Predators
Starring Adrian Brody, Alice Braga and Laurence Fishburne; directed by Nimrod Antal
Rating: Three Stars and a half out of five
A slick, well-produced action horror reboot,Predatorsagain demonstrates director Nimrod Antal’s genre goods and introduces us to Adrien Brody’s lovely six-pack.
Best known for the surprisingly suspenseful motel snuff thrillerVacancy, Nimrod takes a stab at the bloodier sub-genre of horror this time out. Wisely forgetting the travesty spin-offs called AvP,Predatorsgoes back to the brutal basics.
A bevy of badass types including a former US Army soldier turned mercenary (Brody), a Russian Spetsnaz (Oleg Taktarov), a Mexican drug cartel enforcer (Danny Trejo), and black ops sniper (Alice Brega, the prerequisite female muscle) freefall into the jungle of an alien planet. The natural fauna of this foreign world do not deal well with guests and instead of integrating them into the tribe and teaching them how to ride their alien dog-like creatures, they prefer to feed them to the canines.
Luckily, they meet up with some other survivors, which eventually include Topher Grace as a doctor and Laurence Fishburne, the crazy recluse mentor to have survived a few years on the planet, so you can be rest-assured there IS a sizeable bodycount. Also good is the classicSurvivormeetsLord of the Fliesscenario of taking nasty, amoral human beings and seeing what happens when you force them to fend for their lives. Needless to say, the title doesn’t just refer to the infra-red hunting machines.
It’s nice to have thesps like Brody and Fishburne on board, who have fun with the toughguy roles and chew the scenery almost as well as thePredatorschew their comrades.
Taking a bunch of bad people and forcing them to redeem, or have thy spine extracted, or both, is an efficient recipe for character arcs in a genre that doesn’t really require it. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of the franchise classics, or of gory good times at the cinema, this is the ticket.
