review: PREDATOR (Blu-ray)

Fox  //  Buy from Amazon.com The ultimate hunter meets the ultimate adversary... in the ultimate Collector's Edition DVD! Arnold Schwarzenegger wages an all-out war against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful and deadly than any on Earth-because the Predator is not of this Earth. Now, you can explore the depths of the Predator jungle with this all-new 2-disc set packed with over 5 hours of out-of-this-world extras, including an in-depth documentary, director's commentary, never-before-seen bonus footage, revealing featurettes and more! "Predator" is an unequivocal classic - whether you're a fan of action flicks, sci-fi flicks, Arnie, 80s, or any combination therein, "Predator" delivers in spades. One of the best action films ever made, bar none, with a very strong cast (including not 1 but 2 future governors!), a helluva cool bad-ass title character and some truly memorable one-liners, this is the making of a true classic, and that is definitely what it is. No need to rehash the storyline or how good it is - you already know, because anyone alive today should have seen this film at least once already, whether on cable or one of the many previous DVD releases that have come out. Now, we get to enjoy the Predator on shiny high definition Blu-ray disc, and it's never looked better (see below.) Great fun, great action, great great film. And it goes without saying - pick up this Blu-ray rather than AVP2 - what a stinkfest! Video The 1080p 1.85:1 widescreen transfer is very strong - "Predator" is never a film that is going to be "reference quality" (due to a combination of age and wildly varying original footage quality), but undoubtedly this Blu-ray release is the best the film has ever looked, so it's a treat to behold (especially if you grew up watching this film on cable TV as I did!) Audio The DTS HD Master Audio mix is phenomenal - "Predator" always had strong sound design, and this high-def audio mix really lets the surrounds go to town on this one. Fantastic. Extras trailer Closing Thoughts Truly the ultimate action film + zero extras = worth renting, but where are all of the previously-released extras?!