Predator 2: You're All Insane!

[Nathan]

Geoffery Rush is incredible in it. The ending sort of confused me though. Not sure what they were trying to say.

[Ben Thomas]

That's the one. 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'. I've heard nothing but great things about it, so I'll give Mr. Hopkins the benefit of the doubt on this particular film.

It's also mediocre, an experiment that doesn't work. Rush, Theron, Tucci and Lithgow are good, the rest is not.

[Matt]

It's also mediocre, an experiment that doesn't work. Rush, Theron, Tucci and Lithgow are good, the rest is not.

Let me guess...it's the EXECUTION of the subject matter that sucks. Hopkins strikes again...

[Captain Russ]

Hopkins' output is hilariously awful, but I still love Ghost and the Darkness.

Predator 2's Predator was the worst part of the film. Sure, he'd kill drug lords for no real reason, and do it easily. But when the trigger-happy pigs come along, he runs like a weed-addled bitch. Maybe he got a contact high and ran from the cops? Doubtful, but the point remains: HE'S A FUCKING INTERGALACTIC HUNTER/KILLER RUNNING FROM MURTAUGH.

That is the part where it falls apart for me. Arnold got his dick caved in when he even tried to fight UGLY hand-to-hand. Suddenly, Glover becomes Meteor Man and destroys UGLY 2? Bullshit on a Predator razor disk.

Still, Murtaugh and the supporting cast makes it watchable. Paxton, Blades, and the resurrected Pappas all do their part to gloss over the shitpile of a stoned Predator.


ETA: Reading your condemnation of the movie, Matt, I think you're really not gonna like Predators.

[Ed Hocken]

Maybe the Preadtor in Preadtor 2 was somekind of fuck-up? You saw how his family looked when they picked him up.

[Captain Russ]

I can't help but think that he was high the entire time.

Everyone in the film, actually. Paxton was on amphetamines, Glover was on roids and klonopin, Busey was coked out of his gord, and the Predator was taking bong rips off screen.

Except for Ruben Blades. He was stone cold sober.

[Ed Hocken]

And look what happened to him!

[Matt]

and Baldwin was on 'ludes. Seriously, could he have been any more ineffectual???

[Ben Thomas]

Let me guess...it's the EXECUTION of the subject matter that sucks. Hopkins strikes again...

Boom!

Now that I look at Hopkins' output, Predator 2 and Blown Away are the high points. That's really depressing (though I think he directed the first and last episodes of 24 season 1, no?).

I can't really argue with any of your criticisms, nor can I defend Predator 2 as anything other than passable. But it still has a spot in my collection. Its nowhere near the first film (perfect, apart from the final 90 seconds - not including the freeze frame cast list, I love those) and no-one in their right mind would ever say it is.

But I do find it kind of entertaining. Probably in the same way that I enjoy The Running Man: Its not subtle, its not particularly exciting or well acted, its not even more than competently shot. And its source material is far superior in every way. It does, however, have things going BOOM every now and then and dialogue so corny, you could raise pigs on it. Sometimes, that's all you need.