Predator 2 Special Edition (DVD-2004)
20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment
Reviewed by Larry Jakubecz
In 1997 Los
Angeles, members of the city’s most dangerous gangs keep turning up neatly decimated mere moments before an LAPD team
led by Lt. Harrigan (played by Danny Glover), burst in on the scene. Determined to discover the cause of the killings, Harrison confronts the mysterious
Peter Keyes (played by Gary Busey), before coming face-to-jaws with the Predator.
1990’s
Predator 2 has been released in a 2-disc special edition DVD from Fox Home Entertainment.
Moving the action from Predator’s jungle setting to the concrete jungle,
director Stephen Hopkins manages to explore the alien hunter in new ways, without compromising the character’s integrity.
The film
is augmented by two commentary tracks. The one delivered by Hopkins, in semi-hushed tones, is informative, but relies too much on descriptions of the on-screen action. The more satisfying
extras include a new 35 minute documentary, “The Hunters and the Hunted,” featuring almost all original 1990 production
footage peppered with new comments from Stephen Hopkins. Three original promotional featurettes look like behind-the-scenes
programs shown at Sci-Fi conventions. “Evolutions” consists of four optical FX sequence breakdowns, with commentary
by Visual FX Supervisor Joel Hynek. And, “Weapons of Choice” lets the viewer select detailed footage on each of
the Predator’s accoutrements. Finally, two of the film’s “HardCore News” segments, hosted by TV sleazeball
Morton Downey Jr. as TV sleazeball Tony Pope, are presented in their no-budget video entirety, and that’s quite a treat.
Though you
should expect to suffer through some too-common movie clichés (Harrigan is told, “You have no idea what you’re
dealing with!”), and the post-synched dialogue was a bit too obvious for me, Predator
2 is still fun and engaging, with decent pre-digital optical special effects and plenty of creature creator Stan Winston’s dreadlocked alien warrior.
