I’m about to take a very controversial position here that you’re going to be the witness of. I think that the movie Predator 2 starring Danny Glover is the best sci-fi action movie of the 1990s. It’s got everything from the Predator battling it out on the sweltering streets of LA with gangs, a heavily-armed government spook force and detective Mike Harrington (Glover).
Did I say, “best sci-fi action movie of the 1990s?” Make that “best sci-fi action movie” ever!
Okay, okay, okay, you’ve got me. I don’t really think that Predator 2 is the best sci-fi action movie ever, or even the best of the 1990s — maybe it is the best sci-fi action movie released on November 21, 1990, though. But I still think it’s a great b-grade movie that’s one of those flicks where whenever it comes on I’ll watch, own it on VHS, DVD and hi-def and have seen it probably a dozen times or so.
The sequel to the uber-successful Preadtor (1987), Predator 2 takes place a few years into the then future of 1997 and transplants the action from the war-torn jungles of Central America to the equally war-torn mean-streets of L.A. Here, Jamaican and Colombian gangs battle it out with each other over the illegal drug market killing anyone who gets in their way. Cops of the L.A. police department are outmanned and outgunned in these shootouts and it’s only because of people like Harrington who’s willing to do (read the following in that movie trailer announcer guy voice) “whatever it takes to take the bad guys down that these gangs are kept in check whatsoever.
Glover as Harrington is probably the most interesting piece of casting in the movie — and Predator 2 co-stars Bill Paxton who’d already had a bit-part in the original Terminator and co-starred in Aliens in one of the most memorable roles in sci-fi movie history as Hudson. Glover as Harrington is so interesting because he’s replacing toned and buff Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead Predator-basher. And just a few years prior to this Glover had made a name for himself playing the, “I’m too old for this !@#$” on the verge of retirement Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon. So for him to jump from that to Mr. Alien-Butt-Kicker Mike Harrington in Predator 2 is some inspired casting.
And luckily it all works. Watching the movie Glover comes off as a man of action even if he doesn’t have the toned bod of Arnold.
Because there’s so much fighting in L.A. and because the fictional summer of 1997 was extremely hot, a Predator has set up shop in the city and has begun hunting members of the gangs and taking their skulls as trophies. Which isn’t too bad, he is cleaning up the streets after all, except that this alien is also killing subway passengers and police officers too so Harrington has to take him down like a good action hero should.
Did I mention that Predator 2 also co-stars Gary Busey? Yes, that Gary Busey, in the role of a government agent who’s not trying to kill the Predator, he’s trying to catch it. And, if online reports can be believed, the role Busey plays was originally written for Schwarzenegger to return to the role of Dutch from the original Predator.
What’s that, you didn’t quite get that? Yes, Gary Busey plays a role originally written for Schwarzenegger in Predator 2.
And the end of Predator 2 has to be seen to be believed. It includes the Predator climbing and falling off buildings in downtown L.A., followed closely by Harrington, and ends up crashing into an older lady’s apartment where, when Harrington arrives soon after the alien telling the woman he’s a cop, she utters the line, “I don’t think he gives a !@#$.”
If you’re looking for b-grade movie fun then look no further than Predator 2. I can only hope that the latest The Predator movie, that’s due in theaters September 14, is as good, or as long-lasting, as Predator 2 has been the last few decades.
