The Mighty Pawns (1987)

Starring:

• Paul Winfield
• Alfonso Ribeiro 
• Rosalind Cash 
• Terence Knox

Storyline
Terence Knox stars as, Steve Grenowski, a white inner-city teacher, assigned to a classroom full of problem students. By appealing to his students' gambling instincts, Gernowski turns the kids onto chess. Soon the teacher's chess team, headed by Frank (Alfonso Ribero, TVs The Fresh Prince), has won the county's junior championship. A shot at a national title is compromised when one of Frank's less trustworthy pals lures him away to a few local "money matches". Paul Winfield (Trouble Man, Sounder) and Rosalind Cash (Cornbread, Earl and Me, Amazing Grace) costar in this fact-based drama, first telecast February 14, 1987 on the PBS series Wonderworks. 

Predator (1987)

Starring:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Carl Weathers
• Bill Duke

IMDB.com
A team of special force ops, led by a tough but fair soldier, Major "Dutch" Schaefer, are ordered in to assist CIA man, George Dillon, on a rescue mission for potential survivors of a Helicopter downed over remote South American jungle. Not long after they land, Dutch and his team discover that they have been sent in under false pretenses. This deception turns out to be the least of their worries though, when they find themselves being methodically hunted by something not of this world.

McTiernan's Predator released in 1987 and has stood the test of time as a Sci-Fi classic. A fitting and elaborate cast (Arnold, Carl Weathers, etc.) help viewers come to grips with the environment of the movie. Silvestri's soundtrack kicks in with excellent timing as do the sound effects which remain crisp and heart-stopping. The cinematography is good and the action scenes are smooth, realistic and fun to watch.

The characters are commandos targeting renegade forces in Central America to rescue a diplomatic hostage. Watching them transcend from macho-man confidence to panicky prey-like paranoia creates a perfect atmosphere for the film, which plays off your imagination until the climax where Dutch, played by Arnold, relies on wit and instinctual strengths to combat the terror at any cost. The effects are impressive and are excitingly original, especially with the creation of such a sophisticated beast as the Predator.

Perhaps what makes the film have a such a raw, earthly quality is its relation to settings of man vs. nature in the modern world. Facing something infinitely more powerful than man is what the story comes down to; perhaps even man can conquer the unknown if he remains true to his natural powers than his ammunition.

Survival suspense of the purest kind. Predator deserves higher ratings. 10/10.

The Predator was played by a black male -Kevin Peter Hall. That makes him a supervillain!

Critical Condition (1987)

Starring:

• Richard Pryor
• Rachel Ticotin
• Rubén Blades

IMDB.com
Kevin Lennihan is a con artist. But this time he's framed and comes before a judge. By claiming insanity, he hopes to get off the hook. He manages to end up in a hospital on Governor's Island, off the coast of New York for a mental examination. That night, a storm breaks out over the area, and the electricity to the hospital is broken. In the ensuing chaos that follows, Kevin is taken for a doctor, Eddie Slattery. Suddenly, he is in charge of a whole hospital!

This rather mediocre comedy from 1987 was produced at the height of Richard Pryor's (somewhat unfortunate) lapse into brain dead motion picture comedies. However, like most of his films, Pryor made standard, silly concepts -- in this case, a man mistaken for a doctor forced into pretending to be on -- amusing.

Pryor plays a framed jewel thief who pleads insanity and is sent to a hospital for mental check-ups. However, once there is is mistaken for an actual doctor, and continues the charade to avoid being charged with a crime he didn't commit, etc.

It's got a lot of obvious jokes that get old in five minutes - this would be an effective "SNL" skit, NOT a full-length movie. The problem with standard concepts such as these is mainly that once you've accomplished your goal -- ha ha a man pretending to be a doctor who doesn't know anything about medical practice, that's hilarious! -- there's nowhere left to go. So they add boring and uninteresting subplots, typically romances which end with the mistaken man confessing he isn't who the woman who loves him thought he was, they break up, and then they get back together again for a happy ending in which she realizes that she really loves him for who he is, not for what he is.

That said, Pryor makes this entertaining - more so than it should be.