Tag: Rambo

Predator and The Most Dangerous Game

 

PREDATOR (1987) & THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932)

It’s been duly noted over the years that PREDATOR combines elements from ALIENS and RAMBO into one blockbuster.

Until only recently, I did not realize PREDATOR also updated a 1932 horror movie named THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME for modern times and weaponry. That relatively unknown classic centers around the concept of a big game hunter (Leslie Banks) who moved on from animals to humans on his own island reserve. The big game hunter finally meets his match in another legendary hunter (Joel McCrea) shipwrecked on the island, due to the big game hunter’s dastardly design of sabotaging ships and hosting then hunting the shipwrecked survivors. The two great hunters contest their most dangerous game on the same jungle sets as KING KONG. Ernest B. Schoedsack co-directed both MOST DANGEROUS GAME and KING KONG, films released several months apart. Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong appeared in both. I say go check out THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

In a two-star review for THE PREDATOR, I summed up the difference between the 1987 original and the 2018 retread.

“PREDATOR ‘87 does not have perfunctory dialogue and dead weight, and it does not drag. It plays like ‘a lean, mean fighting machine’ (in the great words from STRIPES) and it’s a streamlined entertainment that moves faster than this, er, last year’s model (an Elvis Costello reference following STRIPES).

“The cast of the original PREDATOR amounted to 16 actors.

“By comparison, THE PREDATOR features approximately 50 credited and 20 uncredited cast members.

“Favorite character: ‘Sobbing veterinarian.’ Second favorite: ‘Cantina bartender.’ Show: ‘Halloween mom.’”

Let’s face it: PREDATOR star Arnold Schwarzenegger could do very little wrong at this stage in his career and he’s a presence missing from the PREDATOR movies that have followed. This is a different Schwarzenegger film in one key aspect: When his Dutch faces off against the title character in the final act, it’s an incredibly tense final showdown because, for a change, we are not sure Schwarzenegger’s character will make it out alive. Kevin Peter Hall’s Predator knocks Schwarzenegger around real good, something that we just don’t see every day. Hall stood at 7-foot-2 and he towers over everybody, including Schwarzenegger.

The film’s marketing campaign proved to be misleading, since Schwarzenegger is not the predator, he’s the prey.

The supporting cast around Schwarzenegger forms one of the most macho in history, with such luminaries as Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Bill Duke around to chew the scenery. Their machismo ultimately descends into terror as the title character begins systematically eliminating them. They sure do make great trophies for the intergalactic hunter. They’re the best of the best, at least on this planet.

PREDATOR director John McTiernan (DIE HARD) and crew made the film in the real jungles of Mexico rather than some back lot. Like PLATOON, PREDATOR turns the jungle into another character and it exerts a force seemingly every bit as potent as the title character. If that intergalactic hunter don’t kill you, then the damn jungle will for sure.

Like JAWS, behind-the-scenes difficulties benefited the finished product. Originally, Jean-Claude Van Damme signed on to play the Predator, but was fired during production for reasons that nobody has ever been able to agree on. Apparently, some of his footage survived and made the final cut. The 5-foot-10 Van Damme would have made a radically different Predator, one definitely not quite as imposing and intimidating and one more ninja-like than Hall, who played the role in the first two PREDATOR movies before his 1991 death.

The first Predator suit failed, so the filmmakers called on special effects guru Stan Winston (1946-2008) to solve the problem. Winston is another one of those behind-the-scenes figures who developed a legendary reputation and just reading some of his credits justify the legend: PREDATOR, ALIENS, THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2, STARMAN, A.I., FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (uncredited), THE THING, and PUMPKINHEAD (Winston also made his directorial debut with this 1988 horror feature).

Like a classic horror movie, we have a gradual build-up to the full reveal of the monster in PREDATOR. Characters also build him up in our imaginations with their dialogue. Of course, we see the effects of an escalating body count and this only fuels our anticipation for seeing this predator in his true form. When we do see this intergalactic villain, it’s worth the wait. The final showdown between Schwarzenegger and Predator definitely lives up to our expectations, and it’s on par with the big fights in KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and FREDDY VS. JASON, though PREDATOR is overall a better film than both KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and FREDDY VS. JASON.

You have not lived a full cinematic life until you have seen Schwarzenegger’s Dutch tell the Predator, “You’re one ugly motherfucker,” as he takes off his mask.

PREDATOR (1987) Three-and-a-half stars; THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) Three-and-a-half stars

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

day 67, first blood part ii

RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985) Three stars
Sylvester Stallone has proven responsible for two movie franchises, ROCKY and RAMBO, that have produced a combined 12 films over the last four decades.

Outside those franchises, though, it’s been a struggle for the actor, writer, and director, barring a $255 million worldwide hit like CLIFFHANGER. (We’ll see how many EXPENDABLES installments they make.)

Honestly, it’s been a struggle for this viewer to stay interested through sheer crap like STOP! OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT!, for example, or to enjoy something like OVER THE TOP as more than an exercise in overblown ridiculousness (arm wrestling, child custody, and truck driving).

Given a choice between Stallone franchises, I’ll take ROCKY.

RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II works best on a comic book level, just like a couple of the ROCKY pictures from that era.

Just the other day, we took a look back at COMMANDO, a similar cinematic action comic strip with a muscular actor whose surname begins with the same letter.

FIRST BLOOD PART II came out May 22, 1985, while COMMANDO blew up screens beginning October 4, 1985. Only during the Cold War, baby!

Just like I prefer ROCKY over RAMBO, I prefer COMMANDO over FIRST BLOOD PART II for a similar reason.

FIRST BLOOD PART II makes a dread mistake with the female character Co-Bao, played by Julia Nickson. Why did they create her character in the first place?

Let’s be honest, Rambo and FIRST BLOOD PART II don’t know what to do with her. We don’t have time for love in this universe. It just bogs everything down.

Outside the first couple ROCKY movies, it’s often been a struggle for women characters in Stallone movies.

Rambo and Co-Bao are no Rocky and Adrian, for sure.

Rae Dawn Chong’s Cindy provided an unexpected bright spot in COMMANDO and helped elevate it above FIRST BLOOD PART II.

I don’t know, I just cringe when I hear Co-Bao ask Rambo to take her with him.

Then, she’s killed because, let’s face it, FIRST BLOOD PART II handles violence better than any other human attribute.

Her death means that a distraction’s out of the way and we can get back to the true love at the heart of FIRST BLOOD PART II.

I found the number of kills in the RAMBO movies: one in FIRST BLOOD, 74 in the first sequel, 115 in the third edition, and 254 in the fourth installment.

According to moviebodycounts.com, COMMANDO featured 88 kills, including 74 in the grand finale.

HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX satirized this rather well.

Frank Stallone’s big musical number over the FIRST BLOOD PART II end credits, why, you guessed it, it’s called “Peace In Our Life.” Yeah right, there’s barely even a moment of peace in the entire movie.

On a big, dumb action movie level, though, I enjoy both FIRST BLOOD PART II and RAMBO III. That’s about the only level I can enjoy them. I love that we have a protagonist who speaks less and less over time. When he does speak, though, we go back to enjoying the silence. “To survive war, you gotta become war,” I believe Gizmo adapted that mighty well in GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH.

If you think about FIRST BLOOD PART II, it falls apart or it disgusts you.

For example, let’s start with the premise that Rambo’s assigned to go to Vietnam to only take reconnaissance photographs of possible POWs. No engagement of the enemy whatsoever.

Yeah, sure, he’s a regular Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004).

Murdock (Charles Napier) should have known better.

I mean, he only reads the following aloud, “Rambo, John J. Born 7-6-47 in Bowie, Arizona. Of Indian-German descent, that’s a hell of a combination. Joined the army 8-6-64. Accepted special forces, specialization: light weapon, medic, helicopter, and language qualified. 59 confirmed kills. Two Silver Stars, four Bronze, four Purple Hearts. Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor. You got around, didn’t you? Incredible.”

Yeah, sure, no engagement of the enemy. Only photos. I mean, where does it say that in Rambo’s dossier?

We know, of course, that Murdock set Rambo up to fail and that Rambo will not fail … again, Murdock should have known better. You should have picked somebody else. Kurtwood Smith, coming off his performance as one of the sleaziest villains ever in ROBOCOP, inherited the sleaze mantle from Napier in RAMBO III.

In the RAMBO series, the early scenes in FIRST BLOOD (1982) are the ones that stick with me the most over time.

These scenes tell us everything that we need to know about John Rambo and his sad plight in his own country after coming home from Vietnam, and say more than Rambo’s actual concluding monologue.

FIRST BLOOD PART II works better on that level of articulation with Rambo’s “I want what they want and every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had wants! For our country to love us as much as we love it! That’s what I want!” That’s about as good as any of the speechmaking in RAMBO gets.

Hey, do you remember when I said I liked FIRST BLOOD PART II more than COMMANDO? I lied.