Tag / Throwback Thursday

by WetheGeek

Predator (the decent one)

It’s the 1980s (again. That’s where all the good movies come from) and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the highest paid action stars of his era. Conan the Barbarian came out in 1982 and Terminator came out in 1984. Now comes an action movie that all geeks recognize.

Predator.

Classic Geek Sci-Fi. I’m talking about the one from 1987. That’s pretty much the only one anyone should be talking about.

Predator first came to theaters June 12, 1987. With only a $15 million dollar budget the film did surprisingly well and grossed over $98 million. It was not critically acclaimed due to a flimsy plot but it has grown quite a fan base in the past 31 years, enough fans to make a bunch of crappy sequels and spinoffs.

The story follows a team of American Special Forces in the jungles of South America. They are on a rescue mission to find a buddy of the teams leader who is a CIA agent.

The team discovers a downed helicopter with dead US military on board. The team continues to search for the CIA agent and arrive at the town he is being held captive at. The team kills the terrorist only to find out there mission isn’t to rescue anyone but o find out information on the Soviets.

As the team leaves they are tracked by a mysterious figure that turns out to be a killer alien. The alien is one of the best hunters in the galaxy. Through traps and an assorted weapons the alien kills most of the soldiers. The final battle between Arnold and the Predator is very explosive.

This movie was the first use of one of the most iconic lines Arnold has ever said, “ Get to the Choppa!” As far as quality it’s not a bad movie. It’s a lot of fun and very interesting to watch and see that man isn’t always the top of the food chain. Overall the special effects are typical of 80s movies and for the most part the plot isn’t super crazy. It’s all pretty straight forward. I enjoyed it and I think it’s the best in the series. Which isn’t saying much.

I give it a 6/10 😐

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Ghostbusters (the good one)

We are going to start Spooktober Throwback Thursday off right with a classic geek comedy

Ghostbusters

It’s the 1980’s and Dan Aykroyd is living the big life. SNL is at its peak and nothing can go wrong. Dan along with the help of John Belushi come up with a crazy script about a time traveling SWAT like team fighting ghosts. They titled it Ghostmashers. Seeing the budget (and technology) issues with the first script, Ivan Reitman told Aykroyd to rewrite it. And he did. We finally ended up with what was released in 1984.

I’m going to be honest. You should have seen this in the 34 years it’s been out. But if you haven’t I’ll give you a short recap.

Ghostbusters follows Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson around New York catching ghosts. Aykroyd, Murray, and Ramis are failed Columbia University scientists who get kicked out of school and have to start over. They put together enough money to start a small team to fight and capture ghosts.

New York is strangely exploding with ghosts at this time and the team is in high demand. They hire Hudson to help with the influx. The team is called by Sigourney Weaver to figure out why a demon is hiding in her apartment.

The EPA steps in and screws everything up (typical big government). The EPA accidentally starts the apocalypse by releasing all the ghosts the team had captured. The team discovered the demon in Weavers apartment is responsible and they have to fight it. I’ll let you watch the rest to see how they did.

Ghostbusters is a classic. It’s spun off a ton of material including cartoons, video games, and two other terrible live action movies. If you ignore all the crap it’s helped create you can actually enjoy the movie. It’s funny and charming and not too far down the science fiction path that it gets confusing. It’s very well balanced and includes some amazing talent. Rick Moranis even has a role that he does well. It will definitely make you laugh and probably even cheer as you watch the plucky team fight their was to fame and fortune. It’s iconic and incredible. It’s all memorable and enjoyable from the cast to the music.

I give it a solid 8/10 😃

-RytheGeek