Predators
Melbourne Central Hoyts, 20/07/2010
Status: Behind by 22 films
I used to think that serious actors who slummed it in highly commercial films only did so to bankroll other (indie, noble, worthy) projects. Why else would capital-s Serious actor ADRIEN BRODY (who won an Oscar for a capital-s Serious film The Pianist) sign up for the latest Predator movie? Because, I now realize, it would be a whole mess of fun to pretend that - just for 90 minutes - that you’re not a Serious actor, you’re Samuel L. Jackson.
Adrien Brody steps into Arnie’s shoes in the Predator cinquel, leaving his Oscar at the door. And you know what? He makes an outstanding action hero. He definitely got some growling tips from Christian Bale (from Batman Begins, not Dark Knight when he got so low and gravely only badgers coould hear him).
Brody plays it straight and as subtle as the bone hammeringly-obvious dialogue will allow. As does the rest of the very fine cast. LAWRENCE FISHBURN (The Matrixes), TOPHER GRACE (That 70s Show) and ALICE BRAGA (City of God, Blindness) all have a marvelous time pretending to be Samuel L. Jackson, only doing a much better job than he has in quite a while.
The plot matters not at all, so the script wisely forgoes this and focuses on a string of well-crafted action sequences. “Ridiculous” doesn’t even begin to cover it, but it’s also great fun.
