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Predator (Widescreen Edition)

Predator (Widescreen Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Predator - One of the best action movies ever made!
Review: "Predator" can easily be counted among the top action movies of the eighties and can unquestionably be counted among the top Arnold Schwarzenegger movies! This movie is quite simply, a pure action packed thriller that sets a level of intensity that few movies in the genre can match. The action coupled with the superior score will definitely leave a first time viewer astonished at what they're watching. For fans of this film, it is one of those that can be watched over and over and enjoyed every time, making the nominal price for this DVD inconsequential.

One of the elements of this film that makes it such the powerhouse that it is was the performance given by the testosterone laden cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance is brilliant in the leading role. For him, it was the perfect role; little dialogue, lots of action, what else did he need. The supporting cast is almost legendary for the industry; from the "other" governor, Jesse Ventura to Carl Weathers, all of the exceptional actors performed brilliantly.

Director John McTiernan did an absolutely perfect job with this movie. Considering the phenomenal movies he's made in his career, it's easy to see why he was picked to direct them as his approach to making a movie is clearly quite appealing to moviegoers! The job that Alan Silvestri did with the music for this movie should've won him an Oscar if it didn't. I'd almost venture to say that despite the script and the stars, this movie might not have been as big as it was had the music for every second of the movie not been the perfect match that it was.

The Premise:

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Dutch who appears to be a Major in the US Army and the commanding officer of an HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) that is called in to a Central American country under false pretenses to rescue some dignitaries. Along for the ride is Carl Weathers in the role of Dillon, a former soldier that had served with Dutch but he now works for the "agency." It doesn't take long for the action to kick in as Dutch and his team soon find another team that "bought it" in a very odd way and not long thereafter, Dutch and his team soon find themselves dealing with something no one has ever had to deal with before...

I highly recommend this DVD version of "Predator" to any and all who are fans of the action genre, whether you've seen this film or not, this DVD is extremely well worth the nominal cost. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

This DVD is all about the movie and the only special feature available is the Original Theatrical Trailer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spine Tingling Excitement
Review: This is simply a superb sci-fiction movie. Directed at a cracking pace by John Mctiernan the film begins with a first rate screenplay. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the larger than life hero and absolutely in control. The character portrayed by him is a cool,icy commando respected by his team though mercenarylike. What holds absolute audience attention is the natural outdoor settings, no-nonsense special effects and the tense action. Dutch & his group of loyal army buddies are out on a rescue mission in South America and out of the blue an evil alien who loves skinning its victims strikes terror in the dense jungles. Even the battle hardened team of tough guys are baffled at this almost invisible alien who simply kills & disappears. A truly memorable film though not for the slightly squeamish. A must see Arnold special.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Best Movie I have evere seen
Review: This is the best movie of Arnold I have ever seen....
I enjoyed this movie a lot....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best SCI-FI movies ever!
Review: What makes this movie so good. First it involves Arnold doing what he does best, which is looking and acting tough. Second when the movie came out it was highly original. Some may say the plot in of itself is not original but the use of an Alien hunter definitely is. Third the director is quiet talented, and it's not surprising that he also directed Die Hard. Fourth, the special effects and makeup for the creature are done by the makeup/FX ledgend Stan Winston.

Also this DVD has an amazing soundtrack, the movie's score has a pounding urgency that helps keep your adrenaline moving with the action. Finally, it passes the repeated viewing test. I've watched this movie many times and each I'm still on the edge of my seat.

My only regret is that this DVD comes with no extra features, no behind the scenes info on the special effects or making of Predator which is a huge let down. Since there is no other edition I'm aware of at this time I'd recommend getting this DVD. If you like supense, action and science fiction then this is for you. If you have seen the second movie and never seen this one, then you should see this movie. This movie is a diamond while the second one is a lump of coal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It...
Review: Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in Predator, a hit box office film that hit the shelves and automatically flew off within the few first months of its release. This film has always been one of my favorites from Arnold, ever since I was 12 years old. When I finally went out and purchased a DVD Player, Predator was one of the very first DVDs that came to mind, because, 1)I knew a spectacluar film had to produce a spectacluar DVD, and 2)I would finally get to see this film in widescreen anamorphic format with 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

This isn't just an action movie, its a sci-fi/action/suspense movie with a pot full of astonishing actors. I give credit to the directors of this film for choosing such an excellent cast. A cast that includes Sonny Landham, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And who could forget the HUGE 7 foot tall Keven Peter Hall that played the Predator. This is one of the films that set Arnold Schwarzenegger to fame through the 90s, also backed up by Commando and The Terminator, which were also box office hits as well (I have those on DVD also). It seems almost every film Schwarzenegger has starred in has produced a spectacluar DVD.

I believe there are two different versions of this DVD; one has the full screen version and THX Surround Sound, and the other one has the Widescreen version, THX Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital, and extra features. The latter of the two is somewhat rare...I haven't seen many copies, but I was fortunate enough to find one in [a store]somewhere.

This film is great, and the DVD is even better. Many scenes really capture the effects of the THX which adds to the climax and the recessive parts of the movie. The audio and visual effects of this DVD are AWESOME, and I'd encourage anyone that has a DVD Player and likes action films to get this. Great movie by a great director, played by a great cast. No disappointment here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vintage Arnold
Review: Predator is such a fantastic action sci-fi thriller. It's a vintage Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and it's one of the reasons he is where is today.

The plot to Predator is simple enough to follow. Dutch(Schwarzenegger) has been called by Dillon(Weathers) to go to South America and find some missing officials. Dutch takes his squad of elite troops and he does just that. What they find though is skinned bodies of American troops. Slowly Dutch begins to lose his men until it becomes a mission of trying to get out of the jungle alive.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply fantastic in this film. This is one of the best action films he has ever made. When him and the predator go one on one it's awesome. It's truly clash of the titans as the warriors fight. Arnold is an absolute beast in the film. He's cut and huge and this movie took place during his stretch of hit movies that he had in the late 1980's. This movie helped make him the household name that he is today.

I liked Carl Weathers in this film. All people ever recognize this guy for is Apollo Creed in Rocky. After seeing him arm wrestle Arnold in the film you really recognize what kind of peak condition this guy was in at one point. I like Carl Weahters a lot and his role in Predator is great.

The rest of Arnolds team is full of plenty of guys that you see in a lot of his 80's movies. The most recognizable guy from his squad is former Gov. Jesse Ventura. The squad is casted perfectly as is this movie.

John McTiernan has to get a lot of credit for the success of this movie. This is a very well made movie. I love what he did with the Predator in the film. You don't get to see to much of the Predator until it squares off against Arnold. So like Spielberg did in Jaws you let the suspense of the creature scare you. McTiernan does that to perfection. He baits you a little bit by showing you some of the Predator but it's just enough to keep you interested and on the edge of your seat. He also shot his movie beautifully on location in South America.

This really is a well made movie. It keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way until the end. It's a great sci-fi thriller and can be argued as the best of all time. You can't be a serious Arnold fan without seeing this picture. You can't really call yourself I sci-fi fan if you havn't seen it either. Go pick Predator up you won't regret it. Now Predator 2, thats an entire different story.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Predator Preys On Your Sense of Adventure
Review: "The Most Dangerous Game," to which Predator bears a remarkable resemblance is a literary classic and mandatory reading in most ninth grade English classes. So the question arises, why is that story held in such high esteem when this picture is cast aside as mindless tripe? I suppose having Arnold Schwarzenegger's name above the title and Joel Silver's in the producing credits doesn't help, but don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting this movie should have been showered with praise from critics, or awards from Academy members. But a pat on the back for one of the finest action directors working today (John McTiernan of Die Hard fame) might be nice, especially considering this film isn't nearly as dumb as people would have you to believe.

Schwarzenegger stars as the leader of an elite commando force sent into Central America to retrieve U.S. hostages being held in guerrilla hands. Little does he or anybody in his team know (with the exception of Carl Weather's character) that they're actually being manipulated into assassinating a group of Communist dissidents and thorns in the thorns in the side of the C.I.A. This is the only the first back-stabbing and leads to a quite harrowing and action packed combat sequence that wouldn't have looked out of place in Platoon or Saving Private Ryan.

While all this is going on, comsuming more than a half hour of briskly paced screen time, we still have yet to see the alien. McTiernan utilizes a clever tactic orginated (or at least to the best of my knowledge) by Steven Speilberg in Jaws by shooting from the predator's point of view. By doing this we only get glimpses of the monster, as he has the ability to turn himself invisable at will, which makes the final confrontation all the more terrifying. Also noteworthy is Kevin Peter Hall as the villainous creature who is a constant menace and manages to make a very impressive impression even though we never see his face.

For about the last hour of the movie he stalks Arnie and his rebel company, picking them off one by one as is customary in these kinds of films. To me the parrallels to "Dangerous Game" are quite obvious, simply substitute an alien in place of the hunter who preys on humans. The symbolism of the book and the movie is quite clear, or at least in my mind, and is that hunting for sport is inherently wrong. But even the predator has a code of conduct that human hunters have yet to adopt, he doesn't take advantage of another species inferiority or good nature. To me, being as I'm such an animal lover, I'd root for the alien a lot sooner than I would Ted Nugget or his band of ignorant rednecks.

Now I'm willing to concede that maybe I'm so intent on justifying my appreciateion for this film that I might be imposing onto it hidden meanings that aren't really there, but even if that is the case it does little to depreciate my enjoyment of one of the most exciting science fiction movies that I've ever seen. Sure the acting is merely adequate and the writing could use some sprucing up, especially in fleshing out the characters a little more, but the directing is superb and the finished product is about as good as anything you have the right to expect considering the genre.

And that's not to mention the special effects. Done by Stan Winston, who won recognition as being the best in his field after his work creating the digital dinosaurs in Speilberg's Jurassic Park, he does an equally impressive job here. The "creature features" never get too corny and at the same time aren't so good as to distract from the rest of the film. It's a fine line to walk and I can't think of anybody who does it any better.

This is the second four star review I've given a Schwarzenegger movie in as many months (the other being for True Lies) and I'm quietly coming back around to being a big fan of his early work for the first time since I was thirteen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Arnold takes it up a notch
Review: Arnold Schwarzenegger kept taking on one challenger after another as the 80s progressed, needing to pick an even more difficult foe each time. In "Predator" Arnie found one of his most difficult foes ever, perhaps his single most difficult until facing Satan in "End of Days," but that is another story altogether.

Arnold is leading an elite group of commandos through a South American jungle in a search for kidnapped officials. It turns out that finding the terrorists that supposedly kidnapped the officials was the easy part. Getting back out of the jungle turns out to be a nightmare. The commandos soon discover that the jungle covers a hunter with nearly supernatural abilities, courtesy of a cool high tech suit that renders the hunter nearly invisible. This very same hunter has agility and strength that even Arnold would envy, and who is physically more than a match for Arnold. But this movie is not just about Arnold's strength; this time Arnold shows that he is an intelligent hunter, and uses the alien's few weaknesses against him to ultimately get the best of him.

This movie does have a few plausibility weaknesses, but you are so busy with the nearly non-stop action and the coolest alien since "Alien" that you have little time to consider the implausibilities until after the movie is over, and by then who cares? While this movie may not be one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movies, it still plays well as an action movie, and provides Arnold with one of his most challenging foes ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awsome movie
Review: This movie is about an alien, called the Predator, who goes and hunts humans for sport. But now a military group is trying to stop the Predator once and for all. This is a really cool movie. Oh, yeah, the alien can blend in with the jungle his in. This movie contains two actors that are now goveners. I wish the actors from this film was in the second one. My favirite part was the cool fight in the end. African girl was cute. This was a great film. Can't wait for Alien vs. Predator

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Move over alien there is a knew menace in town
Review: Tghis and Aliens are the first best Scifi series ever created Next to Godzilla and Critters. Arnold did a great role. If you like action movies predator is for you. I own this on DVD which version of it I am not sure. I have not watched it in a while.

This movie is made for adult is made for adult this not a little kid film. If a little kid saw this film it woul tramitize him and give him nightmare for years. It would have scared the crap out of me I had not Rented It when I was in my teens.

The special effects are magnificent. The predator is 100 percent hidious though you rarely get to she his face. Normal he wares a helmet with makes his vision poor make it harder for him to she the body heat of living creatures around him. He is just a strong and fierce as the alien.

But unlike the aliens which will kill any living thing even each other on rare occassions. The predator hunts when it is hot there is conflict. The predator is picky about his hunt he will not kill any living creature that can not defend it's self. The predator does not hunt and kill children this obvious in the second Predator when the predator does not kill the little boy who is standing in front of him.

This is the best action movie I have ever seen. Those of you that loved the fist one I recommend either buy or rent the second predator.


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