Two movies I have watched recently and feel I should comment on are the new Robert Rodriguez Predators and a rather odd french film City of Lost Children.

First, I am a huge fan of the Predator franchise. I loved the original with Arnold, and even enjoyed the Danny Glover sequel. I shall not discuss the AVP abominations, other to say I loved the idea, but did not enjoy the reality.

Robert Rodriguez, who is an admitted fan of the first Predator movie, did a wonderful job of capturing all of the fun of the first, while injecting new life to the franchise. Predators was full of little touches that fans of the original could discover, and even referenced the first, making this version both a sequel and a remake, like Mariarchi/Desperado(also by R Rodriguez).

In this version, a group of killers and mercenaries have been abducted and taken to another planet that serves as a game preserve for the Predator aliens. Deadly hijinks ensue. Adrien Brody stars, along with a smarmy Topher Grace(I guess he finally found acting work), Laurence Fishburn and my favorite bad-ass Danny Trejo(the hard looking mexican with the tattoo of a girl w/ a sombrero on his chest) who stars in Rodriguez’s upcoming film Machete.

Before the flick, we were discussing the Predators, and why they hunt humans(and even why they train against Aliens). What are they training for? Why do they need to practice against such a deadly foe? What else is out there, that such deadly creatures need to become deadlier? This movie actually answers that question. It turns out there are two types of Predators, the smaller ones we are familiar with, and second, larger and nastier type. It seems the two species have been at war for some time now. Great, something nastier than an eight foot tall jungle killer with superior technology and a fondness for hunting humans.

Back to AVP. Again, I love the idea, but did not enjoy the execution. Bad acting, bad directing, and a movie that suffered from Summer Movie Blockbuster syndrome. They made it big, for the sake of big, and it sucked. AVP 2 was worth. I hope to someday see Robert Rodriguez tackle a meeting between the two baddest aliens humans have ever encountered. Sorry, but Klingons or Sith got nothing on Predators or Ridly Scott’s Aliens. Ah yes, those Geiger-esque gene-stealing aliens, I love those. And that brings me to City of Lost Children. You will see how in a moment.

I stumbled across this odd French film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet during my Netflix wanderings. I had seen it before on shelves and steampunk discussion boards, so I thought I would give it a try. Once it came, like many of my Netflix choices, it sat on the dvd player for two weeks before I finally had time to watch it.

I loved it.

This was the second most bizarre film I have seen next to El Tope. The imagery was incredible and I loved the director’s style, though the dialogue and acting were distractingly french. The only name you might recognize is Ron Pearlman, who, sadly, was entirely forgettable.

In City of Lost Children, a rather creepy scientist who cannot dream abducts children to steal their dreams. He is aided by a dwarf woman, a brain-in-a-fishtank and six clones of the inventor who created them all(including the dream-less scientist). How Jeunet found so many odd looking actors is beyond me, but they were a weird bunch. Formost amongst these, is Daniel Emilfork. As soon as I saw this talented actor, I remembered him from Alien: Resurrection. You remember the last Alien movie? The oddly stylistic and weirdest of the series? With the crew of misfit pirates(including Ron Pearlman)? Daniel Emilfork played the cripple in a motorized scooter. Yes, that rather interestingly ugly little man. I started to make more connections, seeing similarities in lighting and directing, and began to wonder. When I saw jars of baby clones lined up, I knew something was up.

A quick search of IMDB revealed that yes, Jean-Pierre Jeunet did in fact direct both films. There is the connection between City of Lost Children and Predators.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone with a taste for the odd, the stylish, and the just plain cool. It has a cult of blind, child-stealing cyborgs who graft onto themselves mechanical eyes to see, an orphanage/school of thieving children(led by co-star Judith Vittet) run by conjoined twins, a weepy strong man(Pearlman), random lama, a former circus performer with trained assassin fleas, random pelican, a brain in a bucket, narcoleptic clones, belching french children, Santa Clause nightmares, an amnesiac inventor who lives beneath the waves and collects junk, Ron Pearlman landing on the Pelican, and a bizarre series of events that begins with a flying tear-drop and ends with a steam-ship crashing into a wharf and saving the day(lets see if I can remember even half of it, teardrop lands on a spiderweb and sparkles, awaking a parrot. Parrot squawks and wakes a dog which barks and wakes a flock of gulls. Gulls fly off an poop on the windshield of a car, which crashes into a fire-hydrant, water gushes into storm drains and chases out rats, which then invade a brothel. Scantily clad whores run into street screaming, and an electrician working on a street sign becomes distracted and short out the circuit, which leads to a city-wide blackout. It goes on from there, and you will not stop laughing with incredulity).

Find and watch this movie.