Predator 2

Los Angles 1997. Gang warfare rages between rival drug gangs with the police caught in the middle. During one shoot out the police led by Mike Harrington (Glover) trap 6 men in a building. Before they can act the 6 are violently killed and stung up by an unseen attacker. As more armed gangs are attacked and killed in similarly unexplained ways the police realise that a new element is attempting to muscle in on the existing gangs. Glover and his team begin to hunt the new gang until they are joined by a FBI unit who seem to know more about the gang than they let on.

This follows on from the first movie well - not a forced sequel picking up from the last, but a different film that ties it's action in with previous events. None of the original stars return but the cast is full of name stars - Gary Busey, Danny Glover, Bill Paxton, Ruben Blades, Robert Davi. The plot is basically the same as the first - an unseen attacker attacks armed forces in the jungle - except here it's in the urban jungle, and it's actually pretty good.

The plot has the core of the predator doing battle, but now has another string of the FBI/Gary Busey conspiracy which makes the film much more interesting. However all this is window dressing to the action scenes. Unfortunately this doesn't have as much slow tension as the first film, but rather has long raging gun battle throughout - this does tend to bring it down to the level of a standard action movie but it does have some standout scenes that lift the film. The strobing fight on the subway is the most effective but the battles between police, gangs and predator are also very well handled. Overall the action is great but could have benefited from more slow, tension building. That said this sequel doesn't make the mistake that other "creature-feature" sequels have made - this keep the Predator hidden even though we already know what it looks like. For the most part the Predator moves cloaked and we only really seek the consequences of it's actions rather than the whole beast revealed. This keeps a certain mystery and helps build a certain amount of tension.

The final battle between hero and Predator is not quite as good as Schwarzenegger's confrontation with the alien, but is still a good finish to the film. It's easy to believe that Arnie could use the jungle and stealth to defeat the alien - but Danny Glover (Mr "3 days from retirement"?) taking on the Predator in what is essentially an extended fist fight? Sorry - it's fun to watch but a little hard to believe.

The performances are good, Glover gets to be a Riggs type rather than a Murtagh/retirement case. Paxton plays the energetic side kick and continues his killer-alien experience that he started in Aliens. Even Busey, now almost completely bereft of his star status and wallowing in video thrillers, is good here as a shadowy FBI agent. Sad to think that he got so good at this role that he got regularly typecast and is now doing things like Lethal Tender, Universal Soldier 2 and many others I've tried hard to forget. The rest of the cast do well as fodder for the predator but it's really all about the action.

The film contains some nice touches that develop the Predator in the same way that Aliens took a step along from Alien. The feeling that the Predator has hunted across all worlds (including the aforementioned alien) is cool as well as some other things that you get from the ending that I wouldn't spoil. But the attempt to give the Predator a sense of mercy is a bit forced. In the first it wouldn't kill an unarmed person, i.e. it always wanted sport. Here this extends to it sparing the life of an armed police woman because she is pregnant, that just seemed a little out of character to me, but I understand why they did it.

Overall this is a solid action movie with plenty of good scenes. When compared to the first movie it almost holds it's own but it lacks the sense of fear and being hunted that the first brought - this has tension but the first film have tension by the bucket.

To be honest, I maybe like this movie even more than the first Predator and there are plenty reasons why. The most important reason is that we get to see more screentime with the Predator in his original form, his weapons are upgraded, his kills are getting even better, we see a transition from the jungle to the city which is an amazing job from the director, we see a better character development, a pretty cool fight in the end between the main characters, a beautiful looking alien ship and a cool Alien reference. So even tho there were bunch of issues with the movie, it still is a worthy sequel to the first original movie.

Yes, you may not agree with me but I think that Predator 2 was as good as Predator and it even had something the first movie lacked: more screen time for the Predator. The Predator movies are a fan boy's dream come true as the Predator is arguably the best alien on film. The Alien movies and The Thing nonwithstanding. It's not Citizen Kane or anything but the film has plenty of action, decent performances and plenty of the Predator, including the showing off of a few new gadgets of his. I always liked the fact that Predator 2 is set in an urban environment, the jungle is too remote. Not enough prey you see. Although Los Angeles 1997 doesn't look like that then or now,(most parts anyway), the movie does a good job of putting the Predator in what I like to call a target rich environment. Danny Glover isn't Arnold but he does a good job as the lead anyway. Arnold didn't make the first movie good, the Predator did. I think a lot of you miss that. The late Kevin Peter Hall does as well as you can ask from a character with no lines or facial expressions to speak of. Bottom Line: A decent follow-up to Predator. If you haven't seen it yet check it out.

Exciting and thrilling motion picture in which a varied group of polices must fight an evil alien in the big city . Amidst a territorial gang-war, a sophisticated alien hunter (Kevin Peter Hall , he had studied African tribal dances in order to get into the feel and flexibility and to give him a personality) stalks the citizens of Los Angeles and the only man between him and his prey is veteran LAPD officer, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover ,at one point Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to co-star in the film, but chose to do Terminator 2) , being only helped by his underlings (Maria Conchita Alonso , Ruben Blades , Bill Paxton).

This nail-biting picture contains action-packed from start to finish , gory scenes aplenty , thrills , emotion and entertainment . Action movie told in terms of urban warfare in which a misfit bunch formed by Policia and FBI agents battle a malicious extraterrestrial . This is a brutal , violent and exciting sci-fi thriller that scales new heights of savagery even by the standards of previous Predator film . The result is a throughly violent but undeniably thrilling action movie with a strong cast giving sweatily good value to their abrasive characters . The ending part is particularly exciting stuff though it makes no great sense . With more time than the original film , Stan Winston, Stephen Hopkins and Lawrence G. Paull came up with ideas and designs with more exotic weapons such as the retractable spear, the detachable pincers, the Frisbee blade, the net, etc. for the Predator to use to differentiate this film from the previous one . Interesting script by Jim Thomas and John Thomas , the original storyline of the film was to have taken place in New York City, but writers quickly changed it to Los Angeles because of budget concerns , as the scene where the Predator raises the skull during the lighting storm was to have taken place atop the Chrysler Building . Spectacular as well as bloody slaughterhouse sequence took about four days to shoot and was extremely difficult, according to director Stephen Hopkins, due to the amount of water used and the lighting of the sequence . Very good cast such as Danny Glover , Bill Paxton , Ruben Blades , Maria Conchita Alonso , Adam Baldwin , Kent McCord , Robert Davi and Gary Busey . Excellent makeup by professional expert , Kevin Westmore , and magnificent FX , especially the semi-invisibility which was well realized . Thrilling and suspenseful musical score by Alan Silvestri ; Alan was quoted as saying that his score will be influenced by prior original score for the 1987 film . In fact , the final credit is heard the classical soundtrack by Alan Silvestri from Predator I . Colorful cinematography but sometimes dark by Peter Levy , and all the main locations were filmed in Los Angeles . The motion picture was professionally directed by Stephen Hopkins , though clearly inferior to prior part . However , the film was re-cut over 20 times, according to director Stephen Hopkins, because of more graphic shots of mutilated bodies and decapitations by the Predator.

Other films about Predator series are the following : The original and the best ¨Predator¨ (1987) in which Arnold leads a team of CIA-hired mercenaries into the Central American jungles , being filmed by John McTiernan with Arnold Schwarzanegger , Jesse Ventura , Bill Duke , R.G. Armstrong , Carl Weathers , Elpidia Carrillo who appears briefly in ¨Predators II¨. Furthermore, ¨Alien vs. Predator¨ (2004) by Paul Anderson with Sanaa Lathan , Raoul Bova , Lance Henriksen , Colin Salmon , Tommy Flannagan and ¨Aliens vs. Predator 2¨ (2007) by Strause Brothers with Steven Pasquale , Reiko Aylesworth , John Ortiz , Johnny Lewis and Robert Joy . And ¨Predators¨ (2010) by Nimrod Antal with Adrien Brody , Alice Braga , Mahershalalhashbaz Ali , Thoper Grace and Danny Trejo .

The entire 3rd act of this film is gold. Danny Glover is tired of this predator nonsense and he's going to do something about it. Haha. By the end Glover is in such horrendous condition you really have to laugh. Very underrated.