Conan the Barbarian is a film about the birth of an ancient legend, but the film created its own modern legend: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the impossibly muscular, unbeatable, barely understandable, curiously noble badass. In turn, Commando is a film about a legend (super-soldier John Matrix) at the peak of his form. Coming right after Schwarzenegger’s breakout hit The Terminator, it’s no coincidence that the hallmarks of John Matrix’s life — big house, cool cars, comely flight attendant, regularly breaking the law — are also the hallmarks of a movie star’s existence. But now, on the final day of Arnoldfest ’11, we reach Predator. It’s a thrilling film, packed full of macho posturing and breathless action. But it is also, ultimately, a film about the deconstruction of a legend. Schwarzenegger plays Dutch, who initially seems like John Matrix with a slightly more realistic name. Before the film is even one-quarter finished, Dutch and his men have already defeated an entire encampment of guerillas. But then things start getting strange, and Dutch discovers that brute force won’t be enough to defeat an enemy he can barely even understand. (This is the third day of a festival honoring the end of Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial term. Click here for our thoughts on Conan the Barbarian, click here for our musings on Commando, and let us know your own thoughts on these action classics in the comments section.)

Keith Staskiewicz: So, Darren, here we are. Three days, three movies, and three instances in which Arnold dons camouflage. But here’s the catch, and here’s one of the reasons Predator is my favorite of the three: This is the only one in which the camo actually serves a purporse. All three of them are pumped up with more testosterone than a lumberjack vs. blacksmith bear-punching contest refereed by a cyborg Ernest Hemingway, but Predator is the only one that is actually also very smart and really well-plotted. Basically the first 20 minutes of the movie is a condensed, and much better, version of Commando, complete with gunfights, explosions, Arnoldisms like “Stick around,” as well as supplemental manliness, as if we needed it, from Jesse Ventura and Carl Weathers. And that’s all before the Predator even shows up. READ FULL STORY »