R Rating Ep4 - Predator 2 (1990)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everybody and welcome back to our rating the show where we take a movie franchise, break it down by a movie, give it an overall score and see where it lands on the board. This week we're taking a look at Predator 2. We did Predator 1 last week. We're gonna go through the entire Predator franchise throughout the month of September. So let me introduce you to my co host. We've got Will and Brian. Brian, how are you doing today? [00:00:21] Speaker B: I'm fantastic. How are you doing, Dan? [00:00:23] Speaker A: I am doing very well. I'm excited, excited to talk about Predator. I really enjoyed the first episode. I'm looking to get into this one. Will, do you want to talk to us about the Predator 2 movie? [00:00:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll do a quick little my snippet of what the movie's about. Get ready because today we're discussing Predator 2, the 1990 action sci fi movie starring Danny Glover as the sweaty lieutenant Mike Harrington Haringan. [00:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:52] Speaker C: He is one hard boiled police detective in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles who goes from fighting the war on drugs to waging war against an otherly world threat. And after his fellow officers are picked off one by one, Lieutenant Harrigan throws caution to the wind and flips the script on the Predator by hunting the hunter. Today I would like to start by asking Daniel his favorite scene from the movie. Let's get into this. [00:01:26] Speaker A: All right. You're taking over hosting for a while. That was incredible. I had like you ever. I was embarrassed by it. Take over and do that. I'm like, I can't follow this. My favorite part of the movie. It. [00:01:43] Speaker C: Or just a favorite scene that comes to mind. [00:01:46] Speaker A: All right, so there's obviously as a very short throwaway, I love the implications of the trophy rack at the end of the movie where you see obviously the human skulls but also the very distinct alien head from the xenomorph, I guess from the Alien franchise. And also whatever on earth that gigantic skull is. I would love it if that was ever explored in a movie. Spoiler alert. There's two of these movies I've never seen, so maybe that is spoiler spoiled or, or shown in one of those. And don't tell me if it is. I'd love to see that firsthand. Be like, oh, that's that thing. That's really cool. I, I don't, I really like that scene for the implications of it. I have not seen AVP in a long time and I have not seen the second AVP ever. So like, we'll get there. But I like the way that this sort of like, hinted at it before it was ever really a possibility. But as far as actual scenes, I probably have to go with the, the first scene, the ridiculous gunfight between the cartel. I'm gonna call it, yeah, Police, where Danny Glover's like, you know what? I'm gonna put some body armor on this car and drive it sideways and pretend any of this makes sense. And the Predator sees that and he's like, this guy's a badass. Because that's really what it is. That's the Predator. See him being like, alpha. Gotcha. Yeah, let's go. [00:03:03] Speaker C: Absolutely. That's great. That's great. What about you, Brian? Any, any favorite scenes stand out for you? [00:03:09] Speaker B: So there's, for me, there's a lot to this movie. I felt that they did a pretty decent job of actually trying to take the Predator from, from Predator 1 and recreate the same stuff in a different scenario. Right. They took him out of the jungle and they put him in the city. For me, my, that, that made so many amazing things happen and so many cool things happen throughout the movie. But my favorite was probably when they start the train sequence. And the train sequence just kind of starts this cascade of action sequences that just doesn't stop until you get to the very, very end of the film. In fact, you think it's over a couple of times and then it continues to go on. Right. [00:04:00] Speaker C: Like we've got over, but it just keeps going. [00:04:04] Speaker B: For me, I was happy. Like, you see him set out, starting the bomb on his arm and you think, oh, this is the big kill scene. And no, it's like it's still escalating as it goes. And so for me, that train sequence, I always get excited when that starts because I know that there's just this action sequence that's just going to keep going and going and going with very few pauses for anything. And, and that's like little, little over halfway into the movie that train sequence starts and it's just kind of a nonstop ride after that. Not to mention, the first half of the movie is pretty action packed. And this is, this is my question to you guys. Did you feel that there were some action sequences that were maybe a little over the top? Like the entrance scene when he drives the car in, or how every single gun is nickel plated Desert Eagle Magnum, extended barrel, with scopes and laser sights and every ridiculous attachment that would just completely encumber a real service pistol? [00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:06] Speaker C: So funny to me, is that the. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Main reason, like, is that why we're seven years in the future is just so they can have these ridiculous looking pistols Because I don't why else, why have such a small gap to jump. [00:05:19] Speaker B: Forward to to say that Los Angeles got really criminalized? Maybe. [00:05:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know. It was hilarious. [00:05:26] Speaker A: It was one of those like the far future of 1997. I'm like, oh, okay. [00:05:30] Speaker B: I mean we, we do have the sequence when they're trying to freeze the Predator. And so they need some, a little bit of a technology advancement there so that they can kind of black, black box it and say, look, we've got these toys and we're going to use it against this Predator with these, you know, heat insulated suits and infrared, what do they call it, radioactive dust that adheres to his body so that he can't turn invisible. And I was like, man, I wish they, they could have redone that scene with today's technology and made like an actual glowing dust that adhered to his body with good special effects. In today's world where it really looked like he was kind of glowing like a ghost or something as he moved through that meatpacking plant, I think it could have looked a lot better. Instead it just looked like like really crappy, low grade, old grainy film that they were trying to shoot it with. And then he just like turns off his cloaking device. So there was, there was a lot of like, like technical aspects of this movie that kind of took me out of it. The big guns, the ridiculous fight scenes and, and some of like the meat packing warehouse when they're shooting their lights and stuff. I like maybe back then it didn't bother anybody else, but those things bothered me. The rest of the movie though, I felt was so good. I, I just enjoy, I thought every sequence reminded me of Predator 1, but it's set in the city, you know, and, and so the, the scoring and the sound of this movie, it all sounds very similar to the first one. They've got a lot of the visuals from the first one, all the sound effects from the first one. It really carried over for me. I, I, I liked this continuation of it. [00:07:07] Speaker C: I guess to answer your question of like where the fight scene's over the top a little bit. [00:07:12] Speaker B: Yes. [00:07:14] Speaker C: I like the idea as well that this movie is like, oh, this is a predator in the city compared to in the jungle. Let's see what happens. I like that and I wish it was more that than what we have here because I feel on top of that they were like, okay, the first one was so over the top. [00:07:34] Speaker B: Action. [00:07:34] Speaker C: And so like muscles and everything, testosterone, that they wanted to overdo it with the action here. And it actually made a worse movie because of it. The over the top action scenes didn't feel real or warranted or anything to me. And it actually took me out of the action a little bit more than bringing me deeper into it. And I also feel because of that, they lost the great. One of the greatest elements of the first movie, which is like the predator for the first half of the movie is mostly just like watching and like hunting and not always there doing everything. And there's zero suspense built in this movie because of that. And so I think that took me away from enjoying the movie as much. [00:08:27] Speaker B: As the first one. [00:08:28] Speaker A: I'm gonna build on that just a little bit because I agree with everything you just said. But in the first movie, it's completely ridiculous. You've got like Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, like this like muscle bound team of guys going into the jungle and like, they've got the ridiculous guns. They literally like, were mowing down the force to the point where the force was like smoking from all the damage they were doing to it. [00:08:47] Speaker C: It was on fire. [00:08:49] Speaker A: All of it was ridiculous, but in that fun, you're playing with your GI Joes kind of a way. Whereas in this one they're like, we're going to ground it and put it in like a real world setting, but we're still going to make it ridiculous and over the top. And it's just like it. It's almost like your brain has a hard time connecting the dots between like, well, am I supposed to take this serious? Like, is this a police procedural where I'm supposed to care about him? Or is this an over the top Alien movie? And they didn't quite feel like they knew exactly what tone they were going for. Now, I'm not going to say that I didn't have fun with this movie. I did, but it just, it felt like the first movie had a better understanding of what it was trying to be. And this one was kind of rush and this one legitimately was rushed. And I do understand that. And they did pretty good with what they. With the time frame they had to make. Just felt, I don't know, it felt like the first one was more whole and this one was kind of like trying to set up a franchise that never showed up, that never really followed it. Not for like 20 years or something. Right. Like this was. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Do you think if there was maybe like a director's cut of this with a little added like 15:20 minutes of added footage to maybe better develop characters or scenarios that would have helped or, or explain what you mean by it wasn't a whole. [00:10:02] Speaker A: So the best part of Predator 1 and like movies of that ilk is that you like, like Will was saying, you build up a suspense, right? Like you don't, you know, something bad's about them. I guess Predator kind of ruins it by having the alien ship at the very beginning. But like you're getting the team building, like the scene in the helicopter, the scene where they're talking to Dylan for the first time and they're like figuring out who they are and what they're doing. Like, you get a lot of, of context for who these characters are, even though the characters are relatively shallow. You get a lot of like team building, a lot of like character building, character development so that when they start dying, you do. Like, you don't care about them. Care about them, but like, they feel like real characters. Whereas in this movie, you're just kind of thrown into a ridiculous action gunfight. There's a predator already there hunting people down. I think the Predator is killing people in the very first scene. There's no time to build up to the Predator. The Predator is just already there. Like, it feels like you're missing a little bit at the very beginning of this movie and at the very end of the movie. Spoilers. You see like nine predators come out of nowhere and it's like, oh, crap. Like they heard their respect obviously, so they let him live by getting on the ship. But then like the movie just ends. Like, it's just like, oh, you survived credits, which I like. It just didn't feel. [00:11:17] Speaker C: I mean, that was the first movie too. Lives and ends. [00:11:21] Speaker A: But that is a fair point. [00:11:22] Speaker C: I agree with Dan a lot. Let's be honest. The actors in the first movie, not good, right? But the characters were at least developed enough to be like, oh, I know who these characters are. They're very one dimensional. But you get to see them in their element. And so you gain a, like a likability from them. Whereas this movie, the main character, Danny Glover's main character, all. He's just a hot head that's angry all the time. And you? I, I get nothing from him. I just feel nothing from him the entire movie. And his team, I, I think maybe the, the female detective, you get the most. [00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Leona. [00:12:06] Speaker C: Yeah. The other two, like, I mean, the one guy's like a hot, you know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm A, I'm a quick learn, I'm good at everything, whatever. Really overconfident dude. Which is fine. He's probably a close second for one. Like, you know who that character is. But the other guy is pretty like, meh. So I just didn't feel the same thing for even the character development in this. And I think that's a scriptural problem, not an actor problem. Because the actors are much better in this movie. [00:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:37] Speaker C: But I feel more connected to the characters in the first one, so. Exactly. [00:12:41] Speaker A: One of the points I wrote down was just like, I feel like the actors are worse in the first one, but the characters are better. [00:12:47] Speaker C: Exactly. And so I feel that because I can't not compare this to the first one. Right. The first one sets the bar. And I feel the first one did all the right things to make it this man fueled action movie. Just ridiculousness. This one just tried to do that. But just throw on unnecessary extras and. And hope that people think it's just as fun. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:16] Speaker C: Instead of actually, I mean, they tried to work in a little bit of story elements, but not really until the end. Right. Like, they didn't really build the Predator there. [00:13:27] Speaker B: There were so many missing story elements from this that for me, I feel like there could have been another 20 or 30 minutes of footage in this film that helped you to figure it out. Like, who is Harrigan? What? Who is this guy? We don't know. [00:13:43] Speaker C: Nobody knows. [00:13:43] Speaker B: He's. Like you said, he's just a hothead. I don't know about his family, where he comes from. Apparently he has a history with Danny. And they could have developed that a little bit more instead of just showing them kind of goofing around. Right. They tried to give these characters a more subtle approach instead of making them caricatures of themselves, like. Like these, you know, like you have the Indian tracker guy and you have the geeky nerd guy from the first movie. You have real people and they did a better job acting. But like you said, I don't know who these characters are because this isn't that movie. We don't have the time to explore that. They didn't give us the time. They're busy flashing around huge guns and blowing things up, which is very entertaining. But like, like we said, also they turned the volume up on that stuff and they made the gunfight so overly ridiculous with their oversized guns everywhere and just stupid stuff happening with explosions and whatnot, that it just didn't fit. So I feel like if they would have taken some more time to develop the characters a little bit more. Just give me a little bit more to go on, on who Danny Glover's character is or who Leona is, because. Okay, Leona and Jerry Lambert, Bill Paxton's character, they get together and she seems to hate his guts. But as the show progresses, they're clearly friends and at the end, she's pregnant. Were they insinuating that he was the father? Because that was out of left field. They did not develop that at all. Why is she pregnant? Is it Jerry Lambert's kid? What the hell's going on right there? It didn't make any sense at all because they didn't develop that character. [00:15:23] Speaker C: And. [00:15:24] Speaker B: And this isn't that kind of movie where you develop that character. They should have gone with some cliche police people, tone down their guns a little bit more realistic fights, and I think it would have been a lot better. But I think they were just trying for too much in too short of a time period was the big issue. [00:15:42] Speaker A: I must have tuned out at some point. When did they decide? When did they show that she was pregnant? [00:15:47] Speaker B: When the predator didn't kill her. [00:15:49] Speaker C: Yeah, the predator. [00:15:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:15:51] Speaker C: His thermal vision seems. Sees the growing baby inside. And then they confirm it when she's getting checked on because they hear two heartbeats. [00:16:00] Speaker B: Right. We've been live for 38 minutes, and I just now realized that Will has an elephant on his shirt. The predator picks her up and realizes that she is pregnant in an instant. I don't know that that is a realistic way that that plays out. Like, if you're in the middle of a battle, do you stop to, like, check somebody out that thoroughly? Like, that just kind of weird to me. [00:16:24] Speaker C: Well, I think at the that point the battle was over. [00:16:27] Speaker B: Right, right. Yeah, that's true. [00:16:29] Speaker C: I think the predators seem to be very highly aware of these things. Like, they specifically take the time to not target innocent people. And now this, I feel like, was more a story building element for the. The predator race than it was for the story of the police detectives. [00:16:50] Speaker B: Right, Absolutely. They tried to make the Predator not just a hunter, but he was maliciously picking on Harrigan by going after everybody that was around him. He sees him in the very beginning of the movie. He's like, this is the alpha. I'm gonna mess with this guy. And he goes after everybody around Harrigan for the entire length of the movie. And, and, and Leona even says it. She says, this guy's fucking with you. And. And so they're trying to give him that element, but I didn't notice that until I probably watched this movie, like, five times. And I was like, oh, okay. They're trying to make him have some depth, but he's just an alien. Let's just leave him an alien hunter. We don't need to do that. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Okay. I have a question. You. You're more familiar with this movie than I am, despite the fact that I just watched it. And. Will you watch it this afternoon? Did you not. [00:17:36] Speaker C: I watched it this afternoon. I've seen it probably half a dozen times. But. [00:17:39] Speaker A: Okay, this is my second time ever watching it. In the. In the two movies we've seen, obviously, the future will. Could change. Does the Predator kill any women? Because he doesn't kill the one in the first movie. He doesn't kill Leona in this movie. He doesn't kill the. The. The woman in the voodoo scene in this movie. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:01] Speaker A: Does he kill anybody on the train? Any females on the train? Or is he. Are they just. [00:18:04] Speaker C: Because there is a couple old ladies? [00:18:06] Speaker B: I think, yeah, there were some armed dead bullies in the end. [00:18:10] Speaker C: I feel. I feel the argument, or what you're trying to say was a sound thought, but in the 80s 90s, most females didn't have, you know, parts where they could be strong and threat to anybody. [00:18:25] Speaker A: So, I mean. I mean, to point you to aliens. [00:18:27] Speaker B: I mean, I was going to say Sigourney Weaver. Man, that was like. [00:18:31] Speaker C: That was like standalone. Like, that was a huge thing for women. [00:18:37] Speaker A: Sure. No, I'm. I. I agree that those are the standouts or the rule. [00:18:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:43] Speaker B: Adventures in babysitting. Guys, come on. [00:18:48] Speaker C: Sorry. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Okay. That's not a great example at all. [00:18:54] Speaker C: Yes. I don't think the Predator cares about the sex. I just think if they're a threat or not. [00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah. In. Actually, in the novels, there is some confusion. Like, he's fighting alongside a female and doesn't realize it's a female until she's wounded and he rips open her top to, like, cover the wound and sees the mammary glands, and he's like, holy crap. And because in, I guess, in Yautja, the males are actually smaller than the females, and so it. They didn't realize that the male or something. So, yeah, they. They don't have a problem killing. It's. It's whether they're armed. It's a combatant that's worthy of their. Of their respect. [00:19:32] Speaker C: So I do want to touch on. I think it was Dan that was just saying that he was picking off. Or maybe it was Brian. I can't Remember, you guys, you look the same. [00:19:41] Speaker A: We all look alike. [00:19:42] Speaker C: They're both, they're all white males to me anyway. Picking off his team one by one to F with him. I don't know if that is. And maybe it's just bad writing, not being able to know. Or was it just he, he, the predator, wanted a one on one fair fight, so had to get rid of. Dismantled the team to do that. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Or it could have just been that he's following Harrigan around and happens to get into contact with different people as he's watching Harrigan. You're right, it was terrible writing. We didn't really see this take effect. But I think that's what they were trying for was to show some level of malevolence with the Predator. That he was trying to be more than just a hunter. Trying to give it a little bit of more depth. And they didn't need to. He's a hunter. He found the alpha. That's it. So that would have been good enough for me. [00:20:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that, that was one of the points that I also made was just like, why is he going out? Because it's not. Like if he was just taking off his team, then I'd kind of agree with you, Brian. But he's also taking out his enemies. Yeah, like he's going after the voodoo people. When he meets that guy in the alley, he takes out him. Like, it's just like, why is, why is everybody this guy interacts with in the last 24 hours on this guy's kill list? Yeah, it doesn't quite make sense to me because even if he's just messing with them, sure, go after the cop, go to the police station, you'll really mess with this guy. But when he went out of his way to go and kill the people in like the hotel room or whatever that was, I'm like, I don't understand what's happening here. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Oh, in the penthouse, dude, the penthouse scene was amazing. I thought that was a really cool sequence. You start with that very graphic sex scene. And I'm not a proponent of sex scenes. And in, in the 80s and 90s, we had a lot of those. We saw that in Highlander. I thought it was great. Gratuitous in Highlander. And so we have this sex scene that was used really well to show that this Colombian drug lord is having the best day, which immediately turns to the worst day. And they, they used a quick little sex scene just to start that bring the intensity, catch the viewers attention. They rapidly zoom in. And then the doors bust. Open. They've got him strung up, covered in chicken blood, and they're tearing his heart out. And it was really intense. Really grips you, and you're like, wow. And then the Predator breaks in there or is in there. And that's one thing that I didn't really understand. Like, how do you get inside the building without breaking a window? Like, they didn't kind of explain that, but. Oh, well, I didn't think about that until I'd seen the movie four times and. But then they have a really cool fight sequence when he shows off some of his toys. And this was a. A neat one. That kind of reminded me of them fighting in the jungle and him kind of showing off some of the cool tools he's got. That's the first time we see the. The net that collapses around them. He's using that spear, which was brand new. So he had that. The. The spear tip that he shot off that thing, which was a new toy also. So it's kind of a neat sequence in there. And I really like that. [00:22:36] Speaker C: I don't disagree. I. Let's be honest, I love the look, the design of the Predator. [00:22:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:22:44] Speaker C: So am I. Did I like that they forego all the suspense of this? The Predator being, you know, a silent hunter stalking their prey? Yes, Because I felt it didn't build any suspense at all in a. Wasted a lot of this potential. But I did enjoy seeing lots of Predator because he looks so cool. And I like the expansion of toys. I thought that was super fun. [00:23:10] Speaker B: Not all of them maybe made sense. [00:23:13] Speaker C: But, yeah, they don't come across as well as maybe they could have with today's technology. But it was. It was fun to see that. The elaboration of that character and their. Their weaponry and things like that, that was fun. It just didn't make for a good movie, unfortunately. [00:23:30] Speaker B: And see, when you talk about him, the lack of suspense because they just throw him right into the mix. I kind of thought, this is a sequel. We know what we're getting into, so let's see more of it. And that didn't bother me. Do I like the. The Blair Witch style of building suspense? Absolutely. Take your time. Don't show me everything. Make my imagination go wild playing little sound effects and make me looking over my shoulder and nervous. I love that stuff. And so I do admit I wish they had more of it in here. But to me, it's a sequel. We knew what we were getting into. So the viewer has no suspicion about what. What this is or. Or what we're. What's going to happen here. So it wasn't that big of a deal for me in, in this one. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. Like, they gave the Predator more toys, as you're going to keep calling them, because that was kind of fun seeing more of the things that they can use. It's not just the exact same thing. I, for some reason in my head I, I thought that it was pretty much the exact same tools that he had in the first one. So it's kind of nice to see that he had some different options available to him. I swear I had a point that was going to follow that up. Oh, one thing, like you see the cops and the cops have like those, the ridiculous pistols that they've got and, you know, a couple of shotguns here and there, but overall they're far less armed than they were in the jungle, than the team was in the jungle. And I don't know, I, at no point in this movie did I feel like Danny Glover could hold his own against a predator. When Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting tossed around and beaten up and like, like Arnold had to use like Home Alone style gimmicks to try and take this Predator out, right? And Danny Glover like is going after him with a Frisbee and it's just like, what, what is happening? Like, I don't, I can't imagine the Yacha is feeling intimidated by Danny Glover. I just, I just can't. I'm sorry. [00:25:18] Speaker B: This is a complaint that we've seen a lot from this movie is that how can you go from a muscle bound guy like Schwarzenegger to Danny Glover? Now Danny Glover beefed up for this film. He was in his physical prime for this and, and they try and make it sound like he's bigger than he really is. Like in the movie, Danny says to Harrigan, he says, you couldn't lift that guy up there saying that, you know, Danny's supposed to be, Danny Glover, supposed to be a big dude, but I just don't ever see it. His shirt gets ripped a little bit and you can see he's got the guns. You can see he's inputting the time in the gym, but he doesn't look huge. He doesn't come off as imposing. He's not like a six foot seven kind of guy. And he's usually taking from everybody in the department telling him to sit down and get out of the way, you know, and he's just angry all the time. He's got like a grouchy old man rather than a buff dude who Gets done. [00:26:12] Speaker A: Yeah. If you're gonna go like, okay, we're living in the future here. We're gonna have, you know, we did that for some reason. We must have, like, why did we stop at pistols with laser sights? Why didn't we give them like, oh, you know, now we've got these things in the back seat of your car. You're like, oh, cool, that's why we're here. Like, clearly. [00:26:28] Speaker C: I mean, he did have quite an arsenal in the back of his car. [00:26:32] Speaker A: Like you mentioned Robocop, which admittedly the first scene of this feels very Robocopian. That's a word. So why didn't you have something like the Robocop pistol in there? You know what I mean? Like something like, truly like, holy crap, that's gonna stop something. [00:26:45] Speaker C: Yeah, budget, probably. [00:26:47] Speaker B: I think so. Yeah, I do. I think it was budget because they just had attachments on what was actual real world guns at the time. And they just use fancier versions of them, which any gun enthusiast is going to go, why, why would you have a nickel plated gun? You don't buy nickel plated guns to use them in combat because you don't want your enemy seeing you so you don't get a flashy gun, you know, and those little things like that bother me. I hate when in movies people are running around with their finger on the trigger because a real combatant knows you don't put your finger over the trigger. You. It's, you know, just little things like that drive me nuts. And I, I would appreciate when actors and producers and directors talk to professionals in the field to learn what things actually do. And, and so they're not trying to like fly a helicopter in San Andreas. Like it's. Sorry that that movie was. That's, that's an abortion of a movie. Not even Abomination and abortion. [00:27:45] Speaker A: We watched it recently, we could talk about that one. But that's not. [00:27:49] Speaker C: I do feel, I do feel almost robbed a little bit from Lieutenant Mike, his character, because in the beginning how it, as ridiculous as it was, he came up with a plan that no other police officer there could do of like shielding up his car, driving in there and getting around the enemy to like counter and get the, get the injured people out. Like you set up a almost MacGyver esque type of character which I felt just went to the wayside for the rest of the movie. And instead he's just gun blazing lunatic almost. Right? That's just like, sure, maybe he's losing his marbles because his, his good Companions are getting offed. But again, we see that better received in the first movie with Schwarzenegger. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Adapts to the situation, makes a plan, all that stuff. Danny Glover just loses. He's just like, I need bigger guns. Go, go. [00:28:49] Speaker C: I'm just gonna shoot more and eventually I'll hit him. Like, it just seems. [00:28:53] Speaker B: And then eventually runs out of guns and goes after him with a Frisbee. It's just ridiculous. Like, I mean, that's. [00:28:58] Speaker C: Frisbee was the last resort because he dropped well first. [00:29:00] Speaker A: It was the best thing he could have done, actually. But yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. [00:29:05] Speaker C: I lost that. [00:29:07] Speaker A: So the two things we know about Daniel Clover's character, or. Yeah, Danny Glover's character, the start of this movie is he's resourceful and he's afraid of heights. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:15] Speaker A: And we never see him be resourceful again. And he gets over his fear heights real easily when he has to climb down the side of a building. [00:29:21] Speaker C: Yeah. He just has a couple quick quips to like, oh, this is funny. He's afraid of heights and he has to do this, but he's doing just fine. [00:29:28] Speaker A: I feel like he's talking, like, I could feel like you could have somebody who's not afraid of heights, and they probably still say similar things to what he's saying. Like, oh, just going down a tree. Yeah. If the point is, like, they could. They clearly show him having, like, vertigo the first time he's up on top of a building, and the next time he's just like, all right, I gotta climb down this fire, not a fire escape. Like this pole on the side of a building, and I'm doing all right. I. I would have to have, like, one of my children be endangered for me to even consider that. Otherwise, I'm just like, I'm gonna go down the elevator, go into the other building, go up some stairs, and I'll. I'll meet you over there. Like, that's. That's how this is playing out. I'm telling you that right now. [00:30:05] Speaker C: I don't disagree. I think there's just so many missed opportunities in this movie which just make it. Made it feel like a. A hollowed shell of the first movie. And that shell was just made of bullet shells. And action. That I. I didn't think was earned. [00:30:21] Speaker A: And. [00:30:22] Speaker C: And I don't disagree with Brian either. I think that that Penthouse Sweets scene was one of the better action scenes because it was more grounded. Unfortunately, it was one of the least needed scenes and could have been removed for story building. And so to me, it's like, so wrong that I. I want to lose that because it was one of the better action scenes. [00:30:47] Speaker B: And. And let's talk a minute about the finale on the Predator ship. He is fighting the Predator with his Frisbee in one hand. And the Predator's got his claws, and they're going, katang, katang, katang. And I'm like, this Predator is. It has got him by a foot and a hundred pounds of pure steroid muscle. It was just so ridiculous. And then Mike Harrigan is down on his knees in the fog, and the Predator walks over him, towering over him, gloating and taking his time. And he's about to stab him, and Harrigan stabs him in the guts, and it kills him. And I'm like, you have put slug after slug into this guy. You chopped off his arm. You have done so many things to this Predator. And now you. You put four inches of this Frisbee into his guts, and he's like. And dies. And I'm like, he didn't even think to, like, take a swipe at Glover. Like. Like, it was just so. It was like, really? And he's just like. With that stupid Frisbee. And it drove me nuts. Why? Like in. In other Predator movies. We'll see. We'll see finale kill shots where they, like, cut the head off or shoot him in the head or something. Like, I really wish he could have tricked him somehow and. And been able to actually, like, I don't know, get him in the spine, in the back, or get him in the throat or something. But when you stab somebody in the guts, it just. That just doesn't scream, you know, instant kill shot to me. And the Predator just kind of throws himself around screen. It was a lame sequence. It was just lame. It was like a lot of things in this movie. It could have been so much better had they developed it more realistically, given it what it needed to succeed, and they didn't. It was rushed. [00:32:40] Speaker A: I don't disagree that it was kind of a lame death, but don't you think it was cumulative? Like, the fact that he did cut his arm off and shoot him multiple times and stabbed him in the gut, like, eventually. Like, if that was the first time he'd hurt the Predator, the first time you see Predator blood, I'd agree. Yeah, that's a pretty lame way to go. But this Predator has been bleeding out for a while now. [00:32:58] Speaker B: If I had seen the Predator taking his one stump and, like, holding a bleeding wound and. And, like, kind of stumbling around as he's fighting Harrigan. With Harrigan being all beat up and his arm bloody and everything, I would have been like, okay, they're both really wounded. Maybe the Predator's really wounded and that's why this human is able to go toe to toe with him in a melee fight that Schwarzenegger couldn't hold a candle to. Then. Maybe. But it wasn't. That Predator was pissed and angry and jumped up on whatever kind of steroids he had. I mean, he was going. He just ran through, like, a brick wall earlier, which was a hilarious scene. That old lady, by the way, that was. That was hilarious. I like that scene where she comes out and she's like, I don't think he gives a. But that Predator was hopped up and ready to go. And Danny Glover had. Had gone through the ringer without any kind of drugs to prop him up. And so I. I just felt that sequence at the end was pretty lame. I didn't mind the predators popping out, saying their goodbye, throwing him that gun with a. With a date on it. I think that said a lot. And that allowed the movie to end right there because he says, don't worry, you'll get your chance. And so it's, like, sweet. They're. They're basically saying, we like this franchise. We're leaving it open. There's more predators. It could happen anywhere, anytime. We could do anything with it. So I liked the ending. I just didn't like some of the things that got to the ending. [00:34:20] Speaker A: So. So the issue. So, okay, first off, I'll address. That's kind of in order. The scene where all the. The predators were there was cool. Them all appearing looked horrendous. Like, them coming out of the. The cloaking devices, and, like, half of them are cut off because they're supposed to be in. In Fog looks so incredibly. Take you out of the movie bad. Like, those guys could have come out from a hallway and I would have been way happier with the way that it looked. [00:34:48] Speaker B: But back in the day, would it. Would it look that bad? Because when I first saw that movie, I don't remember looking bad. But you're right. When I saw it the other day, I was like, oh, that's. That's pretty shoddy. [00:34:56] Speaker A: I feel like. I feel like Predator 1 looked better than Predator 2 did three years earlier. And with a smaller budget now, maybe they had more time to do that kind of stuff. But I feel like his cloaking device looked better in one than it did in two. Do you not agree? [00:35:14] Speaker C: Maybe, maybe. Maybe because you saw it less in one, it didn't. [00:35:19] Speaker A: Well, that's what, like. Yeah, you play to your strengths. [00:35:22] Speaker C: Whereas, like this one, it was on. [00:35:23] Speaker B: And off, on and off, on and. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Off all the time. Yeah. [00:35:28] Speaker C: I don't know. I. I don't mind the ending. I like that it sets up future possibilities. I just didn't like the elder predator being like, well, we're going to go. So I got this. [00:35:42] Speaker A: You can have it. [00:35:42] Speaker C: I guess I. Why is giving them. They should have ripped the skull and spine out of that predator and handed it to Danny Lover, saying, here's your trophy. We're out. That's what should have happened. A pistol, strictly to let the audience know they've been here in the past and will probably come again. [00:36:03] Speaker A: It's. [00:36:04] Speaker C: It's the worst. [00:36:05] Speaker B: It's the worst. [00:36:07] Speaker C: They should. Something much more than that. They could add pistols and other things on display with the trophies. That would have been fine as the hint of them being here. But him just tossing him this random gun he has on him for funsies. It's. It. It was so bad. It was such bad writing to me. They should have just given him a trophy. [00:36:30] Speaker B: But they needed the trophy. That showed they had been there a long time ago. [00:36:37] Speaker A: I would have agreed with you, Brian. Until Will kept talking and then I was like, nope, he's right. That's the better way to do it. Have all the guns throughout history, all the weapons throughout history on the wall, part of the display case. Okay, you go, oh, cool. They've been here for a long time. Or they've been coming back for a long time. And then you're right. The trophy he earned should have been something yacha, not something human, because that makes more sense. That is their culture. However, I really did like the fact that he gave him something. I loved the fact that they were like, no, you. You killed one of us. That's impressive. Good job. You've earned this. Now we're going to try and kill you with the afterburners from the jet. But that's besides the point. Here's. Here's something to commemorate you. [00:37:16] Speaker C: That's really cool. [00:37:17] Speaker A: And I was going to fight you, but you're right, it should have been a trophy case on the wall. That's how you show off what the weapon is. [00:37:22] Speaker B: I. I think that it worked well enough. I agree. The trophy case on the wall would have been like, oh, they've been here before. That's cool. And then we could have done something better. But I think. I mean, the rest of the movie has so many problems. With it because they didn't give it the justice it deserved. That this doesn't bother me. This is like, this is like number 27 on our list of problems with this movie. [00:37:46] Speaker A: I want to talk about just one quick second while we're still talking about the ending and the, the differences, them coming back and forth and whatnot. Sort of my own little weird head cannon. In the first movie, if I'm correct, the spaceship flies past Earth and something gets ejected from the space. The spaceship that goes to Earth, right? And then in this one they actually land the spaceship in the sewer system, I think it is. And they let him go out and play. Obviously we're talking 30 something years out from 1987's Predator. But it would have been a really cool follow up or thread or something to follow along. Like, no, this predator has been banished. Like he's not part of our tribe. He did something and we're leaving him behind and maybe he can earn his way back to the ship or something. Whereas Predator 2, it's more like a hunting party. Like no, we're just going around doing our thing, collecting trophies. Like something like that could have been a really interesting line to explore. Which obviously we're way too far out to do anything with. But I just thought that was interesting. The difference between like, oh, we're going to drop you off here versus no, we're going to park our ship here and live here for a little while. [00:38:48] Speaker C: I, I was going to, going to go back and confirm something, but I didn't because I'm lazy. In the first movie, what happened to the shuttle? [00:39:00] Speaker A: I don't think you ever see it. I think it literally, it flies past the earth and just drops something off. [00:39:04] Speaker C: And then you're right, but it's like a pod or a ship that drops off. [00:39:07] Speaker A: I don't think you ever see the pod, right? [00:39:09] Speaker B: We never see it. [00:39:10] Speaker C: That's why I'm confused. Is that pod a small ship with lots of pods, predators in it and they're just there watching the one predator hunt and we just don't know it because we never saw it. Like it just seemed weird to me that they went through so much detail in this movie about, oh, this is what happened and this is what we found out. But they never mention anything about the pod or anything. And so I just wondered like how would that happen? Or did the pod leave after that predator was gone? [00:39:39] Speaker A: In fairness, the explanation explosion is big enough to take out 300 city blocks. So I'm sure that could have destroyed a pod. Although it could not destroy Arnold schwarzenegger, who was 10ft away from it. [00:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he just had to jump over that little berm. He was good. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Of a straight line and he went down an elevation. So he was. Yeah, yeah. [00:40:00] Speaker B: So, yeah, the mud. Lots of plot holes here. We just don't know. I did like in. In. And so correct me if I'm wrong, we're not going to be doing AVP in conjunction with this right now. We're just covering Predator. [00:40:15] Speaker C: Correct. [00:40:15] Speaker B: Okay. So in avp, we do see a ship that moves perfectly silently. And I loved that because that allowed me to understand how the ship in Predator 2 could position itself in the sewers underneath the building without being seen. It can just move down there silently. Now when it blasts off, it lights a candle and they go. So I don't know what that was about, but I did like in Predator, in avp, how they had a silent running ship. And that would have made more sense than having that big ship that was underneath that building in the sewer. And it just blasts off out of there and dingoes. In chat, he says, you know, they don't want widespread humanity knowing that they exist. And so that's why I gave him a human trophy. And instead of something they owned in later movies, they give them Predator trinkets, but whatever. But they're willing to just blow the lid off the. The sewer caps for five miles away, lighting that ship up and blowing out of there. And. And they're like, don't worry about it. They probably didn't see it. These. These guys in LA are all drugged up anyway, so who cares? Like, I don't know what. Yeah, there's lots of things that are just really inconsistent with this movie. Again, they didn't plan it out. It felt rushed. It felt like they were trying to grab some money. They just took the Predator, threw him in the city, and they're like, oh, let's turn the volume on up on it. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with sequels being money grabs with the volume turned up. I'm here to watch the Predator do stuff. He had new toys. He kicked ass. It was fun. I didn't like how the Predator tried to give up so fast. When he was fighting Danny Glover, he tried to, like, he tried to blow himself up early into that battle, and Danny Glover cut his arm off. [00:41:55] Speaker C: Why. Why didn't the Predator, when he was hanging there, just get out his claw and just head it right into Danny's head? [00:42:02] Speaker B: Like, again. Yeah, more plot holes. That didn't make any sense at all. Right? [00:42:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, it's just so weird to me, the. The plot holes in this movie. Also, I. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Highlander in this movie. And I think you both know what I'm talking about. When I see a Highlander moment. Predator standing on a building, struck by lightning. What f is that? [00:42:29] Speaker A: Lightning effects were cool in the 90s. Why? [00:42:32] Speaker B: Yeah, why do they keep trying to use that? It took away from the film. Like, if. If maybe he needed a battery recharged or something. Like, give me a reason for this. There's no reason at all. All that they have the lightning strike him. [00:42:48] Speaker C: It looks badass, man. [00:42:50] Speaker B: Oh, it's terrible. Okay. But. [00:42:53] Speaker A: All right. We. We've ripped on this movie quite a bit. I want to go back to. To something I actually enjoyed about it. Maybe we can touch on that. I don't know if you guys have anything else that you enjoyed. [00:42:59] Speaker B: Let's all. [00:43:00] Speaker C: Let's all go through a little bit of positive, and then let's get to ranking this bad boy. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:04] Speaker B: I. [00:43:06] Speaker A: One of the few characters I actually really liked in this movie, despite the fact, like, one of the performances. Performances I really like. Let's go with that. [00:43:12] Speaker B: El Scorpio, right? He was great. [00:43:17] Speaker C: El Scorpio. [00:43:18] Speaker B: He goes, the Scorpio is ready. After he takes a huge beak of coke, gets blown up by the President. [00:43:27] Speaker C: I didn't mind that. I didn't mind that. [00:43:28] Speaker B: That was great, man. [00:43:29] Speaker A: He was good. I. I actually really liked Bill Paxton in this movie. He's one of those characters, like, I like him in pretty much every movie, but he came into this world one, and you just instantly know exactly who this guy is. He's got the bad jokes. He's coming in hot. He's trying to hit on anything that moves. I. I liked his character. I liked his performance. Every time he was on screen, I was like, okay, now this guy's got charisma. This guy's got the charisma to carry a movie like this. That, unfortunately, I just don't feel like Danny Glover really has, like, Arnold Schwarzenegger had it. A bunch of people in the first movie had it, but I don't know that Danny Glovel's carrying this movie on his own, which kind of shows through his career, because most of the times that he's been in major movies, he's been in, like, a side character or, like, the buddy cop character. Can't think of very many lead movies with Danny Glover. Bill Paxton on the other Hand comes in and he just soaks up all the charisma every time he's in the room in like the best possible way. I really liked his performances. What did you guys do you have any other positives to say? Anything good to point out? [00:44:23] Speaker C: I mean, I'll, I'll double down on that. I agree that Bill Paxton, his character felt like a Predator. One character, yes. One dimensional, but well played, well written for that character type. You got enough of him to realize who he is and what he's doing there. But what I enjoyed about this movie, I guess the most is like the fun gadgets expansion onto the Predator. And again, I, I love like the simple things in life. I love the blood of the Predator. I love the glowing blood and I love how it's a practical effect. It's, it's, it's literally glow stick gel with KY jelly mixed together to make Predator blood. And it, it, it pops off the screen so. Well, it almost looks like it is CGI or something because it's just a beautiful glowing color. And so I really enjoy the practical effects of the Predator and the new fun objects he gets to play with. [00:45:26] Speaker A: Brian? [00:45:28] Speaker B: Yeah, Bill Paxton, he is the trifecta of science fiction movies for me. He's in Aliens, he's in Predator, he's in. Is it, is it in Terminator? Yeah, in Terminator, I believe. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, I may be wrong on this, but I believe he's in RoboCop and he plays a spot splatter punk in one of the earlier RoboCop movies. I don't, I don't know that for sure. I could be wrong. But anyway, amazing. He's hit the trifecta for me already. So I, I think it's, you know, you're right. He's that one dimensional cliche caricature of the guy we know. And it's great. It's just what I needed. You need somebody who can get in there and you know who they are right off the bat and he does an amazing job of that. I also actually, and people disagree with me all this time, I also like Gary Busey's character in this film. I thought he was pretty good. He wasn't given enough room to shine. But when he goes after the Predator in that sequence, even though that sequence has a lot of technical flaws in it, I very much enjoy that sequence when they go into the meat packing warehouse and they're trying to find a predator and they're, they're shouting into the microphones or not Shouting into the microphone. Sometimes he's right there. He's right above you. Just turn around, he's right there. And you're kind of on the edge of your seat, like, oh, my God. You're kind of rooting for, for Gary Busey at this point. You want that team to like, really put up a good fight and they get massacred in there. And then in the end, Gary Busey still gets back up, you know, too late to go home now, and he starts shooting him with his little freeze gun and he's just going after him. And it was, it was a lot of fun. I like that sequence. I like Gary Busey character in that. And I thought he played a really good hard ass kind of government guy in, in that pretty well. Especially when you have to compare him to Mike Harrigan and you're like, Danny Glover's not hitting everything. So it's not like Danny Glover upstaged him at all. So it was, it was kind of easy for him to do that. But I enjoyed that character. Of course, Bill Paxton just stealing the show there. [00:47:32] Speaker C: I think Gary is better overall than Danny's character. [00:47:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:36] Speaker C: Not that I think one's a better actor than the other. I just think I, I understood Gary's character. I felt he was more grounded than Danny's character. [00:47:45] Speaker A: My, my one complaint with Gary Busey and has nothing to do with Gary Busey is his death was so incredibly lame. Like, looking. You don't even see it. Like, the predator throws that frisbee thing in slow motion. It's barely doing anything. Gary Busey dies from behind a sack of ham or whatever, and you're just like, okay, decapitated. Like, I wanted to see that. [00:48:11] Speaker B: Like, yeah, like, cutting through all the stacks of beef was cool. But then they hide the shot where he dies and I'm like, that sucked. Like, yeah, you're. You were robbed on that. That little ending just. Just sucked. But you know, the, the makeup they put on his face because he, like, almost got blown up by the shoulder cannon. He was all burnt and, like super sunburnt and stuff. I thought that was really cool. And he had that, like, growly voice. It really came out when he was angry. He's just dripping drool and snot because he's so pissed off. And he, he really wanted to go after that prayer, I think. I think he nailed that scene. I think that they just failed to conclude his character very well. [00:48:48] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. And that's what I say. Like, it was not his fault. [00:48:51] Speaker B: Like, yeah, it wasn't his Fault at all? No, this, this was a production direction problem with almost every. Every step of this film was almost a production direction kind of problem. In my opinion. They, they could have cast some better people or give them a few more lines to develop their characters. Like I said, I had a real problem with Leona and, and Bill Paxton's character. I forget Lambert or whatever his name was. [00:49:13] Speaker A: Lone Ranger. [00:49:15] Speaker B: The Lone Ranger, yeah. Was she pregnant from him? What happened there? Like, that was just a missed opportunity for character development of the only female in this series. Well, I guess we did have Anna from the first one who had like five lines, but Leona at least had a character that was in coercion with the team and you cared about her a little bit and they could have made that better. And I just think if they would have shown more of her character development, you. She could have been something. [00:49:49] Speaker A: So I don't. I, I can't remember the scene perfectly well enough to see how, how far along she was. But my understanding is this movie takes place over like three days. [00:50:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:02] Speaker A: They went from I hate you to let's have sex to I'm pregnant. Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. [00:50:08] Speaker B: We're like a fully formed fetus, by the way. So. Yeah, we just don't know where that baby came from. I don't think that was just weird. [00:50:15] Speaker A: You got to live. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:19] Speaker A: One of the things that I heard is that Stephen Hopkins, the director of the film, apparently had impressed the studio with his work on one of the Friday the 13th. So he was given this job, but he was given it pretty last minute. He had like four weeks to film the movie and four weeks to do post production. And so he was like. [00:50:36] Speaker B: To film this? [00:50:37] Speaker A: Yeah, like, he was literally like having one set built or made or, or fixed while filming on another set so they could literally like drive from location to location to location to location and just like use as much of the day as humanly possible. So when we say this movie is rushed, this movie was legitimately rushed. Like, they actually did a pretty good job with what they had. It's easy to pick it apart and we had a fun time doing it. But like, for making what they made in four weeks, and that's including understanding editing and special effects, I believe it. [00:51:08] Speaker C: Was four weeks of filming and four weeks of editing post. [00:51:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. [00:51:14] Speaker C: But still, I mean, two months, that's. [00:51:15] Speaker A: A very short amount of time to. [00:51:16] Speaker C: Make something like this especially crazy, action packed movie. Right. Like, it's a huge amount of stunts and things. [00:51:24] Speaker B: Right. [00:51:24] Speaker A: So it's just wild. Yeah. Now, unfortunately, Predator 1 was made for like, something small, like $15 million. Made like a hundred million dollars. Like it. It way more than made its investment back. So they put a little bit more money into this one. 35 million. And it only came home with like 57 million. So even though they. They positioned this into a place where they can easily make a predator movie every 2, 3, 4 years, it's 20 years after this movie comes out before we get the next Predators. And I've never seen Predators, but my understanding is it does not take place in the same universe. It is like a hard reboot of what's going on now. We'll find out. That for me? [00:51:59] Speaker B: Yeah, for you. [00:52:01] Speaker A: So it's just unfortunate the way that went because if this had done really, really well, the 90s could have been like, predator 90s. Now we're gonna get Predator in this location. Now we're gonna get Predator in this location. And it took them like 20, 24, 24 years. That can't be right. 34 years, whatever. To get to the point where you actually have Predator back in time. Showing a historical setting, which is, I think, the way to go with this franchise. I think that was probably one of the more fun ones anyways. That's. [00:52:29] Speaker B: I think you just make standalone interactions with the Predator. I would love to see a Ronin style Predator movie made in. In, like, ancient Japan. Yeah, that would be great. I'd love to see a lot of stuff. Let's just not do Predator in space. I don't like when franchises go to space. That usually means they've run out of any kind of decent ideas. And, you know, when Leprechaun went into space, I watched it. I did. I watched Leprechaun in space because I was like, let's watch what could be the worst movie all year, right? Yeah. Jason X. I was like, you know, when they go to space, you're like, okay, the franchise is done, and then they usually make one or two more after that. Just because my work on that is. [00:53:14] Speaker A: Because Predators are aliens that come from space, it doesn't feel quite. Quite as bankrupt as like, Fast and Furious 10. [00:53:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:53:21] Speaker A: Like, I get what you're saying, and you're not wrong. [00:53:23] Speaker B: Well, what I want to see, I want to see Colonial Marines versus the Predator. I would like to see that. That hasn't been done in film yet. We have video games with Colonial Marines. We have, of course, aliens, Colonial Marines, and Predators in video games, but we've never had Colonial Marines versus a Predator in a movie. And I really want to see that. There are some shorts on the Internet that have done really cool stuff with that, but nothing, no professional grade full length films. And I think there's a lot of cool stuff that could be done in this universe. Doing some sort of an AVP crossover in the era of the Wayland Yutani Colonial Marine. And, and I, I, I'm here for it. If they ever do that, that would be pretty cool. But, but that would be predators in space. And I think that's when the franchise is done. So let's have some good one off stories of feudal Japan or whatever first. [00:54:10] Speaker A: Does it count as predators in space if they're on a different world? [00:54:14] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:54:16] Speaker A: Aliens? [00:54:17] Speaker B: We can't answer that, Dan. We're not allowed to answer that. Sorry, buddy. We'll get back to that. [00:54:22] Speaker A: Like Aliens is one of your favorite movies of all time and it takes place on a different planet. [00:54:27] Speaker B: Right. [00:54:27] Speaker A: So that clearly doesn't, I mean, does that break your rule? [00:54:30] Speaker B: I guess what I'm saying is when you take a traditional earthbound movie and you put them in outer space, right? James Bond went into space. Space, yeah, there's there and everybody's kind of done it. It's like when you've run out of good ideas, you just do, you know, a Moonraker style video or something. Did you guys think this movie was fun? Did you enjoy it? [00:54:53] Speaker C: Oh, come on. [00:54:54] Speaker B: This was amazing. This is great. [00:54:56] Speaker C: This is a great sequel. I have fun watching bad movies. So in that it instance, yes, but it does not make for a good movie. Let's get to rating. Do you want me to rate it right now? Because I'm ready. [00:55:09] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:55:10] Speaker A: All right, go ahead. We'll start us off. [00:55:13] Speaker C: All right. I feel I've said my piece. Mostly negative, unfortunately, yes. I had fun watching this movie. I've seen this movie half a dozen times. It's fun. It's a hollowed out esophagus of what the first movie was. [00:55:27] Speaker B: Was. [00:55:28] Speaker C: Unfortunately, it, I think it just lacks in every element almost. It doesn't even hold up as good as the first one in my eyes. So all the scores across the board are, are worse. I think I rated the first predator like an 80 and this one's down to a 56. [00:55:48] Speaker B: Oh, wow, that's harsh, man. [00:55:51] Speaker C: I, I just, I hate sequels that just, I like the idea of this. Like this is an instant in time. A Predator in this scenario. I like that idea. I just don't feel like they executed that I feel like they trying to do too much with this and over the top action. This and everything else suffered because of it. And so I just couldn't. I couldn't enjoy it as a good movie. Yes, it was hilarious. Watching horrible action. No, it was not a good movie to me. [00:56:24] Speaker A: All right, well, I'll jump in next before. Before Brian goes. I think Brian's probably gonna have the highest score here. I never answered your question. Did I have fun with it? I didn't have as much fun as I. I remembered. So I've only ever. This was my second time ever watching this movie, and I feel like the first time I really enjoyed it. So I went into this one with pretty high hopes, thinking it's like, not as good as the first one, but like. Like almost neck and neck now partially is. I've said a couple of times I've had a really long, like, two weeks. So the first time I sat down to watch this movie, I started to fall asleep. I don't think that's this movie's fault, but I'd be lying if it didn't tint my. My view of it a little bit where I'm like, no, I'm just rewinding and start again. Rewinding and starting again. So I did go back, rewind even further, and, like, watch a good chunk of this movie a second time. So I have seen all of it, but it wasn't all in one sitting, and it certainly wasn't, like, gripping, per se. Did I have fun with it? I did. There are parts of this movie that are absolutely ridiculous and just enjoyable. Did I like it as much as the first movie? No, I did not. I didn't this week break down every single section with an exact point value for, like, music and stuff like that. But I will say, like, the music is totally reasonable. Like, there's nothing wrong or with it. I honestly, I don't really remember the music until the very end where you get that, like, jungle beat, but it's got a little bit more of, like, an urban feel to it, as opposed to the Predator one, which I kind of thought was kind of a cool thing that they did with it. I don't remember if it was in more of the movie, but it was definitely there at the last scene. As far as the look of the movie goes, I honestly, I'd have to watch them back to back, but I legitimately feel like this movie looks worse than the first movie did. I feel like it just. The world was a little bit nicer. The. The graphics Were a little bit cleaner. Like everything in this one just felt less than. Which I. I don't love the acting we already touched on. I think the actors are better, but they were given worse characters to portray. The plot is kind of the same as the first one, but I liked it better in the first one because it was a bit more of the unknown and a bit more tension building. Whereas this one is just an action movie from beginning to end, which is totally fine. I just preferred the style of the first one more. And then my enjoyment of it. I did enjoy it. [00:58:27] Speaker B: It's. [00:58:27] Speaker A: It's not a terrible movie. It's not a bad watch. I just wasn't as gripped with it as I was hoping that I would be. And maybe I'll have to watch this one again in a little while and actually try and do it when I'm fully awake and I can sit through it all the way through and be like, no, this actually was really good. Or like, yeah, no, this one doesn't hold up as much as I thought I did. I gave this one a 65. So it is lower than the first one. But it's still a very reasonable score I think. What about you, Brian? [00:58:52] Speaker B: Okay, well, you guys just rained all over your brain so much. You upset me so much. Guys, these are all valid points. I think you guys are being pretty harsh on this. I came into this knowing that this is a sequel. Like Will talks about genre. I think this is a sci fi action sequel is part of the genre. And so I go in expecting it to be not as good as the original. There are, I could probably count on one hand the movies that I think the sequel actually does better than the original. It just doesn't normally happen. [00:59:27] Speaker C: Is a sci fi action called Terminator. [00:59:31] Speaker B: It is actually. Yes, you. [00:59:34] Speaker C: It's. It's. You shouldn't expect it to be worse. [00:59:38] Speaker B: That's the thing. It's just that. That sequels always tend to be worse. And knowing that the short time frame that this was filmed on, I give it a little bit of slack. I didn't realize it was four weeks that that blows me away. Actually. I, for some reason I was thinking it was something closer to two months of filming. But anyway, so the, the music is a straight cut from the previous movie. If you watch these two back to back, like I literally stopped watching Predator 1 and rolled into Predator 2. It's the same soundtrack. They have one music vibe that, that some sort of urban like reggae thing that they play outside of the courthouse or the, the, the police house one Time. But otherwise it's just the same jungle beat from the first one. They even have, you know, when they're, when they're in the first one, Blaine is. No, not Blaine. Dylan is, is talking about Blaine who's got shot. He's having a sip and they're playing that raunchy military trumpet sad song, right? And at the very end they do it when, when they're panning out from Schwarzenegger standing in all the smoke, they play that weird song that's at the end of this one too. They use that same exact song. So the scoring is the same if not used less proficiently. So it kind of goes down a little bit there. I, I thought that they made an attempt at the plot a little bit, but they didn't even need to. They should have just let it be what it is. And so it kind of loses points there because they tried something new and failed it at achieving that. As for me, the acting was an improvement from the original, but the character development was so much worse because they tried to have these actors act and portray, but they weren't given the breadth that they needed to develop these characters. Except in the case of Bill Paxton's character where he is very stereotypical. So you knew what you were getting and Bill Paxton nailed that. And that's what they should have gone for was a little bit more, A little bit more one dimensional character. They didn't give them the width to, to develop any more than that. Danny Glover's character, same thing. Danny didn't hold up the chops in either. The physical prowess for this movie. He didn't look ominous, menacing enough to. To compete with the Predator the way that he did. And he didn't have the acting skills to portray this character other than just a hot head cop. And so the acting comes down a bit. As far as special effects and practical effects, the. They did a few things slightly better. When the Predator drops in off the roof and is walking through the mud puddles up towards the King Willy, that looked really cool to me. He was invisible, stepping through water, little trickles of electricity. It was the same thing we've seen before, but it was just done really well. It looked really, really cool. But other times we see flashing yellow eyes that we didn't like from the first one. We see, you know, him with the spear and lightning and we didn't like that. And then there were some really cheese ball special effects that just looked terrible. Like you said, Dan, at the end when they come out of the fog and they uncloak they. They did look terrible. That they would have been better trying to do that with Claymation or something. It was. It was really bad at the end. Does this movie hold up? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Because they tried to portray a future that just never would have come about and just was completely unrealistic. But all that is said and done, when they miss all their marks, for me, it was still really fun. Not as fun as the first one because so many of those things took me out of the film. But overall, if you're just like, this is going to be a sequel, they're going to miss the mark on a few things. But they did turn the volume up on some of the stuff that I liked, which was just blowing things up, shooting stuff, fighting the predators, toys, all those things. This really long action sequence that starts at the train, goes to the meatpacking plant, falls off the building, down into the dark depths of the. Of the spaceship, where they do hand to hand combat. Like, I was a big. A lot. Like, I was enjoying that a lot. So I think I rated the original Predator. What? I give that an 87. Dan. [01:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah, 87. [01:04:04] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, this one comes down to a 79 for me. I still very much enjoyed it. Lots of problems, but I guess I'm gonna be forgiving because I really like the Predator itself. And in every single Predator movie ever, they have used a very great costume. He's always looked good, and I've always enjoyed watching him, even when they screw up the storyline and. And cast terrible people around him. [01:04:32] Speaker C: Brian is hot for Predator. [01:04:34] Speaker B: That's right. [01:04:36] Speaker C: I don't blame you. Predator looks sick. I just wish the movie was better. [01:04:41] Speaker B: Right. I. I do. I do wish the movie was better. [01:04:45] Speaker A: All right. Okay. The movie looks good. The Predator looks good. One thing that truly drove me insane. I just. I have to get it out there, even if it gets cut from the final version. I hated the Predator speaking English. I thought that was so insanely stupid. Like, when he finishes his sentence, like, I'm like, oh, God, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. [01:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah, they shouldn't. Did you guys notice, too? He takes his helmet off, but he still sees an infrared vision a couple of times. That bothers me a lot. [01:05:13] Speaker C: They messed that up. Although I, on the opposite hand, I like that he had to use his little respirator. [01:05:18] Speaker B: That was cool. That was a nice touch. [01:05:20] Speaker C: That was a nice. So there's like, so many, like, elements. [01:05:22] Speaker A: They did almost got right. [01:05:25] Speaker C: Yeah, they almost got right. And then there's just so much that they just the bed on. [01:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:31] Speaker A: Forgive it. [01:05:32] Speaker C: Unfortunately, there's like, I. I totally want. [01:05:34] Speaker B: To agree with Brian. [01:05:35] Speaker C: There's so many elements for a great sequel here, and I just feel like they. [01:05:40] Speaker B: Maybe it was the rush time schedule. [01:05:42] Speaker C: Maybe it was the rushed writing. I don't know. It just fell flat for me, unfortunately. [01:05:48] Speaker A: So that gives Predator 2 an R rating of 67. And currently, two movies into the Predator franchise, we're sitting in a franchise total of 75, which is pretty good and has it so far at the highest rank of our on our board. Now, obviously, we're only three franchises in, but that's interesting. There's three more movies to go. Is it going to hold its top spot or is it going to fall drastically? You'll have to tune in next week as we go over predators from 2020. 20, 20, 2010. Damn it. Damn it. [01:06:22] Speaker B: Keep it in. Keep this in. Keep it in. Yeah. I love it. [01:06:26] Speaker A: See you guys next time. Have a good week. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Sam.