PREDATOR 2 - DVD review

With the introduction of "Alien Vs. Predator" on DVD and special editions of the original "Alien" and "Predator" movies already available, it was inevitable that Fox would give us a special edition of "Predator 2," if for no other reason than to complete the sets. Understand, I have nothing against special editions, especially when there is an upgrade of the film, either in terms of audiovisual quality or additional scenes. But this special edtion of "Predator 2" mainly just adds the usual audio commentaries and documentaries to the mix. For me, adding more bells and whistles doesn't make a bad movie any better.

Let's get caught up, shall we. Back in 1987 the Predator had just dispatched Carl Weathers and the Governor of Minnesota before being cornered by Big Arnold near a river in the Central American jungles. And we thought that was the end of the big fella. But no, he went on to become the Governor of California. Oh, and the Predator? Any time you've got an enormously popular action thriller, you've got to have a sequel. Thus, "Predator 2" came to the screen in 1990.

The movie was written by the same team of brothers, Jim and John Thomas, who gave us the first "Predator" and who would go on to do "Behind Enemy Lines," "Mission to Mars," "Wild Wild West," and "AVP." The sequel was directed by Stephen Hopkins, who would go on to do "Lost in Space" and a slew of television "24s."

In this latest outing, a Predator creature (again played by Kevin Peter Hall) is busying himself in Los Angeles, a change of venue that is hardly new to the adventure genre. After all, Tarzan left the jungles for the Big Apple. King Kong left his island and climbed the Empire State Building. Even the T-Rex from "Jurassic Park" eventually made its way to the mainland to terrorize a metropolis. Only now, the Predator doesn't have Schwarzenegger to deal with; nor does he have director John McTiernan ("Die Hard," "The Hunt for Red October") to guide him through his paces. Worse, the critter doesn't have the spectacular scenery and gorgeous cinematography of the original movie to maintain our interest. Instead, the thing is being chased through the city streets by Danny Glover, one of my favorite people but no match for the characters in the first movie and a helpless victim of the sequel's stale script.

If you recall, the Predator creature is from another planet, coming to Earth for centuries to hunt and choosing to hang out for most of that time in the jungles of Central America. I suppose he figured there was more game there for him to hunt. Anyway, tiring of the rain forests, he (or another of his kind; it isn't made known until later in the movie, and then it's still not too clear) decides to move to the urban jungles to find his trophies, which include human skulls and various parts of the human anatomy. A connection is made to the later "AVP" movie when we get a glimpse of an Alien skull in the Predator's trophy room.

The critter is a perfect hunting machine and butt-ugly to boot. He sees with thermal-image vision, meaning he senses body heat, and he can bend light so that his physical structure is mostly invisible to his prey. Seems an unfair advantage, given that he's also amazingly strong and agile, with extra-keen hearing, uncanny intelligence, and advanced body armor and weaponry. We're told he's a hunter from a race of hunters, and we of the Earth are the hunted.

The movie begins in 1997, ten years after Big Arnold's encounter with the beast. But it doesn't start with the Predator. The movie's opening sequence depicts a war between the Los Angeles Police Department and a pair of rival Colombian and Jamaican drug gangs. This fight is so badly staged, I thought at first it was intended as parody. I expected a director to yell "cut" at any moment. With the police unable to make any headway in the battle, Danny Glover shows up as Police Lieutenant Mike Harrigan and single-handedly kills every bad guy in sight. Yeah, well, almost; and without the help of his usual partner, Mel Gibson, either. Then, to complicate matters, it seems a few of the baddies are hiding inside a building, but before Harrigan can get to them they are all mysteriously killed. (The audience knows it was done by the Predator, but the police don't know it.) The creature, you see, likes to give his victims a fighting chance, so he only goes after humans who are armed. Sporting fellow.

Harrigan wants to find out who killed the heavies before he got to them, but his bosses on the force, Deputy Chief Phil Heinemann (Robert Davi) and Captain Pilgrim (Kent McCord), won't let him proceed with his investigation because the feds get involved. Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey), purportedly of the DEA, shows up leading a federal task force assigned to the case, and they push Harrigan aside. Harrigan, being a typical movie cop, is a hotheaded maverick who refuses to be shoved into a corner and, accordingly, he disobeys orders at every turn to get to the bottom of things.

As you've probably already guessed, and, mind you, the film's only a few minutes in, the government knows all about the Predator and wants to capture it to learn the secrets of its weaponry. Shades of "Aliens" here. If you're going to steal ideas for a film, steal from the best. But the feds find Harrigan and his team of cops almost as much of a trial to them as the monster they're after. Harrigan's force, understand, consists of the usual types: Danny Archuleta (Rubin Blades), a longtime, trusted friend; Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton, from the aforementioned "Aliens"), a brash, young newcomer; and Leona (Maria Conchita Alonso), a tough cookie. You couldn't find more hackneyed characters in a movie if you looked high and low.

In fact, "Predator 2" sports an amazing number of good actors thrown away in dead-end roles, people like McCord, Davi, Blades, Paxton, and Alonzo, plus Calvin Lockhart and Adam Baldwin. The only memorable supporting part is played by the late Morton Downey, Jr., as an odious news reporter, a role that so well fit his personality, he didn't need to act.

Meanwhile, bullets fly, sharp pointy objects are hurled, body parts sail in all directions, and Glover blunders from one ridiculous situation to another. For what it's worth, the movie actually picks up a little steam in the last half hour or so, but it's a long haul getting there; and once the climax finally does come, it's so contrived it spoils everything that went before it. This poor film can't get anything right.

Video:
The original "Predator" movie had the lush greens and golds of a tropical rain forest going for it. "Predator 2" has the concrete, steel, and glass of a big city. This special edition doesn't do much to improve the situation. Still and all, the video is reproduced via what appears to be a slightly higher bit rate than before (I can't be sure) and looks good, given that it doesn't have much of anything beautiful to reproduce. The screen size measures an ordinary anamorphic widescreen ratio, approximately 1.74:1 across my standard-screen Sony HD television. The picture is somewhat on the dark side, owing to the nature of the subject matter, and it's a bit grainy, but to its credit it displays few or no shimmering lines. Shadows don't reveal much inner detail, with colors slightly muted. Deep blacks don't so much heighten dimensionality as obscure particulars, yet the overall definition and delineation remain fairly clear and sharp.

Audio:
The sound, available via Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1, is very dynamic in DD 5.1, very loud, very clear, very sharp, and a little bright. This is fine for clarifying dialogue but doesn't do a lot to make the blaring, blasting, largely annoying music that plays intermittently any better. While there is some surround information fed to the rear speakers, voices echoing, bullets ricocheting, that sort of thing, it is not too directional. Bass is not all that deep, either, or too prominent for an action thriller. The audio comes into its own best in the scene in the meatpacking plant, where the surrounds help to fill in the whole environment.

Extras:
The first edition of "Predator 2" provided only a few bonus items, none of them worth much of a person's time. Now, a whole second disc is fitted out with bonuses, including a couple of holdovers from the original release. I'm not saying that any amount of extras can make a bad movie better, but it can take your mind off it for a moment or two.

Disc one contains the widescreen presentation of the feature film, with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. The two major extras found here are a pair of audio commentaries, the first with director Stephen Hopkins and the second with writers Jim and John Thomas. Of the two, I found the writers' commentary the most interesting, the give and take of the two men presenting a fascinating glimpse into the creative process. The director's commentary is more straightforward, informational but somewhat prosaic. The first disc concludes with thirty-two scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English and Spanish subtitles.

Disc two contains the main supplementary extras, divided into five major parts. First up, there's a documentary titled "The Hunters and the Hunted: The Making of Predator 2." It's thirty-five minutes long and includes interviews with the director, producer, actors, screenwriters, and many of the filmmaking crew. It's newly made, as the keep case proclaims, but probably ninety percent of the footage and interviews come from 1990, so it's a little misleading. The second part is called "Evolutions," a series of four segments on the making of certain optical effects, each lasting about one to three minutes. Your choices are "Main Title," "Enemy in the Alley," "Something on the Roof," and "Subway Showdown." The third part is called "Weapons of Choice." It includes six brief bits on the various weapons used by the Predator--gauntlet knives, plasma cannon, etc., plus an introduction by John Rosengrant of Stan Winston Studios. I suggest hitting the "Play All" button because the segments are only about a minute apiece.

The fourth part of the bonus materials is a promotional gallery that includes a number of separate items. Here you'll find three widescreen theatrical trailers; five TV spots; and three promos, "The Predator Goes to Town," "International Featurette," and "Creating the Ultimate Hunter," each about three-to-five minutes. The fifth and most entertaining part of the extras consists of a pair of episodes of "Hard Core," mock news reports made for the movie but never shown in their entirety. Hosted by Morton Downey, Jr., they were for me more fun than the feature film. Lastly, there's a still gallery of fifty-seven photos that moves along at its own pace. Once it's started, there is no pausing, fast forwarding, or going back.

The two-disc, slim-line keep case comes housed in a rather plain-looking slip cover, and there was no chapter insert in the package I reviewed.

Parting Shots:
As far as sequels go, this is another one that proves the case for quitting while you're ahead. "Predator 2" tries to capitalize on a good-looking creature design but can't make up its mind what to do with it. The plot is shopworn, the ending is muddled, almost sentimentalized, the actors are wasted, and the only serious action comes much too late for anyone to care. About the best that can be said for the film is that it now comes decked out with a whole lot more extras. Well, at least it's preferable to something like "Python 2," which is obviously damning with faint praise. Violence, gore, sex, nudity, and profanity provide "Predator 2" with its deserved R rating