PREDATOR (1987)

A group of seven ultimate military badasses are sent into an unspecified South American jungle to rescue a foreign cabinet minister from a terrorist camp. Things don’t go as planned.

The best way to watch PREDATOR for the very first time would be to erase your memory and time-travel back to the late 1980’s as a 12-year-old boy. I remember watching it back then around that age and it blew my lil’ simpleton mind! A bunch of large badass super soldiers getting their asses kicked out it the deep jungle, lots of cool guns and large knives, wicked Predator-vision that looked like nothing I’d ever seen before, explosions, the word “motherfucker”, getting to the chopper. It’s was awesome! Nowadays, the whole thing is probably pretty tame (to new viewers) and the entire legacy of the film shit on by not just one or two lame additions to the series, but (as of 8/2022) six! I’m not even sure how it’s humanly possible to take a great movie with a cool, original story and then turn in 6 weak ass sequels, prequel and spin-offs, but they did.  You'd think at some point they would accidentally make a good movie...but nope.

Anyway, I’m rambling. The original Predator film is dated, but still badass and totally worth checking out even today. At least for fans of 1980’s action / sci fi.

Minor spoiler...I love the happy character end credit shots, but I really wish they had added one for the Predator himself. And a happy group shot with the Predator and the soldiers all hugging would have been hilarious.

Part 2 – Predator 2 (1990)
Part 3 – Predators (2010)
Part 4 – The Predator (2018)
Prequel - Prey (2022)
Alien crossover 1 - Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Alien crossover 2 - Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

LEPRECHAUN 2 (1994)

Ahhhh, LEPRECHAUN 2. The number 2 in the title could lead the viewer to believe that LEPRECHAUN 2 is a sequel to the original film, but is it really? In the original, the leprechaun was 600 years old while in this film, he’s celebrating his 2,000th birthday. He was also dumped in a well at the end of Part 1, but in this movie, he is as free and happy as a demented jaybird. And horny. Sequel, reboot or stand-alone film…nobody cares. We just wanna see the leprechaun scamper around acting like an asshole. And scamper around he does. Much more than in the original film. Warwick really commits himself to role. It was awesome. In Part 1 he was stalking some nerds at a farmhouse while looking for his gold, but in this film, he’s balls out running around Los Angeles looking for his gold and a wife! And who would have guessed it, but the leprechaun actually has good taste! The woman he picks to be his desired bride turns out to be one of the better horror movie heroines of the 1990’s.

The story isn’t really important, but like I said earlier, Lep is now in Los Angeles looking for a wife. While in the act of kidnapping his bride-to-be he accidentally loses a coin, so now he has to put the nuptials on hold while he locates the lost gold. It’s all just an excuse to have him running round killing people. Unfortunately, the overall body count is pretty low.

Medium pace, goofy kill scenes (example: a guy thinks he’s putting his face between some tits when he’s really putting his face into a running lawnmower blade), no real blood or gore, one minor topless scene, cheap-looking sets that were kind of charming, random Los Angeles street scenes, JUDGEMENT NIGHT, CLIFFHANGER and SISTER ACT 2 playing in the theater, a brief Clint Howard sighting, GERONIMO advertisement on the side of a bus, okay acting, Disintegration and the Ramones on a jukebox in a bar, zero ninjas, no cheerleaders, low body count, Lep driving a go-cart with “I want me gold” spray painted on the side, extremely abrupt ending.

Closing statement: LEPRECHAUN 2 is a totally stand-alone movie and worth watching for fans of the series and/or fans of silly 1990’s horror movies.

Part 1 - Leprechaun (1993)
Part 3 - Leprechaun 3 (1995)
Part 4 - Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)
Part 5 - Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)
Part 6 - Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)
Reboot - Leprechaun: Origins (2014)
Direct sequel to original film - Leprechaun Returns (2018)