KWIF: Pee-Pee Peeping

 KWIF= Kent's Week in Film. Three "films" that start with "P" completely on accident.

This Week:
Predator: Killer of Killers (2025, d. Dan Trachtenberg - Disney+)
Pee-Wee As Himself (2025, d. Matt Wolf - HBO)
Presence (2025, d. Steven Soderbergh - AmazonPrime)

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The classic Arnold Schwartzenegger-starring Predator from 1987 was quite a successful film, as a group of mercenaries square off against a high-tech alien Predator in the jungle. It's Danny Glover-starring 1990 sequel, taking place in a sweaty, crime-addled futuristic L.A. was less successful but even more popular among the sci-fi nerds for teasing the culture of the Predators. But it was the various Dark Horse Comics mini-series in the 1990s that showed what could really be done with the Predator....

Put him at a disadvantage in a cold-weather climate. Have the Predator hunting during the first World War.  Let the Predators square off against Aliens. Or Batman. Or Tarzan. Or another Predator!

The core idea behind the Predator (their species is the Yautja...first used in the novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey from 1994) is that they hunt those most deserving of being hunted; other hunters. Earth is so rife with skilled hunters and killers that it's a favourite hunting ground of the Yautja, but not their only one (as witnessed in 2010's Predators). The key to a good Predator story is to not focus on the Yautja much at all, and offer little to no explanation. Shane Black's 2018 travesty The Predator and the awful Aliens vs. Predator movies explained too much, tried to probe the creatures too much. So Dan Trachtenberg's back-to-basics Predator film Prey (pitting a Yautja against a Comanche warrior) came out in 2022, it paved the laneway for what future Predator stories should be... the Predator in other cultures, in other times.

The most obvious go-to would be Predator vs. Vikings, Predator vs. Samurai, Predator vs Kung Fu warrior, Predator vs Zulu warrior, etc.  So it came as a slight disappointment when the trailer Predator:Badlands dropped and it most definitely wasn't the back-to-basics follow-up to Prey I was anticipating from Trachtenberg.  What I didn't know was that the true follow-up to Prey would be Predator:Killer of Killers, stealth dropped on Hulu (in the US, Disney+ globally) last week.

At first blush, it appears to be an animated anthology film consisting of three stories: Predator vs. Vikings, Predator vs a ninja, Predator vs. WWII aerial ace, you know, the type of stories I was actually hoping would each get the full-feature, live-action treatment, not burned off in an animated tie-in. It's a movie that simultaneously offers a little more than what the typical anthology film does, but at the same time offers each conceit less than what it could have.

Set in 841 AD, "The Shield" finds a viking warrior, Ursa, leading her clan - and her son - on an assault against a foe she has been hunting for a long time.  The enemy was responsible for the death of her father a lifetime ago, but it seems revenge has been fuelling her the whole time. As she confronts the man she has hated her whole life, her son makes the killing blow, and makes him the target of the Yautja that has been observing them in action. The Predator here is a hulking beast, literally Hulk-sized, with a unique pulse emanating weapon on his right arm where his hand should be. Ursa, the Viking queen, meanwhile, fights using two shields with razor-sharp edges.  There is some wild violence and some impressive action beats in all this that allowed me to get over my disappointment of there not being more to it than there is. I feel like the emotional resonance that the story wants wasn't allowed enough time to build, both for the big confrontation the Ursa wants, and for the people she loses along the way.  I like that, like Prey, the Predator is still a more technologically advanced creature, but that technology is more primitive, clunkier than what we would see in the 20th century.

"The Sword" is set in Japan in 1609, but starts further back with two brothers, thick as thieves, who learn and train and grow up together, are forced to face each other by their disciplinarian father to see who is strongest and fiercest enough to be his heir. Kenji refuses to fight his brother, while Kiyoshi is reluctant but the disappointment of his father is too much to bear. He attacks Kenji and Kenji flees. Year later, Kiyoshi holds his father's title, and Kenji, now a ninja, sneaks into his city to get his revenge...except Kenji, for as stealthy as he is, cannot elude the Yautja observing him from behind his invisible cloak. This story, largely wordless, was everything I was wanting, except for not being live-action and feature length. It actually manages to hit the emotional resonance that "The Shield" could not, with the silence putting more emphasis of the visuals and direction, and the music providing so much of the emotional cues. As a short, it's absolutely lovely and poetic, but I still can't help want more out of it.

The end of each of "The Shield" and "The Sword" find our protagonists victorious against their alien opponent, and there's the briefest of glimpses of them in the same confined space that looks like the hold of a spacecraft. The film is teasing that there's more to Ursa and Kenji's stories than what we just saw. And then we're introduced to John Torres.

"The Bullet" is set in 1942, and finds Torres as a second-stringer aboard an aircraft carrier during World War II. Torres wants to fly, but hasn't been given the chance. When his squadron leaves to engage the enemy, Torres and his mechanic buddy discover something incredibly foreign, alien even, that's an even greater threat in the skies. He takes off in a junker plane to alert his crew to return to ship, only to have the Pred Baron start picking them off. Clearly we know Torres is successful in defeating this alien ace, but of the three stories, it's the most implausible. Torres is not, like Ursa or Kenji, so skilled, and his equipment is so outclassed it should barely be flying. Voiced by Rick Gonzalez (Arrow) Torres is a motormouth to the point of being too much, especially coming off of the quiet of "The Sword". Torres winds up verbalizing his inner monologue, which makes it feel much more cartoony than the previous for-adult-audiences entries felt.

It all culminates with a fourth act in a Yautja gladiatorial Colosseum, which I was not expecting at all. If anything I was anticipating that our three victors would wind up in the hunting forest planet from Predators. I very much enjoyed that it was something new, and there was no explaining it. We know what a gladiator arena looks like, and we know how they work, just not Predator-style, so it was full of discovery as new elements are introduced. 

All the fighting throughout the film is brutal and bloody and quite impressively choreographed. It's clean and clear what is happening in the action, although sometimes it's moving so quickly (Tractenberg using a lot of follow-from-behind or follow-in-front of the action oners) that taking in all the violent mayhem is sometimes a bit too much to process. I like how the Predator designs were all quite well thought through and how even though our protagonists were technologically outmatched, they still were smart enough to figure out how to use the Predators' technologies against themselves.

I had an absolute blast with this movie. In the end, the three opening acts come together with purpose for a rousing fourth act that, despite some pretty hand-waivy improbabilities, makes it all comes together, not just within but also outside of this film. The victories Dutch, Harrigan, and Naru all had...well, those probably weren't the end of their stories either.  Also, it should be said that at no point did Killer of Killers ever feel like it existed solely as an introduction to the forthcoming Badlands. It will be interesting to see if they do connect in any way, but even still, this feels as stand-alone as every other Predator story, which is amazing.

[Series Minded: Predator edition]

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When I was a young lad, I thought Pee-Wee Herman was real. Like, maybe he didn't always look like that, in that suit, with the hair slicked back, but to me I had no awareness there was anyone underneath. Pee-Wee was a character actor like, say Ernest or Hulk Hogan or Mr. T, who only seemed to star as himself in movies and TV shows about himself as the character.  I didn't know Paul Ruebens from a hole in the ground until he was arrested at a porn theatre in 1991, and suddenly the magic was dispelled.  I mean, I was 15 at the time, and I knew Santa wasn't real, but this was the first true realization that Pee-Wee was a character played by someone not named Pee-Wee Herman.

We lost Paul Ruebens to cancer in the summer of 2023. He was 70 years old. In the year prior to his death, he agreed to participate in a documentary about himself, shedding off the layers upon layers of privacy he'd long, long held and opening himself up to examination and scrutiny in a way that seemed to frighten him previously.

We learn about Ruebens' early days, his family, his dalliances with theatre and art school in his teens, and we learn about his coming out story, which led to his re-closeting story once he started achieving success. He had a true love-at-first-sight relationship post-College, and he had formed a true bond with this man, as they shacked up and got a cat, Ruebens found himself content.  But that contentedness presented a crossroads: either live the life of love, or live the life of ambition. He chose the latter, broke his lover's heart and his own, and set out for L.A. where he joined up with the Groundlings comedy troupe. From there characters, including Pee-Wee were built, but there was something about Pee-Wee that demanded more attention, both from Ruebens and the audience.

Ruebens was committed as a performer. He invested himself in whatever it was he was doing. He knew how to steal scenes with looks and physicality more than words (but as we see in the documentary, he does have a razor-sharp comedy mind to accompany the sly-little-devil twinkle in his eye). As Pee-Wee became a bigger and bigger thing from stage to screen to Saturday morning subversive idol to children and college kids, Ruebens sheltered himself to the point that he barely existed outside of the character he played. His ambitions got the better of him, relationships with friends and colleagues fractured, and then the arrest.

A children's show host being arrested for something indecent coming out of America's puritanical 80's (where sex was evil, but violence and greed were good for all) was the death knell for Pee-Wee and Ruebens spiralled. 

The first half of this two-part documentary (each part 100 minutes long) follows Rueben's life through all these elements, with friends and ex-colleagues all talking about how amazing it was to be part of it all but also speaking truth to who Ruebens was at the time, as Ruebens himself struggles on camera to fully lay it out and cede control of his narrative to his director.

The second half is all about the fall of Pee-Wee Herman, and then his revival, and his third act, and all the messiness in between. The first half is a real rise-to-fame story, but without revealing in the triumph, since there were sacrifices along the way that have manifested as, if not regrets, then at least remorse. The second half is very much a rollercoaster, as Ruebens tries to find his footing as Paul Ruebens and it's full of ebbs and flows that must have been really tumultuous and stressful to live through, particularly the very public reaction and hurtful things said about him. Rueben's relationship with his sexuality is an integral part to the story, and probably a lot of what Ruebens wanted to get off his chest about in the documentary. 

There's a lot of great things about this documentary, first and foremost is Ruebens himself. Even at 68/69 years old, secretly dealing with cancer, he looked fantastic and vital with a precociousness about him that was so alluring to watch. His combative nature with director Matt Wolf is the B-story to the documentary, where clearly Wolf was constantly having to fend off Rueben's stabs at taking control of the project.  Rueben's jabs at the director start out quite playful and take on a bit more menace the closer they get to the more troublesome years. 

The talking heads are all fascinating, most coming from such a place of love, but a few coming from a point of pain, of regret or remorse around their falling out with Reubens (and there were a few). The sheer volume of personal films and tapes that Ruebens had around his life makes this documentary sing with not just the narrative but visual proof of that narrative, and transporting the audience into the past.  

There have been a slew of documentaries about celebrities of the 70's, 80's and 90's of late, most of them produced by the celebrities (or their family/estate) leading to pretty whitewashed looks at their lives, celebrating more their glories than their humanity. This is very much the opposite, really getting in touch with the person who hid behind a character for so long that he had a hard time finding his way out again. It should be a compelling watch if you ever had any affinity for Ruebens at all. 

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I wrote a bit about Steven Soderbergh's prolific output in my Black Bag review (Toasty just published his, we agree!), so I won't rehash it here, except to say that the man put out two films in the first quarter of this year. That's insane. Even more insane is that Black Bag was a critical hit but fared poorly at the box office while Presence was pretty much ignored by everyone, but its low budget meant that it would up being a modest success.

Where Black Bag was a real adult sexy thriller starring big stars, Presence is an experiment in filmmaking with a story.  While the story's unfolding nature of discovery does lead the audience through the proceedings rather well, it's unable to escape the techniques Soderbergh employs that are simultaneously distracting and effective.

The whole film takes place inside a gorgeously refurbished 19th century home which had Lady Kent and I both salivating. It's a dream home, to be sure. The film opens with the Payne family looking at the property, and then moving in. Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is the driving force of the family, clearly successful, but there are hints that her success hasn't always been above board. She is obsessed with the wellbeing of her superstar swimmer son,  Tyler (Eddie Maday) while all but ignoring the well-being of her daughter, Chloe (Callina Lang), much to husband Chris's (Chris Sullivan) constant displeasure. Chloe has recently lost two friends two overdoses, and she's spinning out. Chris does what he can to engage, but it seems like Rebekah and Tyler just ride her and push her too hard. Tyler introduces her to his new friend Ryan, and soon Ryan and Chloe are hooking up. He seems like a good guy, and lets Chloe take the lead in their relationship, but there's also an air of menace about him. He's up to something, and it's not what you think, but the film wants you to think it.

The entire production is told from a sort of floating first-person perspective, which, it's slowly revealed, is the "Presence" of the title. Yes, it is a ghost story. It's not a horror movie, but just a drama in which a ghost is our eyes into the play. At times the spirit, who Chloe believes is her dead friend, seems to be  trying to interfere in what's happening, mostly unsuccessfully, but events that elicit a particularly strong emotion from the spirit allow it to interact with its environment.

It's a bit of a trifle of a film. It exists solely for Soderbergh to play with this first-person perspective storytelling, which doesn't have a lot of true success stories in the film world outside of Nickel Boys which earned an Oscar nomination at this year's Academy Award.  But presence is more in the "just trying something here" vein of Hardcore Henry or Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void and is about as successful as either of them. When the whole story is in service of a stylistic experiment, there's a layer that gets in the way of the audience engaging with the story fully.  

As well, the third act climax felt...very Hollywood. This took a family drama with a hint of supernatural intensity and turned it into a studio movie with a legit villain. I didn't really expect too much from Presence and it doesn't ask much either. It's fine for what it is. 

Series Minded: Predators and Prey

[Series Minded is an irregular feature here at T&KSD, wherein we tackle the entire run of a film, TV, or videogame series in one fell swoop] 

Predator, 1987 - d. John McTiernan - Disney+
Predator 2, 1990 - d. Stephen Hopkins - Disney+
Alien vs. Predator - 2004 - d. Paul W.S. Anderson - Disney+
Predators, 2010 - d. Nimrod Antal - Disney+
The Predator, 2018 - d. Shane Black - Disney+
Prey, 2022 - d. Dan Trachtenberg - Disney+

It was a holiday Monday last week, and I twisted up my ankle real good/real bad the week prior, so with no prior engagements, it was just time to sit on my ass and binge a franchise.  This is the kind of thing I would have done a couple times a month 20 years back, but responsibilities (house, kids, pets, job, etc) being what they are, I maybe do it once a year.  I've generally lost the ability to sit and focus on just watching movies all day, or at least lost the ability to not feel guilty about doing so.  But, with my bruised and swollen ankle needing some down time, the rest of me felt liberated about it too.

I haven't watched Predator since probably the mid-90's, and while I liked it okay then I wasn't as into it as I thought I should be given my geeky tendencies. Over the years I've grown more and more dismissive of it, thinking all the overly-macho action films of the 80's and 90's were just complete regressive fluff for stuck-in-time dudes who never grew up, and lumping this one in with them.

I was wrong, Predator is an amazing (action) film. It's pretty close to rock solid from start to finish. It builds its tension and its threat impeccably well, and pays it off just as well. The sheer size of the Predator on its first reveal when next to another person is awe-inspiring. And it's kind of cool that there's always another trick in its bag. It was such a blank slate in 1987, there was no preconceived notions of what a predator was or could be.  It's not just a creature, it from an intelligent, spacefaring species, one that seems to have built its whole civilization around hunting things across the universe.

Everyone in the small cast are all terrific, and this is one of Arnold's finest roles, not just because there's not a tremendous amount of dialogue, but the lines he does have he delivers so purely in character, and one could totally see him as respected leader (governor perhaps?). Even "get to the choppah" is delivered more emphatically than parodies and memes have you believe.  

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A Christmas Movie???

Predator 2 is not a great action movie, nor a good movie in general, but as part of the Predator franchise, it's secured its place and purpose.  

Though released in 1990, it's set in Los Angeles 1997, where the streets are extra grimey, crime is rampant, gang wars are a daily occurrence and everyone has a gun. Our heroes are a multicultural special task force of police detectives, led by rebel Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) trying to tamp down the feud between the Colombian Scorpions and the Jamaican Voodoo Posse.  Harrigan is described as violence-prone, obsessive/compulsive personality, with a history of employing excessive physical force. 

The drug war really speaks to the times it was created in, the tail end of the Reagan-era war on drugs and the feeling of these two gangs at war (and the cliches and stereotypes employed around the Colombian and Jamaican character) is right on the line of grossly racist and comically over-the-top.  As much as Harrigan and crew are trying to stop the feud, it's the Predator's intervention that brings it to an end.  But the Predator witnesses this special crew of cops doing their job and begins hunting them down one-by-one.  Meanwhile, there's some government-types in unmarked helicopters who are trying to control the investigation into the various new massacres.  

There's the bones of an interesting plot here, just enough to provide a framework for elaborating upon what we learned about Predators from the prior film, but all the connecting tissue is so sloppy.  Scenes transition in nonsensical ways ... in one scene the Predator is in a graveyard stalking Harrigan, the next he's crawling on the roof of a subway after Maria Conchita Alonso and a train full of armed passengers.  Again, Reagan-era NRA at full power, everyone should have a gun... hard to tell if it's satire or serious here.   And when the Predator attacks on that train, dozens upon dozens of shots are fired in the dark and somehow, in that confined space, with that big a target, the Predator is completely uninjured (despite 75% of its body being unshielded).  

The envisioning of L.A. seems like spitting distance from future New York of Escape From New York or future Detroit in Robocop, just an utter trash heap threatening to implode at any second.  It's hard to remember, but in the late 80's it felt like the whole world was going to descend into rampant, unfettered, random violence... at least if our genre fiction were to be believed.

There's some really fun stuff in this film: a nice set piece or two (mainly the Predator ship); some out-of-place but genuinely funny comedic moments (Predator in the old lady's bathroom); a few really nicely shot or composed sequences (that long pan across the cityscape into the penthouse window of the couple having sex, for all its salaciousness, is an amazing shot, and memorable), and a lot of really neat Predator stuff, even if the VFX aren't always that great.

Beyond the hoary dialogue, Reagan-era paranoia, kinda badly shot action scenes, and janky internal logic, it's possible the biggest reason the film doesn't quite work is that Danny Glover is maybe, possibly miscast?  After playing the straight cop to Mel Gibson's wild dog in Lethal Weapon, it's Glover's turn to be the wild dog and he never quite seems the part.  Glover is easily doing the best acting in the film (Ruben Blades' Danny Boy was easily my favour of the crew though), and if he were presented more as an everyman than as the "rogue detective" then it would have played more to his strength.  As the Black Men Can't Jump In Hollywood pointed out, if they wanted a Black lead action star in the film it was basically Glover as the only option, or Carl Weathers, but they'd already burned him in last film.  Wesley Snipes had yet to establish himself and Eddie Murphy would have been too comedic for the role.  

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It would be 14 years between movies featuring the Predator, but the hunters lived on in a series of comic book mini-series that started in 1990 and continued deep into the 2000s at Dark Horse Comics.  Along the way, there was a genius stroke to build upon the easter egg of the xenomorph skull seen in the Predator's trophy case in Predator 2 and combine two 20th Century Fox titles into one, afterall, the Predators are the greatest hunters in the galaxy, and the Aliens are the deadliest creatures going.  Thus was born Aliens vs. Predator.  From what I recall of the comics, it took place in more the timeframe of Aliens and really built up the Colonial Marines, an elite task force of alien hunters.  [N.B. apparently the first Alien v. Predator story from Dark Horse predated even Predator 2's release.  Did the comic influence the film or vice versa, or were they just happy independent constructs?]

Anyway, the first cinematic Aliens vs. Predator movie, from noted B-movie action director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil) was atrocious. I saw it in theatres and wanted to leave.  I hated it, and have had no desire to rewatch it.

But rewatch it I did...for about 40 minutes, and that's about all I could take.  The main cast - consisting of Sanaa Lathan, Ewen Bremner, Lance Henrickson and others, are all doing fine with what they're given, and I even like the little set-up they give them.  It's really more the film's interpretation of both Aliens and Predators that I just utterly despise.  The Predators a millennia or two ago built a temple on Earth where they keep a shackled Alien queen who makes her babies into a sacrificial chamber where supposedly willing participants allow themselves to host the xenomorph bebes so that the Predators can then hunt them.

Honestly, if this took place in the year 2200 or on a completely other planet, I would have far less problem with the set-up, but taking place on modern day Earth just makes so many headaches for both franchises.  It's like it's punching one franchise in the throat while kicking the other in the balls.  It really doesn't care about either of them in any capacity.  There's no love behind this film and it shows.

The Predators and their ship have a shitty 2000's update to them that makes them look like their wearing the backs of chrome-plated IMacs on their faces.  The alien queen thaws out in literal seconds, starts producing babies in minutes, who are ready to impregnate hosts no time later, and who come bursting out of chests after one scene transition.  It's all so hyper accelerated, it's like the filmmakers are saying "yeah, we know, we're just trying to get to the cool stuff without any of the tension".  

True to W.S. Anderson, this feels like shitty B-movie versions of things from two much better series.  This sucked so much that I skipped Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem which was well advertised as having a much smaller budget and it looks like a step down from even this seeming nadir of a project.

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By 2010 I had sold off all my old Kenner Aliens and Predator figures (I kinda still regret it) and really wasn't participating much in either franchise.  I had long before stopped reading any of the Dark Horse Comic series and I didn't really have any interest in watching Predator movies, when word started circulating that vaunted hipster fanbait director Robert Rodriguez was involved in the next Predator movie.  Having tapped stylish Hungarian-America director Nimrod Antal to direct a story he'd had festering since the early 90's this was the most promising news Predator had had in a long time.

The film did well, but didn't shake the ground culturally or critically.  I didn't get to seeing it in the theatres, and I think I rented it on DVD back when that was still a thing you could do (this blog existed when I first watched it, but thoughts after viewing was not recorded).  

It has, no word of a lie, one of the all-time great opening sequences of any action movie.  Black screen, ambient windy wooshing noise, a POV flickering of the black, to find Adrien Brody awakening in midair, falling, stunned, coming to the realization of what's happening, desperately fumbling for a parachute release, getting close to the tree line before it finally deploys and hitting the ground far harder than he would like, but not enough to hurt him seriously.  Then it's a Lost-like encounter of others who have similarly found themselves in the same predicament and the mystery of why they are there, and what they are going to do about it.

The reveal is (spoilers for a 12 year old movie) 8 or so players on the field are all soldiers or killers of a type and they are on basically an alien game preserve (we do come across other aliens too) that are hunted for sport by the Predators.  There are even two tribes of Predators, a larger tribe members who hunt the smaller members of the other tribe.  I think the intonation here is that this larger tribe likes to collect then hunt packs in packs, versus the other Predators we've encountered to this point, who are more solitary in their hunting and like to go to the prey's native environment.  

We don't get a lot of insight into the human "predators" that are being hunted, but we don't need to.  We get just enough to hang our hats on, no more, and in a film like this --which really does bring back the picked-off-one-by-one horror movie trope of the original-- we don't need to invest too much in this crew of kinda bad people (yet we kinda like them anyway.  I mean Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, early Mahershala Ali, Walton Goggins, Topher Grace and some of the more unknows, all likeable enough a crew of personalities).  Brody is the lead and he's a really chilly, no-nonsense, out-for-himself, prick of a man, and he sells it well.  By the end, as well, Brody makes a case for being an action star.

The film is very propulsive, and flows incredibly well.  It's a 2 hour film following a sort of half-day span of time, but it never feels like we miss a beat.  The film looks great, even with 12-year-old effects, it's still pretty top notch.  Antal knows how to use light, shadows and colour to its full effect.  The greens of the forest planet they're on are very, very lush, and when the lights go out, Antal, his cinematographer and lighting crew do an impressive job.

I really like Predators.  It's not the strongest told story of the series, but it's got the most science fiction within it, and therefore I'm really drawn to it.

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I avoided The Predator because reviews had painted it as an utter fucking mess of a movie, and fan reaction was pretty solidly displeased with it. Plus, the director, cast and crew all seemed to want to distance themselves from it so I expected it to be unwatchable, thus I didn't bother watching. But, in this Predator series rewatch, it was a gap, and my completist mentality got the better of me.

To start, it's a bad Predator movie. It moves completely away from the series' tropes of hunter vs hunted, and instead lands more in Aliens vs. Predator territory where it's trying to build out the mythology of the Predator, but in ways that are too revealing, destroying much of the mystique, and also pushing too far into "fate of the world" type comic book movie bullshit. Predator, like Aliens, as a series, is about small-scale survival, hunter vs hunted. This is not that.  It's an "everyone's chasing the maguffin" story, which isn't what anyone wants out of a Predator film. (We also don't want Predators talking, having their dialogue subtitled in english, or translated by computers, or speaking direct fluent english...and yet, here we have all four...)

Shane Black reteams with Fred Dekker on a script that seems like a remnant of the 80's, in both good and bad ways. It's entirely too glib about its violence, and its treatment of mental disorders and the neurodivergent is such that it's clear the writers don't truly understand them, and are using them as the comic relief or the superpowered autistic cliche. But, if you're able to put that aside (not that you should), the pithy Shane Black-isms are mostly pretty fun (but nobody's really coming to a Predator movie for the comedy). He writes fun characters and character dynamics. And, breaking from his own tropes, Black sets it at Halloween rather than Christmas, capturing much of the Monster Squad feel at times.

Unlike with Predators, where the thinness of the characters is all we really need out of them, here the "Group 2" crew (consisting of Thomas Jane with tourette's syndrome, PTSD suffering joke teller Keegan Michael Key, inexplicably English Alfie Allen, head trauma pilot Augusto Aguilera, and suicidal Trevante Rhodes) are all singular characteristics rather than characters, when we need them to be much more if we're expected to be more invested in them.  We don't understand any of their motivations beyond "they're soldiers", and there's back stories set up, but they feel untold.  Boyd Holbrook is the lead, but he's a genuinely unlikeable character.  His motive is both to kill things and to save his son, likely in that order.  He's kind of a dick, but at least not as big a dick as Sterling K. Brown, who heads the special ops group looking to recover and contain all the Predator shit.  While I really liked Brown's scenery chewing, and the joy he places in not really caring about anything but his own objectives, there's a lot less joy in Holbrook's very dismissive attitude towards pretty much any situation.  He's not charming or likeable enough to get away with the attitude he has.  Olivia Munn is the badass scientist who is chasing down Predators for her own uncertain reasons.  She's fun in the role, but I was completely lost when it came to why she was doing what she was doing in any given situation.

The film ends with a coda, revealing the Maguffin, that seems explicitly devised for establishing a sequel, and it's real, real bad.  It's definitely a reshoot, and Holbrook looks embarrassed delivering his final lines.

If this had been a movie about a completely new alien race, rather than Predators, I think it could have played much better.

(Toastypost, we agree)

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After swinging big into mythos for The Predator, along comes Prey with a title that immediately separates itself from the franchise, despite being so faithful to the spirit of the franchise and also tying itself squarely into the series with an easter egg connection.

Prey takes place in the early 1700s in the Northern Great Planes.  We meet Naru, a Comanche woman who is trying to break from the expected gender norms of her tribe and become a great hunter.  She has been raised with the expectation of becoming a medicine woman which she learned rapidly, but had greater aspirations.  Though not accepted by the other hunters in her tribe, they begrudgingly acknowledge she is their best tracker, but they mock her for even thinking she could be a hunter.  Yes, she is smaller and not as strong as the men, but she's smarter, more calculating, and more aware of her surroundings...which puts her on the trail of something stalking her tribe, something far more dangerous than a mountain lion.

Tractenberg really lets the film breathe.  There's no anxiousness to get to any particular reveal, or point of action, it all seems to come when ready, but in the meantime we live amidst the trees and streams, nature feeling so very alive and undisturbed...until the white men make themselves known.  French trappers, who came across a herd of buffalo and skinned them all, disrespectfully leaving the remainders to rot.  Secondary threats in a film filled with them for Naru.  Trachenberg really takes in the land via cinematographer Jeff Cutterm who effectively captures the isolation in establishing shots, but in doing so it comes back in providing the sense of connectedness the tribe has to the land.

Amber Midthunder (Legion) is amazing in the role, much of which requires her to just be physical or expressive.  Not every actor is so capable of conveying so much in their face, often multiple emotions coming through in a single shot.  But most of all Midthunder seems to understand Naru's dogged perseverance, she's so great in inhabiting the reality of the many, many moments where she has to pick herself up after a heavy blow, or a loss, or a shock, or facing insurmountable odds.  What's more is Midthunder's very personable, very affecting relationship with her brother, Taabe, played by Dakota Beavers.  Taabe looks out for Naru, and deeply cares for her, but he also has trouble seeing past the traditional roles of the tribe.  The other hunters are far less kind than him, but even with this underlying thread of animosity, there isn't any real conflict between any one character and another.  They are one tribe, and what they do is for the good of the tribe.  Even Naru understands that, but feels that the good she can do is not what others think for her.

Culturally, this is huge.  Along with being the first major studio film to have a Comanche language track (would that the film were shot with the characters speaking it). It's the first primarily indigenous-starring cast of a major Hollywood franchise, particularly one that features no "white savoir" lead or non-indigenous players in Native American or First Nations roles.  It tellingly strove for cultural accuracy (while allowing for playing a few things up for a sci-fi action franchise), and succeeds as a film as a result.  It's a damn entertaining, exciting, thrilling, cool movie that both hints at the power of Native stories, and also reinvigorates a franchise in the process.

[Toastypost, we agree]

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Rankings:
1. Predator
a very close 2. Prey
3. Predators
4. Predator 2
5. The Predator
6. Alien vs. Predator
DNW. AvP: Requiem

KWIF: Bugonia (+3)

 KWIF= Kent's Week in Film. I've been delinquent in keeping up with each of the many series' I've been following this week. It's Hallmarkie season, which means some of the usual time I set aside for film and TV watching goes to the delightful brainrot that are holiday romances. The heart wants what the heart wants.

This Week:
Bugonia (2025, d. Yorgos Lanthimos - in theatre)
Predator: Badlands (2025, d. Dan Trachtenberg - in theatre)
Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper (2025, d. Jason Bourque- W/Hallmark)
Christmas Above the Clouds (2025, d. Peter Benson - W/Hallmark)

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[I don't know how to talk about Bugonia without potentially spoiling anything, so before I even get started, potential spoiler warning]

When I think about a Yorgos Lanthimos film, I think about discomfort. More often than not, a Lanthimos film is about making the viewer uncomfortable by challenging their perception of the world, or by putting them in a world that challenges the familiar, the pleasant, the demure or the polite. In other occasions, a Lanthimos film challenges the comfort of his characters, which, in doing so, may or may not challenge the audience as well.  Lanthimos' regular screenwriting partners like Tony McNamara or Efthimis Filippou get the assignment, and every Lanthimos film has been unequivocally unique.

I had assumed, based on the trailers, that Bugonia - written by Will Tracey as a loose adaptation of the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet! - would be more of the same level of discomfort. The trailers showed Jesse Plemons and an unfamiliar associate kidnapping power-CEO Emma Stone and holding her captive in a basement, spouting some Q-anon-style, possibly manosphere-influenced conspiracy bullshit. The last time I saw Plemons was in Civil War in a deeply upsetting and all-too real "oathkeeper"-style role. Plemons is very good at awkwardness, it's no wonder Lanthimos' has paired up with him again after Kinds of Kindness (a deeply uncomfortable movie I've only seen about 20 minutes of but may return to). So simply by putting Plemons in the role of kidnapper of a woman, the discomfort alarm is sounding at max volume.

I was not going to see this film, simply because my discomfort bucket is pretty much maxed out by the political and financial climate these days, but a review of the film (Alonso Duralde and Dave White on the Linoleum Knife podcast) said the crux of the film was Plemon's Teddy Gatz trying to get Stone's Michelle Fuller to confess to being an alien, and the film -at least in the review's telling- expertly distorts whether she is or she isn't one. That was enough for me. I've been watching a lot of Twilight Zone lately, and this really fits the vibe.

There's a lot to unpack in Bugonia, simply because it's not against Teddy. He is our protagonist. As we spend time with him and his autistic-coded cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis, himself a neuro-atypical actor) as they train for their mission, we get hints as to what's fuelling Teddy. He's a beekeeper, and the bees are dying. He's been deep in the weeds in online conspiracies, and his conclusion is that Earth has been invaded. His mother and possibly other family were victims of something megacorp Auxolith did. Teddy is angry and vengeful, and believes he has found purpose. There is a bit of sympathy played towards Teddy, who, clearly has had a troubled past and on the brink of a mental breakdown, and Don is such a kind and accepting partner, Teddy's only remaining family and best friend, but also our sympathies towards Teddy are strained because he manipulates Don constantly into following his own goals. 

But our sympathies largely stay with Teddy because, Michelle, the ruthless CEO of a big-pharma corp Auxolith never plays the victim. During the kidnapping Michelle puts up one hell of a fight, and the tone waffles between the comedic and the deep discomfort in watching a man use his physical size to overpower a woman. But it's a remarkably smart movie from Tracey's script to have Teddy and Don chemically castrate themselves, as it takes the threat of sexual violence off the table. Michelle even asks point blank if that's what the kidnapping is about and Teddy just chuckles it off.  She has her head shaved and she's slathered in antihistamine cream, something about sending and receiving messages, and then the cat and mouse psychodrama is afoot. 

Teddy's concern, on the surface, is the fate of the world. He thinks Michelle is from Andromeda and her species is trying to terraform the planet, using capitalism as its device. Subtextually, Teddy is angry for what has happened to him and his family, and all his energies have been hyperfocused that this alien invasion is the reason why. It is the portrait of a lonely, isolated, traumatized man who, rather than going to therapy, has fallen down a conspiracy rabbit hole to try and make sense of it. It's a modern film for modern time.

We're all anxious about the state of things. Capitalism run wild is spelling doom for the planet, and if one's hypersensitive enough, that could drive you mad. But to be directly and personally affected by the agents of this ecological chaos... there is sympathy towards Teddy. 

Of course, we also are given hints that Michelle isn't the first person he's had in his basement, and, once again, it's hard to stay sympathetic.

Bugonia is a film about ecological anxiety. It's a film that twists around anti-capitalism and class structures. It's a film about the dangers of online echo chambers. It's a film about trauma and mental health. And it's a film that in its end, somehow, makes you feel at peace with the end of the world.

Despite the trepidation I went into it with, I didn't really feel uncomfortable at all watching Bugonia. It's much more amusing than I thought it would be, Teddy's delusions are so far gone that, when they're not threatening, they're absurd. Since we're never really rooting for Teddy to succeed, nor are we really on Michelle's side, the usual anxiety around such a situation isn't present. We kind of like both characters but only so far, and there's a strange peace to wanting to watch the scenario play out.

Lanthamos shot the film largely with VistaVision cameras on 35mm film, and even though I can't outright quantify what it contributes, there is a quality to it that is so warm and cinematic and textural that is both tangible and intangible at the same time. It looks great. I had a great time.

[poster talk - the main poster, the only one I've seen promoting the film, is the one of Emma Stone's head being enveloped by blood an honey. It's a striking poster, but insinuates something grotesque, and the film...isn't. The "see it in 35 mm" poster, a painted image of mostly empty space with sort of a traditional Japanese feel, is beautiful, but doesn't sell the film at all. And the third poster, with the space backdrop and Emma Stone butting heads with the Earth is...well... even after watching the film...confusing as an image.]

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Where Bugonia is a film heavily rooted in the present reality, Predator:Badlands is pure escapism.

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is the runt of his clan, and in his species the weak are culled unceremoniously. Protected by his older brother his whole life in a society where bonds are not formed, and emotions are eschewed, they're both targeted by their father/clan leader. Dek need to prove himself, to become Yautja (the term "Yautja" for the Predator species is a relatively new one to me, and this film recontextualizes it... you are not born "Yautja" you have to earn your place in the clan, in the species through the hunt). To do so he plans to go to Genna, a brutal world where it seems all the flora and fauna is deadly, and kill the most fearsome of beasts, the creature even his father is afraid of, the Kalisk, motivated even more by having watched his father kill his brother for protecting him.

On Genna, Dek learns fast the planet's deadly nature, and is put through a gauntlet before encountering the synthoid Thia (Elle Fanning). The Wayland-Yutani corporation (of Alien infamy) has sent a platoon of synths to the planet for research purposes. Thia had her sympathetic and emotional receptors enhanced so that she could more emotionally in tune with the planet. The planet repaid her by tearing her in half. She offers to help Dek on his hunt, and Dek declares a Yautja hunts alone. Thia stranded in a nest and without legs, reframes herself as a tool for Dek to use, and the highly unexpected buddy road comedy adventure begins.

There's no point in hashing out any more of the plot or events of the film. It's your standard sci-fi/fantasy adventure, which aren't so standard anymore. This felt like an 1980's throwback, pure escapist fiction that whisks to away to a world of discovery, both of culture and environment. The film explores the Yautja like never before. Trachtenberg, having successfully revitalized the franchise with the incredible pandemic-era streaming release of Prey, has been handed the keys to the kingdom, and he's unlocking it really for the first time. With the animated Disney+ movie Killer of Killers, there was some revelations of the Predator home-planet that we'd never seen before, as well as some small hints at their society.  But Badlands gives us our first Yautja protagonist, a main character. 

It's with efficiency that our sympathies are tipped towards Dek. His opening training with his brother reveals a lot about how he is an outsider, he is looked down upon, and he feels lesser-than but with a relentless desire to prove himself. The killing of his beloved brother by their heartless father also shows Dek as an emotional creature, one who carries trauma with him on his subsequent journey. 

Meeting Thia, he's given company, a companion, a chatterbox that should annoy him but seems to comfort him in his grief. She teaches him that not all hunters are solitary, that some are pack animals, and that the alpha of a pack is not the greatest killer, but the greatest protector of the pack. Dek accepts the lesson, and the idea of the wolfpack is such a wonderful thing contribute to the Predator mythos.

Badlands, while playing squarely in the Predator/Aliens universe, relies upon no prior films. Every Predator film in the franchise has been stand-alone so far, and I was curious, in being given authorship over the property, if Trachtenberg was going to start tying his stories together. Mercifully not. Badlands is unlike every other Predator film - there is no human being hunted by a Yautja here - but it still can be watched on as a stand-alone film. It also earns its distinction, it earns not being a typical Predator-hunts-man story. Its characters are enjoyable, its world building of the Yautja society isn't terribly surprising, but it does codify much that's only previously been teased, and the planet of Genna is a fun place to visit as a distant observer.

The most surprising thing about Badlands is that it has a sense of humour. At times it's downright silly and it owns that silliness. Some may bristle at any levity, but...I mean...how can you not enjoy a choreographed fight sequence where a lower torso, just a pair of legs, takes on three guys? 

It's a fun time at the movies (and somehow, the first Predator film I've seen on the big screen).

[Poster talk - there are a lot of posters for Predator:Badlands, and none of them are particularly striking or eye catching. The best way to sell the film, I think, is the image of a bisected Elle Fanning strapped to the Predator's back, and obviously I'm not alone as there are a lot of posters with such an image, but none of them are very stylish. They are the epitome of perfunctory posters. They're there to do one job, and sell you on the ideas of the movie, which is a Predator and a half robot getting in scraps on an alien planet. Most of them do that job, but not with a heck of a lot of excitement.]

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Toasty and I put together a format for reviewing holiday romances (or "Hallmarkies" as we call them) because they're so formulaic that the fun in watching them is in picking apart the formula. We called the format "A Toast to HallmarKent", and it's just one of the many ways we like to amuse ourselves with this blog.

The "problem" in recent years is that Hallmark has decided they don't really want the formula anymore, which neuters our "A Toast to HallmarKent" template somewhat. It ruins our fun!

But after a few years of deep-diving into Hallmarkies, it became the outliers that I tended to appreciate, the ones that dared to do something different, the ones that said "what if we actually care about this thing we're making?"

Movies like Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper and even Christmas Above the Clouds, 5 years ago wouldn't have been Hallmark movies. They're bucking the formula so hard. So rather than the big sprawling recaps that breakdown the insanity of what use to constitute a Hallmarkie, let's rapid-fire through the "A Toast to HallmarKent" template with these films, and see how it goes. (Usually I need to be working through the template while watching the film, and I didn't do that here so it may be sketchy).

Merry Christmas Ted Cooper

The Draw: Robert Buckley as a performer has had more authorship over his Hallmarkie appearances than most, and those tend to be much more comedic movies, so I was expecting something funny and outside the normal holiday romance.

HERstory: Time was it was rare for a Hallmarkie to have a male lead. It's not so uncommon anymore. Ted Cooper is a small-market weatherman beloved by both his station and his community. He's been given a job offer in his home town of Buffalo, but feels loyalty to the station that gave him his break (this would be a lot more resonant a plot if Ted Cooper wasn't in his 40s). Buffalo is his hometown, and he's returning home to help promote his sister's fundraiser for a children's wing at the local hospital.

Ted has a history of unfortunate events around Christmas, but he's a terminally upbeat person and doesn't let that get him down. He gets conked on the head by a box of lights while helping set up his sister's place and winds up at the hospital where he runs into his high school crush Hope Miller (Kimberly Sustad).

They connect and start enjoying the seasons together while more mishaps befall Ted, though it never gets him down.

The Formulae: The meet cute (it's pretty cute). The absurd event that the production doesn't have the budget to pull off (in this case, the fundraiser is some sort of gingerbread fair with the biggest gingerbread person competition, and those big gingerbreads are so not real). There's a "complication" in the romance (but it's also unformulaic so we'll get to that). Ted has a sibling, Hope has a best friend who are pushing them towards each other.

Unformulae: Ted is coming from the small town returning to his big city (Buffalo) home, and is feeling the tug to return, which is kind of the opposite of the typical Hallmarkie story. Nobody has a kid, not even Ted's sister. There's no wise parent to turn to here, instead Ted befriends his old high school teacher, Ms. Mittens, and starts hanging out with her seniors walking club (that dynamic is freaking delightful). The complication is Hope worries that Ted isn't honest about his feelings, that his perpetual upbeatness is a mask for real emotions... and she tells him in an earnest, adult conversation that these dumb movies so rarely have... and Ted, later, responds in an earnest and emotionally intelligent way that shows that these two peopler are fucking adults and not high-schoolers in middle-aged bodies.

True Calling? It IS a merry Christmas for Ted Cooper, and it will be no matter what happens.

The Rewind: Honestly, I would watch this whole thing again. It was just warm, feel good, fun and funny vibes, all resting on the back of the delightful charm of Robert Buckley.

The Regulars: Buckley broke into Hallmark with The Christmas House, and has had a few others. Sustad is Hallmark royalty, and definitely in my top 3 Hallmark leading ladies. Ms. Mittens is played by Barbara Pollard has been all over the Hallmarkie spectrum for years. Brendan Penny, a usual leading man, is in a bit part as the news anchor at Ted's station and they have a bit of a rivalry.  Canadian Meghan Heffern plays Kate Cooper, Ted's sister and she is phenomenal. Heffern has been working steadily for a long time, but in nothing I've watched before...she stands out in this sister role like Carrie Coon did in Gone Girl...if there was any justice this would be a breakout performance.

How does it Hallmark? "A" tier. This is in the top level of Hallmarkies because it succeeds at pretty much everything it's trying to do. It's funny when it's meant to be funny, the romance is super charming and full of sparks, and its secondary cast are all great and unique in the sphere, people who seem to have lives outside of being associated with the leads. The stakes, to be honest, are pretty low in this film which is the only thing that dials it back from the "A-plus" tier (or "S" tier, as the kids call it?). 

How does it movie? It's a Hallmark romcom, and doesn't pretend to not be. I don't know that more budget would have accentuated this film any more, it seems tailor made for the size of production it is and for the channel it's being aired on. A director more skilled in comedy, and maybe a little more attention to detail in shooting the news anchor sequences would have made it stronger.

How Does It Snow? Was there even snow? I didn't even take note. But it's Buffalo at Christmas...there should have been mountains of snow, and there was not. 

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Christmas Above the Clouds

The Draw: I'm not a full-blown, year-round Hynie, but when it comes to the Christmas season you can bet I'm keeping my eye on the Tyler Hynes entries that year. He's my favourite Hallmark hunk.

HERstory: Ella Neezer (gesundheit) is the owner of her own mid-level travel company. She's sacrificed everything for this business including her empathy towards others. She would be the titular "B" in Apartment 23, if you catch my meaning. She's awful to everyone and making them work on Christmas without telling them they have to work on Christmas. She's catching a flight from New York to Australia which, given the time jump, means she will leave on the 24th and arrive on the 26th and miss Christmas entirely, and she likes it that way (unfortunate for her assistant Bobbi, who has to bend to Ella's every whim in order to pay for her sick child's treatments). On the plane, seated next to her happens to be her ex, Jake. There's still a spark of connection there, but there's also a lot of baggage.  

Now, stop me if you heard this one before, but Ella is visited by the ghost of her mentor, Marleen Jacobs, the woman to taught her everything she knows about running a business with a cold heart. Marleen is in purgatory, stuck in an airline safety tutorial teaching grinchy businesspeople life lessons. She tells Ella she will be visited by three ghosts on her flight, the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future.

You basically know the rest.

The Formulae: It's A Christmas Carol, on a plane! With Tyler Hynes! The formulae isn't very Hallmarkie, but it is ALL Dickensian.

Unformulae: Uh... it's A Christmas Carol, but on a plane!

True Calling? It's a dumb title, but probably because it's hard to think of a plane-based pun that will fit into A Christmas Carol.  "Flying Past Christmas" or "Christmas Flying By" would be more apt..."Skipping Christmas"... and yet, it should really be referencing A Christmas Carol. Like "Scrooge in the Sky" (that sounds dirty). Ok, yeah, it's a hard title to come up with.

The Rewind: Rather than rewind, there are things I would like to skip past, thank you very much, like any time Bobbi's kid Tim (he's sick...with asthma, because asthma is the Hallmark sickness, and is the deadliest disease in existence in Hallmark reality). The kid playing Tim is atrocious. 

The Regulars: Erin Krakow plays Ella Neezer (gesundheit), and is one of the most regular of Hallmark regulars...in fact she's been the star of a thousand episodes of When Calls The Heart and an equal number of Hallmark movies. Here, she does a really good job of putting the "B" in "boss", but I also just watched Emma Stone in Bugonia a few hours before watching this and it's, like, not the same, but Krakow holds her own. Hynes is my Hallmark boy, y'know, and I can't wait for the next "3 Wise Men" movie this season, but this was a nice lil' stocking stuffers, an amuse bouche. Hynes is wearing one of those Hynes sweaters he looks so good in. Gabrielle Rose has been all over Hallmarkies for years in parent and senior statesman roles. Emily Tennant who plays Bobbi has led a couple Hallmarkies of her own, so this is a bit of a downgrade. Faith Wright plays the Ghost of Christmas Past and is super charming, she should hopefully level up from here. Canadian Matt Clarke playing Ghost of Christmas Present puts on a decent Aussie accent and is pretty fun, but more than a few Hallmarkie credits under his belt.

How does it Hallmark? It's actually a pretty effective modernized production of A Christmas Carol but Hallmark-ized to *really* emphasize how much Jake used to be part of her life and how much he needs to be again. There's a definite budgetary impact to this whole production as the plane set...migawd is it awful. it looks like a bunch of lounge chairs in office cubicles and not a first class plane compartment. And the flashback to college, where they give Krakow a really late-90's-styled wig, but Hynes looks completely unchanged (they didn't even do that thing where they comb the hair all forward to hid the receding hairline - see Batman Begins for example). It leads me to believe Jake is a highlander. In a proper budgeted production we would have had younger actors playing them as teens (or they would have paid Hynes to shave the beard and shot that sequence last).

How does it movie? Again, a decent production of A Christmas Carol, but not even close to cinematic quality. As much as I like Hynes, and Krakow puts in a good performance, they're not movie stars. They're Hallmark stars, and there is a difference. As well, I didn't fully buy into the chemistry between them. These two have history on screen together, and clearly are pals, that was undeniable, but the romantic spark just didn't come across. I also couldn't buy that Jake has basically been celibate since they broke up 5 years earlier. Not that handsome man with his laid-back charm, no way.

How Does It Snow? Again, forgot to look, but it was largely on a plane or indoors so there wasn't much to look for as far as I recall.

3 Short Paragraphs: Prey

2022,  Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) -- Disney+

It's weird how many of my thoughts about a recently watched movie or TV show are coloured by the buzz on the Internet, these days the loudest always being the incredibly toxic negative. No longer do people just Not Like Something; they have insult, tear down, cast slurs upon and just be extra shitty in general. Cross into the Nostalgic Domain of white men and you increase all that horrible response by 1000%. Prey is the latest in the Predator franchise, and because the main character is a young indigenous woman, the online rhetoric has been astoundingly foul. Again I repeat, I miss the days when the worst examples of humanity generally kept their mouths shut because general society would shout them down. Now, these reprehensible people find the greatest sounding board and like minds, and toxic behaviour generates buzz and the marketing machine will take anything it can to promote its material.

I have enjoyed both of the two stand alone entries into this franchise, Predators, the weird near future, scifi one, and The Predator, directed by Shane Black and post eaten by the Great Hiatus of 2018 post here. The former is truly stand alone, while the latter seemed to be trying to expand upon the canon, adding in a genetically advanced predator species. But instead of doing a sequel, the new one jumps into the past and gives us an engaging story of a predator coming to our planet in the 1700s. Naru (Amber Midthunder, Legion) is a young Commanche woman trying to prove herself to her people, in a culture where women probably aren't accepted as hunters & warriors easily. And then a predator drops down from the skies and wreaks havoc with her people, and even the nearby French trappers.

Midthunder is a marvel in this movie. I full admit, I am a fan of hers, but she carries the character with bravery, capability and yet knows when to turn around and just fucking RUN ! The frustration she exhibits when she is not allowed to be one of the boys is overshadowed by her desire to do right by her tribe. So many of the online Whiney Boys complained that here we were with this advanced species that could take down commando squads, being taken down by a little girl. Oh, get over yourselves you fucks, and just actually watch the movie. The predator that is dropped from the ship is setup to fight these "primitive" warriors, less armoured and armed than those seen in other movies. While one would not say the predators are ever truly seeking proper sportsmanship (I mean, laser guns vs tomahawks?), this one was not the walking battlesuit of other movies. But even that doesn't account much, as in a brief scene with Naru's brother, their tribe display preternatural skill and bravery, and Naru is better than most of them. She uses skill, strategy and subterfuge to take down the larger, better armed enemy. I think the WB's complaints were more about the depiction of a capable woman, than the "realism" of an indigenous warrior taking down an alien hunter. So, fuck them.

Rewatch: Predators

2010, Nimród Antal (Kontroll, Armoured) -- Netflix

Really, the thing about now doing Rewatch posts is to quickly summarize some of my feelings in rewatching a movie, soon after rewatching it. I waited too long for it on this one, but a few things have stuck with me.

The first thing is that I liked it much more the second time round than the first time. The re-use of the jungle setting and ensemble cast of combat ready killers does not bother me as much as normally with the "do what we already did" aspect of many sequels. This time, we have a bunch of disparate killers, random people chosen for their ability to survive and kill -- from wars, from armies, from crime syndicates, etc. They don't like each other but with the help of a natural leader-ish type (Adrian Brody as an American mercenary. Adrian Brody?  Yeah, I know, never woulda thunk him for an straight up action movie but it kinda works) they band together realizing they are not only being hunted, but they aren't on Earth anymore.

The usual faces of action are absent, but for Danny Trejo, and are supplanted by Alice Braga (sniper), Topher Grace (psycho), Walton Goggins (great name! serial murderer) and a few others. They not only have to survive being hunted but also figure out a way off the planet. That last bit is just not realistic; there is no way they could fly a ship, even considering they want to make use of a "original predator" who has been taken captive by bigger, stronger versions of his own people.  But that is blown out of the water so they can have some predator on predator action.

That said, the "new" predators they introduce are rather cool, all amped up, like comic book versions -- bigger, stronger, more evolved than any we have seen in previous movies.  They are more unique from each other. But even so, they seem to get their asses kicked quite easily all things considered.

The one plot element I didn't get the first time around, and don't again this time, was the Laurence Fishburne character. He is the sole survivor of many "hunting seasons" having hid himself inside some abandoned alien machinery. At first he seems to be helpful but quickly he is proven to have survived by sacrificing others and stealing their gear. Once that revelation is with us, they immediately kill him off. Huh? Waste of a sub-plot if you ask me. Still not sure how that ended up like that.

All in all, its a decent addition to the Predator collection of movies, though not the reboot the producers were hoping for. I gather it didn't do well, as it has gone mostly silent since, but apparently there was an announcement sometime this year. I don't think it was strong enough to warrant it as the reboot of a franchise.

I Saw This!! Post-Deletion Phase

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Graig or David attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. And despite hiatuses, where some movies might just get washed away in the apathy, it still makes us feel crotchety to NOT write something them.

Venom, 2018, Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) -- download/Crave

This was one of the pair of movies that were meant to resurrect previous renditions of popular characters/franchises, taking them in new directions. Oh, they did that, but in the most boring and divisive directions.

I originally saw both of the movies soon after they hit the *cough* digital downloads sites. But I didn't write. But due to finally seeing the evolution of our Internet-based, cable-cut movie & TV watching era come to a stage where it makes sense to actually PAY for them, I did. Ala carte offerings, served through the Internet, and viewed on your favourite devices (smart TV, game system, Android box, etc.) are the new (current new?) cable TV or satellite service. I said that I would start paying for services again when they better served me -- someone who didn't want a boatload of channels I didn't care for. Things are still fleshing out, for example the Crave app sucks terribly and Amazon Prime Video (in Canada) cannot get its shit together (only their own shows are worth the dollar, and fewer still are actually in the claimed 4K), but at least it's there.

So, when I was stuck in a hotel, in a city that shut down at 6pm, where I could only drink so many craft beers (yes, I know, me! Faith & Begorra!) I plugged an HDMI cable from my laptop to the hotel TV (which had terrrrrible cable reception BTW), joined the free WiFi (better speed than I expected) and began "channel surfing". Most nights I was tired from long work-trip days, so ReWatches were in order.

The thing is, I couldn't actually finish the Venom rewatch. The first time round, the movie just .... bored me. The second time round, the movie just ... OK, what the fuck? How can Tom Hardy in a comic book movie bore me? Even at his most mundane, I enjoy Hardy, but for some reason I just could not get interested in what Hardy was doing with his asshole v-blogger being depicted as a legit journalist. But OK, I can live with that, what about Venom, the alien symbiote that started his "creation" as a Spider-Man suit? While not a fan of the anti-"hero" villain monster that people seem to love, I can at least understand the appeal. But instead of a nasty, juicy creature of the dark, I get a petulant teenager alien thing that ... oh, whatever. The whole movie just annoyed me.

I know this is one of those times when you talk to your coworker who just doesn't know how to watch movies with more than a passing glance, where they just don't seem to have a formed opinion as to why "dat movie just sucked dude". That guy is me right now, as I think it dumbed out any properly built opinion I had. I just could not warm to this movie, even in a hotel forced second viewing.

Kent has pretty much the same opinion, but a much better formed one...

Meanwhile...

The Predator, 2018, Shane Black (Iron Man 3) -- download/Crave

Why do I have such a fond opinion of Shane Black? Sure Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys are brilliant and fun movies, but that's .... about it ? I subsequently love Iron Man 3 but that is probably all based around the kid in the small town aspects, as the rest is just lifted from Iron Man comics of one degree or another. So, again, why do I love Shane Black so much?

Just cuz. Cuz true Good Stuff comes along rarely while OK Stuff is everywhere and Utter Crap is mostly avoided, but still surrounds us. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is just incredibly, astoundingly Good Stuff, that I want his subsequent things to be as well done and as enjoyable. Alas, often the Good Directors get assigned to things just because. And that is not a good reason.

In pitch, this is a good re-launch of the franchise. Introduce the Predator creature to Americans long past the last Earth-bound story from 90s tale, and bring back the hunter-predator aliens for a current story. Add in some post-war vets, traumatized and damaged from what America has done to them and give them a reason to be Good Soldiers again. Alas, we get stuck with All Snark and Little Else. Its like a Writing Room just got printed on paper, to become a proper script, without any editing.

Sure there are good lines, and good performances and an interesting idea. But jeebus, it just never lifts off  the ground. I cannot say if it was Producer Meddling or the shadow of that horrendous scandal where a seemingly oblivious Black allowed a real-life human predator into his crew, but this movie just could not come together. It just could not captivate, nor hold together anything that was Shane Black. But I can say, at least, that it was a decent rewatch as a Hotel Movie.

I won't even bother attending to the plot.

Aquaman, 2018, James Wan (Saw) -- download

OK, despite the desires stated for the previous two movies, wherein I feel compelled to rewatch a movie in order to state intelligently about it, but this one? Nope. Why? I dunno, because I remember enjoying it. But like much of the DC Universe, once is enough. Well, if the DC Universe movies are terrible, I am at least compelled to watch again to see if I gave it a fair chance. What's up with that brain?

First up, I found Jason Momoa annoying as Aquaman in the Justice League movie. Let me rephrase that; I liked Jason Momoa, I can never NOT like him, but fuck what is with the WHA-HOO yelling? I guess they wanted a more irreverent, less grim character than the comic book renditions. If anything, give us more of the small fishing village fuck-superheroes version, but no we get X-Games Aquaman.

But damn, this movie is just pretty. Its just so colourful and brightly lit, I could not help but enjoy. But beyond that, I was not enthralled by this Avengers-Lite version of a superhero movie. The plot was a weak aspect of a Marvel style rebel-against-kingliness Thor but, well, better done. And I kept on expecting his mother to be Michelle Pfeiffer, mixing it up with the Antman reveal. Still, beyond Looking Good and Charismatic Momoa, I didn't see any reason to label it anything other than a Good On First Run movie.

P.S. What a terrible poster.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, 2019, Mike Mitchell (Sky High) -- download

I never said a thing about The Lego Movie, during another rendition of I Saw This!! other than I couldn't stay awake. That's a terrible thing happening to me these days, as I turn into My Dad who always fell asleep watching TV post-supper. But some dramatic structures just don't hold me, including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which I, at first thought, it was just me, but a Crave-bound rewatch (today!!) confirmed, the third act puts me to sleep. I wish I could tell you what it was, but.... well, I had just briefly closed my eyes and then Miles was fighting the King Pin. Wait wait wait, THIS is a post about The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part not Spider-Verse, which deserves its own non-sleepy post, because everything I was awake for IS FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Anywayz, I did not enjoy the first movie all that much, as the rewatch referenced above, which generated the tangent, proved. And despite a lack of sleep, the second one didn't do all that much for me either. Oh, I was head over heels for their post-apocalyptic nod at the beginning, but to be all honest, it just lost me after that. The whole Duplo invasion is cute, but... what as the plot about again? The parallels between the Real World and the Lego World are cute, but... I dunno, have I lost my whimsy? Is that it? Am I no longer able to be charmed by play? This bears further therapy investigating.

3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Predator: Badlands

2025, Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) -- download

Kent's view. We heartily agree.

He is Dek of the Yautja. Well, not yet. Yautja was a term for the "predators" from novel adaptations in 90s, amusingly to explore the "Alien vs Predator" landscape. This movie does, kind of, follow in that assumption, but referencing the Weyland-Yutani corporation, and its most famous invention -- the synth. But again, I am getting ahead of myself.

He is Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Far North), a young (not yet) yautja and a "runt". He believes he can prove himself to his father and clan (??), and become yautja proper, by going to the planet of Genna (I imagine its supposed to sound like Gehenna, a Biblical name for Hell) and kill the legendary Kalisk beast, something that has killed all predators who have tried before. But his father has other things in mind -- Dek's brother is supposed to kill Dek and when he refuses, violently, dad kills the brother instead. Dek barely escapes on his brother' ship, crash landing on the very very VERY dangerous planet, where pretty much every living thing is trying to kill every other living thing.

Even the use of that idea -- "every living thing is trying to kill you," is such a classic adventure trope, that I knew I was in for a fun, violent romp.

After, immediately, almost dying a handful of times he finds a very chirpy girl in a creature's nest -- well, half a girl. Well, half a SYNTH girl, named Thia (Elle Fanning, Maleficent). She knows Yautja ("we hunt alone") but also knows she needs his help if she is going to get the other half of her body, and get back to her sister synth (electronic/dark wave 80s cover band) Tessa (Elle Fanning, The Neon Demon). And while on the road, the buddies pick up a tough-hided monkey-thing for comedy value -- actually, a lot of the movie is very successfully, and intentionally, funny. As Kent said, this is an escapist throwback adventure movie, something so unlike any other Predator movie.

This is not as ground breaking as Prey, and oddly enough, I kind of see it as a mirror reflection of it. Both star young unappreciated members of their tribes going forth against a more than formidable enemy. The former movie courted controversy with its loudest, most toxic fan-base, this one almost courts them, but I am sure they complained about it anyway -- fortunately (??), the loudest and most toxic have been having a field day in our part of the world, so I doubt that this was much more than a blip on their radar.

We are in a weird time for film making, wherein the pivot from cinema to other platforms is no longer the greatest threat to movies -- the political climate is. Sure, Hollywood is and always has been the Toxic Right's boogeyman, it doesn't take long to see how the corporations that run it are being altered in favour of the dominant political machine down there. Movies like this one, a-political scifi adventure romps might actually excel, as long as they cater to the straight, white, male lead viewers, which is a shame considering scifi in general was always a commentary of social climates, and I hope they stay that way.