Waking up in the middle of a terrifying mid-air plunge, tough mercenary Royce (Adrien Brody) is saved by a parachute strapped to his body. Landing in dense jungle, the soldier of fortune discovers he is heavily armed, although he has no idea how he ended up in freefall. Nor do the other hardcases he soon encounters who have also parachuted in armed to the teeth, including Israeli sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga), Russian special forces man Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), death row psycho Stans (Walton Goggins) and Yakuza killer Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien).
Forming a very uneasy alliance, the group soon make the terrifying discovery that they are no longer on Earth. Attacked by the alien equivalent of hunting dogs, they manage to briefly put aside their differences in order to survive, but it's not long before they are face-to-face with the beings behind their abduction.
Masked hunters of incredible strength and agility bearing an arsenal of advanced weaponry, including cloaking devices and computer-guided laser cannons, these Predators are a formidable enemy. As the motley crew of assassins, mercenaries and criminals are picked off one by one, under Royce's leadership, the survivors put together a desperate plan to escape this brutal new world.
With a devilishly simple set-up, Predators aims to recapture some of the macho magic that made the original Arnold Schwarzenegger movie such a bloody treat. While it never quite delivers on its clever concept, it's easily better than the tepid Predator 2 and subsequent Aliens vs Predator mash-ups.
Going way out of his comfort zone, Brody puts on his best gravely Christian Bale voice to play his first action hero, and although he's no Arnie, the Oscar winning actor has no problems pulling off steely stoicism. It's a shame that some of the team are underused, particularly professional badass Danny Trejo, but the brilliant Goggins - best known for his work on TV's The Shield - is horribly watchable as the sociopathic jailbird.
It may not live up to its promise, but Predators delivers plenty of slick fun, not to mention a somewhat wacky extended cameo from Laurence Fishburne in a role originally earmarked for Schwarzenegger. Mimicking the visuals, story beats and soundtrack of the 1987 original, Predators sometimes feels like big-budget fan fiction, but, that said, it's never less than breathlessly entertaining.
Predators is a Film programme that first aired in 2010 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
