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The
Predator is back again for some more hunting only minus Arnold
this time around. Set a few years after the first film this one
is set in LA during an incredible heat wave. Also LA is being
torn apart as two rival gangs compete for the drug business. Caught
between the Colombians and the Jamaican Voodoo Posse is the undermanned
and under armed LAPD. In this drug war filled urban landscape
the Predator has ample game.
Hannigan,
played by Danny Glover, is the standard take no shit rebel cop,
who leads a group of three top officers in his squad. Hannigan
wages war on the gangs and vice versa until both gang members
and cops end up being cut down and strung up by the head collecting
alien.
As
if the gangs and unseen enemy are not bad enough Hannigan soon
runs into Agent Keys, played by a Gary Busy, who begins to play
the jurisdiction card when ever Hannigan's squad comes close to
finding out some answers to what’s going on around them.
Soon Keys tired of Hannigan's intrusions lets him in on what’s
going on. Apparently since the last time a Predator showed up
(1st movie) the government has been tracking and monitoring more
of their kind. They have lucked out and found the one in L.A.
and have been watching his patterns and learning his routine.
The plan is to catch the alien and observe him and his alien technology.
Set in a slaughterhouse where the alien comes to feed the trap
is sprung. To no surprise the alien gets away and it is up to
Hannigan to stop it. We get to see a good chase over rooftops
and into sewers and finally to a space ship for the final showdown,
and a truly excellent ending.
This
is the starting point for the Predator mythos, soon after this
movie the comics and novels would begin to come out and explore
the Predator world. In this one the Predator still has the hand
blades, armor, shoulder cannon and of course the face plate. But
we also get introduced to the homing disk, hunting spear, net
gun and the best part "What to do if your an alien and get
your arm cut off on earth handbook" which is a really good
scene. We also get to see that each Predator has a different face
and skin color pattern, so that they are all not the same, plus
each Predator can customize it's own weapons and armor. But the
best part of this one is it dips more into the Predator's code
of honor. In the first one we learned that the Predator would
not attack unless you were armed. In this one there is a great
scene involving an armed female officer that the Predator does
not kill for other reasons. Showing the creature is not just a
killing machine, but truly a great character and not just a monster.
My
only complaint with this one is Glover. It's not that he was bad
or that he didn't carry the part of Hannigan. It was the way he
moved. His arms are so long when he holds a pistol the barrel
scrapes the pavement
7
out of 10
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