Predator

Say "action movie" in front of me and I'll probably say Predator. From start to finish, this thing goes at a hell of a pace and doesn't let up for even a second. The direction, the realistic action, Silvestri's elaborate music and the jungle setting make you feel that something is lurking behind every other liana. Even though I know Predator by heart, I always enjoy watching it again. (14/06/2009)

Sweaty machismo grossly overstepping the boundaries of heterosexuality is a thing my childhood memories of Predator have mercifully kept from me, but in the field of gun-fetish and male-bonding of his day, McTiernan was in the big leagues. This film proves it from the shot of a casual Arnold flicking away a cigar butt in a helicopter to the final dick measuring with Winston's amazing creation. (26/07/2016)

One of the movies I grew up on. A captivating atmosphere augmented by Silvestri’s music, an invisible, mysterious and cunning enemy and a team of soldiers led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in 1987 was enjoying his best years (and me too, in fact ;). A classic. I still have a VHS cassette with German dubbing and a simultaneous Czech translation. (27/09/2006)

Plain and simple: fucking perfect. I rewatched Predator after a long time and I realized that it belongs to that proud group of my beloved cinematic works from which I would not remove or add a single frame. Without a doubt, this is the most masculine film in history, where tough guys first dish it out loudly to declaim their fearlessness, and then get their asses kicked in a way I wouldn't wish on perhaps a cancer cell on my most sensitive body part. And it ends with the most thrilling one-on-one fight, where a man in the face of a real monster accepts its rules and, as a hunter from ancient times, adapts to the conditions of the surrounding wild nature. Bad Ass Arnold is unbeatable as usual, but the biggest stars here are definitely Alan Silvestri, whose soundtrack is an amazing embodiment of suspense and confrontation with the mysterious evil, and director McTiernan, who shot the whole story without a single stumble and staged so many iconic moments that no sequel will ever be able to top this original (I single out the mass "shootout" scene with the invisible enemy, which is one of the funniest of the entire 1980s for me – I can see it five times a day, but I will never tire of Arnold's face as he shoots into the void for a minute). 100% (26/08/2011)

An excellent action film with sci-fi admixture. McTiernan proves that he's not just an annoyed skilled director, but that he can enjoy the action nicely. I really like the work with the camera in the first part of the film, when our beautiful and muscular heroes are spied on (thermographic shots and camera raids are excellently used, which give a very cramped impression). The atmosphere of a bunch of mercenaries, which become game in the middle of the forest, is flawlessly dense and convincing. It's hard to judge whether the absence of acting is a bad thing, because some of Arnold's grimaces just belong to the golden fund of the acting anti-talent and sort of help make the film into a cult classic. I don't like action films, but I enjoyed this one... (12/05/2004)