![]() ![]() The middle portion has the previously invulnerable American soldiers being handed their asses in no uncertain fashion, until it’s just Dutch versus the alien. ![]() God Bless ‘Murica, and I don’t care how “unrealistic” it is. Which, it must be admitted, is one of the coolest personal weapons in any film ever: Googling tells me it can fire up to six thousand rounds per minute. Something alien, almost invisible and whose superior technology makes it a match even for “Old Painless,” the M134 minigun wielded by Blain (Ventura – the other future governor of a US state here, beside Arnie). However, it quickly becomes clear something is hunting them. Dutch and his crew, as well as Anna (Carrillo), a guerilla woman they took prisoner, head to their scheduled extraction point through the jungle. This is where the film begins to take its swerve, from what has, to this point, largely been a straightforward action movie. Turns out, the mission is really to prevent a Soviet-backed (hey, it was the eighties) incursion. It’s not long before things begin to go a bit pear-shaped, beginning with the discovery of skinned Green Beret corpses. Dutch (Schwarzenegger) is part of a covert ops rescue team, sent “over the border” into an unnamed Central American country, ostensibly to rescue a foreign cabinet minister and his aide from the rebels who have captured them. The focus then shifts, and you’ll be forgiven for forgetting all about it, in light of what happens. Much like The Thing, it opens with footage of an alien’s arrival on Earth, though here, it’s both deliberate and in the present days, instead of being a prehistoric crash landing. I think it does qualify, certainly containing horrific elements it’s just at a lower level than the other two categories, which feel more essential to its existence. ![]() Though you’ll note the absence of the horror genre in my description. ![]() Still, we’ll always have his earlier work, and in this case, what I’d say is one of the top sci-fi action films of all time – arguably, surpassed only by Aliens. Matters haven’t been helped by him being embroiled in legal issues, culminating with a year in federal prison for perjury. After October, his only feature to rate better than a 6.6 is Die Hard with a Vengeance, and his career basically ended with the disaster which was the Rollerball remake, over 20 years ago. Stanley Kubrick is one candidate, though I’m not sure how “mainstream” I’d call A Clockwork Orange.Īlmost as spectacular is McTiernan’s subsequent fall from grace. It’s a higher tally than peak Scorsese, and I’m trying hard to think of any genre-friendly director who can match McTiernan’s trilogy. the Extra-Terrestrial (7.9) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (7.5). That’s only fractionally less than peak Spielberg: Raiders of the Lost Ark (8.4), E.T. Despite only having the largely forgotten Nomads under his belt, in succession he then made Predator (IMDb rating 7.8), Die Hard (8.3) and The Hunt for Red October (7.5), a total for the three of 23.6. Not many directors have ever put together three consecutive mainstream movies of such quality and popularity as John McTiernan. Star: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Jesse Ventura ![]()
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