Predators - 2 1/2 smiles

I always thought that Predator was one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s better movies so I was interested when I heard that the 2010 version would star Adrien Brody and be called “Predators” (plural). The key to this movie is Brody, who has to be believable as the warrior who fights the alien predators. Brody, cast against type, has buffed up and with his gravely voice, we never doubt that his Royce is going to be the winner in the climatic showdown. The script by Alex Litvak & Michael Finch borrows from “The Dangerous Game,” a short story every high school student has read. Eight strangers are stranded on a game preserve planet, where they are being hunted by aliens for sport. The goal, obviously, is survival, but the odds are stacked against them: their weapons are inferior and they can’t see their pursuers. Royce (Brody) decides that running is not the best way to survive; they must defeat the enemy and find a way back to earth.

Brody’s Royce is joined by various characters that represent different types and ethnicities. Isabelle (Alice Braga) is the only one in the group with something that resembles a conscience. Stans (Walter Groggins) is a death row convict; Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), a Russian mercenary; Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a yakuza; Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), an African mercenary; Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), a Columbian drug runner. Topher Grace is Edwin, a mild-mannered doctor, whose presence in the midst of so many killers should be a red flag. And Laurence Fishburne plays Nolan, a hunt survivor with questionable sanity. “Predators” is an entertaining film if you like sci-fi action movies. 7/9/10