Saturday Afternoon Action Theater

I decided to watch a couple of tough guy action movies, and started with the easiest choice, THE TERMINATOR. The dvd had been staring at me in the eyes for years now, keeping it on a shelf in my bedroom, as I would walk by THE TERMINATOR would beckon unto me. I had watched the two marvelous documentaries(or they were to me being a die hard fan)last Sunday night and it put me in the mindset to revisit one my faves quite soon as time and mood would permit. It has been a while, too long, since I had last watched the movie, and found the dvd for a great price, but it would be some time before I would ever even take it out of the wrapper. The isn't too unusual, since time moves fast, and before you know it, it's June 12, 2010 and not 2003. Anyway, it was a pleasure seeing Ahnuld in his original form as an emotionless killing machine, hunting down Sarah Conners until finding the right one. I love that slow motion scene in the neon lit technoir club as Arnold approaches the last Sarah Conner left as Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese intervenes in her favor. I really love those apocalyptic sequences where humans, using instincts and courage, engage in tactical combat with machines with superior weaponry and vehicles. We see the wreckage, the effect nuclear war had on the few humans still alive(and barely ticking as misery and sickness are present, as is poverty and lack of food), and the skeletal remains and skulls of all those victims lost, crushed by HKs(Hunter-Killers)across a destroyed world. Many of the terminator's moments are based on nightmares Cameron had which I thought was kind of neat, how he was given an opportunity to manifest them in cinematic form. And, a very memorable scene from my youth(we only see the aftermath of something like this kind of attack in THE HITCHER and HALLOWEEN 5), the attack on an entire police station, just a massacre with the cyborg just mowing down all those cops with Reese just narrowly escaping with Conner in tow. The fact that Cameron was in such dire straits, broke and homeless, this film making him a household name, is really a testament to what hard work and genius can do.



I was waiting and hoping THE PREDATOR special edition dvd would come down in price and when it did, I picked up a copy. It had extensive special features, with some footage of interviews from the present and past, with some particularly interesting content on the evolution of the alien hunter thanks in part to Stan Winston, who came recommended by Ahnuld after his stunning work on THE TERMINATOR. I've always enjoyed these testosterone actioners set in the jungle where skilled soldiers, knowledgable in the ways of warcraft, are put to the test when they encounter an enemy unlike any other. This just delves into science fiction in regards to the alien enemy, it's really an old school survivalist adventure. These soldiers are the kind assembled for their abilities to sweep in and annihilate in sudden and quick order, in rescue operations for their government(Ahnuld only accepts certain missions)and are persuaded by CIA agent Carl Weathers to enter a jungle to collect kidnapped diplomats..what they don't know is that Weathers really needed documents which would lead the government on the trail of guerrillas. Anyway, the whole CIA idea just gets the soldiers into the jungle to be hunted one by one by a creature who can camoflague itself and move across trees high up, tracking humans by their body heat, a laser weapon on it's shoulder which blasts holes through victims(the wounds cauterized almost immediately afterward). There's this great scene where Sonny Landham says, completely spooked, that "There's something out there..and it ain't no man." I really enjoy the first major action sequence where we see Ahnuld's boys strategically intercept guerillas at their basecamp as it gives us an impression of how good they are. It sets up this point as we understand that the thrill of the hunt must ultimately derive from the skills of the prey. An example of what an action junkie like me enjoys include Old Painless canon which shoots rounds and looks like an extension of Jesse Ventura's Blain's personality, it's like a giant dick you can show off and takes a special person to use it properly. Or, how our soldiers fire machine guns, unloading ammunition in the general area of the Predator, cutting a swath through a whole portion of forest, and only wounding the creature. When I was a kid, Landham was my favorite character, his Billy's scouting abilities unmatched..although, as a warrior, we see that he is simply outgunned by an opponent with certain advantages. But, shit, does Landham cut an impressive figure, all 6 ft 6 of him in frame, serious and expressionless(for the most part), will drop his guns and face the Predator like an Indian prepared for a fight to the death, even though his battle lasted mere seconds! I always enjoy these kinds of jungle/wilderness survival actioners where the hero must set up traps to ensnare(or create himself an advantage)his rival, using his acumen as a means to fight a foe with certain advantages he doesn't have.