Predators
Director: Nimrod Antal
With: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Danny Trejo, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
A juiced-up remake of the 1987 sci-fi action flick Predator, notable mostly for the presence in the cast of two future state governors. A good idea, kind of.
Eight disparate warrior/killers awake in free-fall into a jungle. They soon realize that they are being hunted by some very strange and powerful alien beings. They need to survive constant attacks and figure out how to escape.
Royce (Brody) and Isabelle (Braga) function as ad-hoc leaders, although the group wouldn’t seem to be amenable to direction. There is a drug cartel killer (Trejo), a rapist-killer (Goggins), a death squad member from Sierra Leone (Ali) and a Yakuza enforcer (Chnagchien). Royce is a mercenary and Isabelle a sniper with Central American rebels.
The idea is that they are worthy prey for the alien hunters. The film is bloody and foul-mouthed, with examples of very bad behavior from everyone. Topher Grace is there to attract viewers, I guess. Not that far from the original, except that special effects are far more nifty that they were almost 25 years ago. Also, the actors are of a higher quality even if the script isn’t.
This is strictly a guilty pleasure action flick, and I had a lot of fun watching it, but it is hardly a date movie, and you don’t want your kids anywhere near it. No sex, but lots of hideous violence. Something to see with your buds after a couple of beers.
C+
The Girl Who Played With Fire (Swedish 2009)
Director: Daniel Alfredson
With: Noomi Rapace, Mikael Nyqvist, Lena Endre, Georgi Staykov, Mikael Spreitz, etc.
Based on the late Stieg Larson’s book, and please note: If you have not seen the first film, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, or read the books, you will have no idea what is going on. I recommend that you see the first movie before you watch this.
The film is the second of three, and has some of the problems of exposition characteristic of middle movies, but the action and the opening out of the story mostly compensates for this. In this chapter, Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), the odd and moody genius of the title, is suspected of three murders, and is pursued not only by the police but by a ruthless killer who was sent to eliminate her because she has become a danger to several important people.
Two of the dead are a journalist who has investigated human trafficking for Millennium Magazine, and the man’s wife, who has worked with him on the project in her capacity as a social worker. Also dead is the lawyer and guardian who raped and abused Lisbeth in the first film.
If you have read the books, you know how and why. If you have only seen the first film, I can’t explain without blowing the plot.
Her friend and defender Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) is convinced she is innocent, and sets about to prove it. He is willing to put his life on the line for her, even though she does not always seem grateful.
In this story, Lisbeth is beaten and shot and buried alive. Her friends are put in jeopardy, and she is stalked by criminal bikers and a Frankenstein-like assassin. It is pretty ugly in places, but if you know the story, it comes as no surprise.
Not as compelling as the first movie, it is nonetheless a terrific and harrowing little thriller. Fans of the books and the film will not be disappointed.
B