Predator 2 (1990)
Directed by Stephen Hopkins
A police chief in the war-torn streets of Los Angeles discovers that an extraterrestrial creature is hunting down residents - and that he is the next target.
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And the supporting cast of actor/musician Ruben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Davi, and genre fave Bill Paxton (Aliens, Near Dark) delivers as well.
Bill Paxton (even hammier than in Weird Science), Maria Conchita Alonso (whose pregnancy is revealed as a tantalizing subplot, and then totally dropped), Morton Downey Jr., and porn legend Teri Weigel round out a cast of campy over-actors, and director Stephen Hopkins’ absolute inability to create tension or excitement from his lame special effects and boring set pieces – such as a nonsensical chase through a meat-packing plant – only further compounds this ludicrous B-movie’s goofiness.
Under the direction of Aussie Stephen Hopkins–who helmed A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and filmed all the action sequences as second-unit director on Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander–the pieces come together for a horror/sci-fi gem that will please most action-oriented fans.
Schwarzenegger is in prime action-icon form throughout, chomping on cigars with a gusto that suggests nothing can fell him, even as his band of merry men – which also includes the inimitable Bill Duke and his trusty chain gun “Old Painless” – are felled by a crafty extraterrestrial who, at least until Predator 2 and the misbegotten AVP spin-offs, seemed like cinema’s next great otherworldly creature.
If the first "Predator" was "Alien" meets "Rambo," it must be that "Predator 2" is intended to be "Alien" meets "Lethal Weapon" right down to the casting of Danny Glover in the lead.
Stronger drugs, meaner guns and a bigger hole in the ozone plague 1997 Los Angeles, the soot- and crime-darkened setting for the terrifying blood riot that is "Predator 2." The latest in the all-American urban rot genre, this magilla of a thriller offers more familiar fireworks from the zealous producers of "Predator," "Die Hard" and "48 HRS."
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."
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The script, written by the Thomas brothers, is calculated mayhem, filled with the dismal irony of "RoboCop" and the brooding fatalism of "Blade Runner."