes each has their own speciality and I know they did that with the predator editors yeah not the predator predator god damn you sequels just put numbers put the numbers I never get confused about what you're talking about when you say predator to write about predators is you know a group of people each with a different skill set and that's that's fun and there's there's a pardon predators where we got the predator fighting down a dude with samurai sword which is pretty awesome and it's not treated schlocky blink it's actually treated like if this guy would this samurai sword then you know it takes his culture very seriously if you had to fight a predator this is what would happen it's like yeah that's fine meat I'll put it on my list it's it's okay it's it's it's the perfect like Sunday afternoon it's okay movie so and that's I'm curious about this new one the Shane Black Thought predator yeah like what they're gonna do with that I mean it's Shane black you can't go wrong yeah the trailers have been really like underwhelming but I feel like that's it's hard to make a trailer for a Shane black movie just because he always has such a like specific tone that's hard to capture in a trailer I I'll be honest I haven't watched any trailer okay it's probably good a predator movie that Shane Black's making done yeah everything's fine mm-hmm everything's fine fair enough I do hope though that this is the last predator movie and and that Shane Black has a cameo in it as a character who is the last person to be killed by a predator cuz then we would have a book in there you go he's the first on-screen predator kill and now he's the last that that would be great and then we can just be done if the movie makes money it won't be the end never be the end we'll get the predator to which is actually predator 5 whatever what are you guys doing [ __ ] stop it put numbers numbers [Music]

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,333,251

Rating: 4.9318113 out of 5

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, predator, arnold schwarzenegger

Id: ruMLUFmSO4k

Length: 32min 24sec (1944 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Smper_in_sortem]

Finally! This is definitely in the top 5 of my favorite Carl Weathers movies.

[u/futures23]

Surprised they didn't mention the awesome score by Alan Silvestri which is so memorable and adds to the movie.

[u/TheLeviathong]

I agree with the guys. Predator is a lot smarter than people give it credit for. Most of the quotable cheese is set up early in the movie so it can be subverted in the 2nd act of the movie. As we all know, subversion is the point of cinema...

Jay says multiple times that it's not really "grounded" because of how cheesy it is, but that's what audiences expected from the film so it's matching the audience idea of an action film of the 80's until the Predator's introduction.

I too ask how the Rock is in cinemas each week with increasingly terrible films Hercules is one of my favourite recent films, because the last 20 minutes is absolutely hilarious schlock - but the 70 minutes before that are horrendous. It's basically the modern equivalent of Blood Debts.

[u/idiotdidntdoit]

The hidden misogyny of Predator

[u/THRILLHOIAF]

The Thing followed by Predator

two of my favorite movies of all time and they re:view them back to back...if they do Hot Fuzz next then they hit the big three!

[u/remarkable_potion]

I mean body mass alone...

[u/[deleted]]

Glad they mentioned the cinematography. I’m not a big fan of handheld (partly because it gets overused imo), but it’s really done well in Predator and helps punctuate the action and add to the dynamic of the film. I never realized it before, I guess because it’s done well

[u/[deleted]]

In response to the comparisons between Arnold and The Rock, to me Arnold was the better actor by far. He had the ability to play characters. When I watch Terminator, Arnold disappears and I see a Terminator. When I watch Predator, I see Dutch. When I watch Conan the Barbarian, I see Conan. When I watch Jumanji or Walking Tall or Rampage or Fast Five, I only see The Rock playing The Rock. He's good at being The Rock, but he's still just The Rock.

Arnold was also smarter about his career, knew what scripts to pick and knew who would bring the best out of him. He had the advantage of working with the 3 best action filmmakers of all time (Cameron, Verhoeven, McTiernan), and they knew how to use him. When he decided to move to comedies, he was smart about that as well, as he worked with Ivan Reitman, one of the top comedy filmmakers of his time (mind you, that caused Junior to happen, but hey nobody's perfect). Whereas the Rock is basically just taking whatever role he can to cash in because his movies make money no matter what.

Arnold's movies are still being talked about 20-30 years later, and will continue to be talked about for generations. The Rock's movies are forgotten about in 3 months.

tl;dr Arnold > The Rock

[u/ValhallaAtchaBoy]

Jay nailed it with the bit about how McTiernan's director makes Predator feel modern. It holds up remarkably well compared to most movies of that era.