Predators (2010)

Starring: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Laurence Fishburn, & Danny Trejo

Directed By Nimrod Antel

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424381/

In a summer-blockbuster season that thus far offers one instant classic ("Toy Story 3"), a handful of forgettable pleasures and a stunning number of big-budget bombs, "Predators" earns more points than it might otherwise simply for stripping itself down to storytelling fundamentals.

The movie's a fairly successful attempt by producer Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City") and director Nimród Antal ("Kontroll") to recapture the no-nonsense glory of John McTiernan's 1987 action hit "Predator," which introduced the eponymous alien hunting human commandos in the jungle. (That glory was tarnished after Fox squandered its potentially great movie monster in a series of increasingly weak sequels -- the last one featuring a Predator lurking about in small-town Colorado.)

This time around, a clever premise takes the series back to its '87 basics. Mercenaries and criminals from across the Earth are (literally) dropped into an alien-jungle "game preserve" to be killed by a Predator hunting party. They try to survive while resisting the urge to turn on each other, with varying degrees of success. And that's pretty much it. The whole enterprise feels like a pretty decent, grim little lost-patrol mash-up of the original "Predator" and "Pitch Black" -- a perfectly fine night at the beer-theater, in other words.

While "Predators" isn't nearly as vivid or fresh as the original, it's certainly its strongest sequel. It's also a weird semi-nostalgia trip back to the days when Joel Silver ruled action cinema, when directors had the patience to lock their cameras down and calmly set up situations before blowing things up in comprehensible action beats -- all while quickly sketching a large "Aliens"-style action cast (this time using Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Alice Braga, Topher Grace and the great Danny Trejo, among others).

It's a little sad this summer has been so lame that I'm now turning to pretty-good '80s pastiches for my meat-and-potatoes action fix. Here's hoping Sly Stallone's "The Expendables" delivers along the same lines.

( * * * ) Mr. What?