[7]

Predator is a tongue-in-cheek matinee mash-up of a combat movie and a sci-fi monster flick. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the leader of a commando squad who leads his men into the thick of a jungle where an alien bounty hunter starts picking them off one by one. It’s really Alien in the jungle, with Arnold taking Sigourney Weaver’s place. But the paint-by-numbers screenplay doesn’t keep the movie from being a fun time. The charismatic cast includes Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, Elpidia Carrillo, and Lethal Weapon scribe Shane Black (who was cast to help spruce up the script during production). Relatively new director John McTiernan does an admirable job staging the action (his next film, Die Hard, would become the new benchmark for action films). Sending the film over the top are makeup effects artist Stan Winston, whose creature design for the Rastafarian space warrior is among the finest in decades, and composer Alan Silvestri, whose militaristic marches do wonders to keep the film moving at a brisk and exciting pace.

Oscar Nomination: Best Visual Effects