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I was watching Predator 2 yesterday, a film I’ve seen a dozen times, but never seems to get old. It’s not what I’d call award-winning material, but it’s a good genre flick that doesn’t pretend to be anything more.

It’s a straight-forward action/thriller that starts off running and doesn’t really let up the rest of the way. It’s violent, bloody, comical, cheesy… a B-movie essentially, but still entertaining. Call it a guilty pleasure, despite the fact that it was mostly trashed by critics.

However, in watching it again it got me thinking – was Danny Glover’s an opportunity lost when considering black male actors who had the potential to be action hero movie stars? Glover’s resume is full of mostly dramas and he may not even have wanted to pursue a career as an action movie star, but, indulge me anyway.

He’s practically a maniac in Predator 2. Rough, tough, fearless, determined, relentless as police Lieutenant Mike Harrigan, in an early nod to colorblind casting. He’s a black man, but the film doesn’t care, and it really didn’t need to given the kind of film it is. And he wins in the end. Though there’s no “girl” to get, as is often the case in movies of its ilk.

It wasn’t exactly common to see a black actor leading in a film like this at the time. These were the years when Eddie Murphy was still da man with two Beverly Hills Cop movies and 48 Hours on his resume. Wesley Snipes wouldn’t make his action hero mark for another 2 years, with Passenger 57.

This sequel really isn’t much better nor worse than the first Predator flick, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wasn’t quite the major Hollywood player he would eventually become some years later.

In it, there’s even a scene in which he’s referred to by one of the other characters as John Wayne – a name that’s become an adjective implying toughness and a no-nonsense approach to whatever task is at hand.

Maybe Danny Glover never really fit Hollywood’s definition of what good looks are, but tough guys like the aforementioned John Wayne, as well as Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and others, weren’t exactly Hollywood pretty boys either. They were all tough guys who did what we expected tough guys to do in movies. Be tough!

Plus, Glover had the size. The man stands at about 6ft 3inches tall, and back in the day, he wasn’t exactly skinny. He was 44 years old at the time by the way. And I’d say he was a more versatile actor than a lot of those other guys I mentioned above.

I imagine he could have done a few more of these genre action/thriller-type flicks after Predator 2. It was actually nice to see him get out of Mel Gibson’s shadow after two Lethal Weapon movies.

So what do you think? Danny Glover, action movie star 20 years ago?

Trailer below:

Tambay Obenson is editor of Shadow And Act on the indieWIRE Network at blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact

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