And about bloody well time too. This 1987 Schwarzenegger flick has been released on DVD no less than four times but it looks as though this time they've finally got it right. The first edition was the bog-standard region 1 disc, released in the States several years ago:
Picture - widescreen, letterboxed.
Sound - Dolby Digital.
Extra features - trailer.
In other words, a bit dull. Then, some time last year, the Americans were treated to a remastered version:
Picture - widescreen, enhanced (anamorphic).
Sound - Dolby Digital and DTS.
Extra features - trailer.
Hmm, slightly better but still not wonderful. Eventually, us Brits got a look in when a region 2 disc was released last Christmas. The picture was enhanced but we didn't get the DTS soundtrack and we still only had the trailer to watch after the film. But here's the worst part - some of Predator's juicier bits, including the rather splendid "Stick around" moment, were notably absent from this version. For once though, this wasn't down to some daft new BBFC legislation but simply because the British disc was transferred from the same master used for the rest of Europe. Censorship laws in some European countries are even more stringent than ours, meaning that we had to watch the same toned-down version as the Germans and the Greeks. Needless to say, nearly every single copy of this DVD was returned to Fox Home Entertainment within a week, most of them accompanied with an abusive letter.
Anyway, I'm rambling, the point is that they seem to have got the message and within six months the crappy original was withdrawn and this cracking 2-disc special edition took its place, complete with DTS sound, brand new animated menus, loads of extra goodies and, more importantly, all the blood 'n' snot in its full, uncut glory. Better still, this special edition is not yet available in America - Fox's way of apologising to the UK viewers for taking them for a mug the first time round. Hmm, apology accepted... just don't let it happen again, ok?

Backup for the Big Man comes in the musclebound shapes of, among others, former wrestling star Jesse Ventura, bald headed bad boy Bill Duke, one time Rocky opponent Carl Weathers and the simply gigantic Sonny Landham. Okay, so Academy Awards may not be on the cards for any of these guys but, thankfully, director John McTiernan (Die Hard) seldom requires them to act, just run around looking hard, fire a really big machine gun and bleed horrifically at the right moment.
This was McTiernan's first mainstream Hollywood picture but the competence with which he assembles Predator's many action sequences would have you believe otherwise. He knows the limitations of the script and doesn't bother trying to inject it with any unwarranted political subtext or social commentary. There's no trendy, tongue-in-cheek humour (the bane of so many of Arnie's more recent flicks), you won't find any drippy romantic subplots and you certainly won't find a shady government conspirator who wants to capture the creature alive to study it. The point here is that this is a really bad, nasty, horrible alien and what we have to do is kill it. Period.
So, with none of these so-called 'plot devices' to get in the way, McTiernan is free to concentrate on the things that really matter in a 'popcorn' movie, namely thrills, suspense, excitement and, in this case, more firepower than you can shake an Uzi at. Indeed, weaponry fans the world over will reside in hog-heaven whenever Blaine (Ventura) unleashes 'Old Painless' - a supercool, deliriously noisy, six-barrelled gatling gun normally found on the front of an Apache helicopter.

Now then, most 'DVD-heads' have learnt to take the phrase 'digitally remastered' with a pinch of salt, as it often amounts to diddly squat in terms of actual improvement in presentation but this disc is different, this disc has been cleaned up to the extent that you can actually tell the difference. The picture quality really has been improved substantially and is noticeably brighter and clearer than all the previous editions. The soundtrack too has undergone quite a transformation, the rear speakers have a lot more to do and the soundfield in general seems to be a lot more active than before but hmmm... I dunno, it just sounds..... different. Predator's soundtrack has always been a thumping wall of sound that just gets better and better the louder you have it but jazzing it up with all sorts of digital surround-sound trickery seems to have taken away some of its raw power and reduced its impact. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm that much of an anorak that after growing up with and never tiring of a movie for over 15 years, I just get offended when someone tampers with it. Aside from that, this film has never looked or sounded better.