Some Country For No Men: "Predator: Badlands," reviewed.

Love the One You’re With: Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. (20th Century Studios)

I fear I’ve let you all down by not publishing a thinkpiece exploring What It All Means that both of the Arnold Schwarzenegger / Jesse Ventura movies from 1987, Predator and The Running Man, have a sequel and a remake (respectively) hitting cinemas a week apart from one another, 38 years later.

Anyway, my Washington City Paper review of the new Predator: Badlands is here.

Anti-Monster Squad: "The Predator," reviewed.

Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan Michael-Key, Thomas Jane and Augusto Aguiliera. (Fox)

Predator, directed by John McTiernan the year before he made Die Hard, has been a favorite film of mine ever since I biked home with the rented VHS cassette (I couldn't persuade my dad to take me, aged 10, to see it in the theater) and watched it three or four times in a weekend. It was the 12th highest-grossing film of 1987, a year when the box office top five was Three Men and a Baby, Fatal Attraction, Beverly Hills Cop II, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Moonstruck. One sequel and four original, not-based-on-preexisting material screenplays. Just in case you need a sense of just how long ago that was.

Anyway, I love Shane Black, so I wanted The Predator to be better than it is. My NPR review is here.