#6 - Predator (1987)

Predator (1987)

(dir. John McTiernan)

An elite group of commandos is sent into a Central American jungle on a mission to rescue an important official who has gone missing, but they soon find themselves being hunted by an unknown attacker. This is not a very complex movie - a bunch of hypermasculine soldiers blow a lot of stuff up, Schwarzenegger delivers some cheesy one-liners, then a weird alien starts killing everyone.

As far as Schwarzenegger films go, this doesn't do pure action quite as well as Commando, nor sci-fi as well as The Terminator, but it does a pretty good job of combining elements from both genres (as well as horror) into a fun movie that wastes no time getting to the exciting parts. The special effects (especially the "cloaking") have mostly aged very poorly, with the exception of the design of the Predator itself, created by the legendary Stan Winston (who was also responsible for the incredible effects in The Terminator, The Thing, Jurassic Park, and many other films). I wish we could've seen more of the creature, but there are always the sequels for that.

If you like action or sci-fi movies, chances are pretty good that you've already seen this, but if you haven't then it is definitely worth a watch. It isn't a truly great film, but it is definitely a lot of fun and as far as '80s action movies go it is one of the most memorable. Schwarzenegger has such great on-screen charisma that he could probably make just about anything watchable, the alien and explosions are just icing.