By Geno McGahee
In 1987, movie history was made with the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi/action hit “PREDATOR.” The mix of Arnie’s physicality and delivery with a huge alien hunter was a can’t miss and it made a lot of money at the box office. On less than a 20 million dollar budget, it brought home 160 million, which set up a sequel.
For PREDATOR 2, Schwarzenegger was wanted but he had other obligations. He was filming TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY and so the starring role was given to LETHAL WEAPON star Danny Glover and a 35 million dollar budget was put up to produce the film. It would only return 56 million, making a profit but not being a hit. I’ve always considered it underrated and it seems to have gotten respect over the years.
In the original PREDATOR, the alien was in the jungle. This time, they moved him to Los Angeles and that is a great setting for this movie. Considering that this was released in 1990, it’s not surprising that the inclusion of sensationalistic journalism was included. It was in its infancy with shows like HARD COPY and INSIDE EDITION were hot and so in PREDATOR 2, we got “HARD CORE” with Morton Downey, JR., playing the role of Tony Pope, a scumbag journalist doing anything for a story.
Downey is no stranger to scumbag news reporting. His “Morton Downey JR Show” was really popular, running from 1987 to 1989, predating Jerry Springer but not much classier in approach. He is immediately in the business of lead detective, Mike Harrigan (Glover), and the relationship is very contentious.
Harrigan and his team of Danny (Ruben Blades) and Leona (Maria Conchita Alonso) come across a warzone with some drug dealers and the local LA police. Much like any other movie detective, Harrigan does not obey the rules and deals with all sorts of bullshit from his bosses. Glover is a great actor but he’s so likable that it’s tough to see him as a badass outlaw cop. Maybe I’ve seen him in the LETHAL WEAPONS too much, but this role, as much as he tried to make it work, didn’t seem right for him.
Joining the team is Jerry, played by Bill Paxton and I am a huge Paxton fan, but this is not a good performance. I guess the point was for him to be obnoxious but it was far too over the top. It was very close to his role in TRUE LIES, but there it worked. Here, it just wasn’t good. I wish they gave him better stuff to work with. He’s so good but this is not one of his best for sure.
As the gang warfare happens, the Predator starts his killing spree. Considering how many of these gangbangers have guns, the Predator has plenty of killing to do. When the police arrive on the scene, they find all the dead people hanging upside down, which is what the Predator does. Harrigan is trying to make sense of all the killings that are happening, but it’s difficult.
As this shit is happening, Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) shows up and his role is mysterious and he is running the show. Busey is tremendous in everything and this is no exception. When he finally explains to Harrigan what was going on, his delivery was hilarious. At one point, he notes that the Predator is coming for the “lions, tigers and bears…oh my.” Keyes lets Harrigan on the plan to capture the Predator rather than kill it, but Harrigan has an issue with authority and he has his own plan.
Because this is happening in the city, we get some very cool scenes, including the Predator on a subway train and just killing people left and right. As I watched him climb buildings and cause all sorts of trouble in the city, I sort of felt sad. Why didn’t they do this shit in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN? Jason in the city would have ruled too and watching PREDATOR 2, I think about what it could have been.
In one strange scene, the Predator climbs a building and holds up his metal staff and he gets struck by lightning. What was that about? Does he harness the power? Was it just bad luck? Did the Predator learn a valuable lesson that you don’t hold metal shit in a thunderstorm? I would have loved a shot of the Predator’s confused face after the lightning strike and for him to say “what in the god damn fuck was that shit?”
The team of specialists led by Keyes fail to freeze the Predator. They just really piss him off and they pay a big price, leading to Harrigan taking on the alien in a one on one showdown. Harrigan says a weird thing when he first seeks out the Predator. He yells “you want me, here I am!” There was never a time when the Predator implied he was looking for Harrigan. He saw him once on top of a building but they went their separate ways. Maybe Harrigan felts shunned. His entire team was killed by the Predator and he was still alive. Perhaps he thought it wasn’t faire that the Predator paid his friends more attention. This looks like daddy issues to me.
Harrigan does get the upper hand at one point, shooting the Predator with a shotgun over and over again and dropping him. Instead of finishing off the alien, Harrigan is more interested in taking off his metal mask and seeing his face. A throwback to the first one, Harrigan says “you’re one ugly mother…” only to be interrupted by the Predator who says “mother fucker!” How did he know what Arnie said to the other Predator?
The more I think about it, the more I think that society is doing a disservice to the Predator. He appears to want to learn to speak English and what he is learning? He can call somebody a “mother fucker” or say “do you want some candy?” That’s what he’s been taught and it’s a shame. Oh yeah, he also knows “shit happens.” Maybe we don’t deserve to survive if that’s how we treat our visitors. He’s going to go back to his home planet calling other predators “mother fuckers” and you have to assume that they all have mothers. We’ve destroyed the culture of an entire planet with our bullshit.
Harrigan has a faceoff with the Predator and calls him “pussy face.” Yeah, really nice there Glover…teach the poor guy another offensive term. Learning how much humans really suck, The Predator gets ripshit and destroys somebody’s bathroom. I don’t think the insurance would cover that, especially if you contend an asshole alien did it.
The battle continues as Harrigan pursues the Predator and ends up inside of the alien ship. Harrigan is really asking for trouble here. Why not just leave him alone and he’ll leave you alone? Whatever the case, there are a bunch of Predators there in the ship and if they really wanted to, they could fuck the entire city. Obviously, they came to vacation and one of their guys wanted to go out hunting and killed a few people and most of them were assholes. I would not object if an alien came to earth and killed drug dealers.
Remarkably, the Predators let Harrigan go after he kills one of their own and even give him a gift. They throw an old gun at him and say “take it.” I’m glad they didn’t say “take it you pussy face mother fucker.” If Harrigan had his way, they would.
I felt bad watching the Predators carry the dead predator away. He was only in it for a good time and maybe he and Harrigan could have sat down and worked it out rather than one of them needing to die. The Predator would be a great addition to the LA police force if Harrigan could convince him to join.
PREDATOR 2 is a good movie, but Glover isn’t the man for the lead role. That seems to be the biggest problem here and I’m not even comparing him to Arnie. The role that was written here was for an action star and Glover just doesn’t fit that part. This movie could have benefited had they found a more suitable actor.
Overall, I really enjoyed the film and despite its issues, I had a lot of fun watching it and highly recommend it.
