Film Of The Week #28 - Aliens

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/

Winner by a landslide this week. First sequel to be awarded FotW also.

This is a pretty special film for me, because when I saw it as a kid, it scared me so ****less, I had to stop watching as soon as it got to the chestburster scene. Of course, I came back to it again the next day (I was taping it that night), and since then it became one of my favourites, almost endlessly rewatchable.

When I got it on DVD, it was almost like a whole new film to me, because of the high censorship on TV at the time, a lot of scenes had been cut, or edited. So seeing it on DVD, I was in for a much more brutal experience, and a film I thought I knew so well had so many suprises for me. It also reminds me of when I first saw just how brutal and gory Robocop really was for the first time.

As a sequel, Aliens is just perfection. Instead of presenting more of the same, like most sequels would, Writer/Director James Cameron offers something new and completely expands on the concepts presented in the first. In many ways, I think it betters the original film, as Cameron created a wide variety of characters that I certainly felt for and I think other people really felt for aswell. The exceptional cast didn't hurt too, I'd imagine.

Anyway, sorry if I'm being rather nostalgic with this post.

Discuss.

The Denouncer

In work when we are having arguments about movies, only Aliens can be agreed upon by all as a classic. Everyone loves it. One of the best examples of a sequel ever - it expands on the original story and takes it on a different, action-packed direction..and it features Lance Henriksen "I prefer the term artificial person myself" in a brilliant reversal of Ian Holms role in the original.
Sigourney Weavers performance is superb..from touching scenes with Newt to developing that maternal instinct to whoop alien ass.
That's what makes it so good, the little details before the big battles. And James Horners score, the cinematography, the direction..it's the only way to be sure.
Along with Robocop and Blade Runner my fav sci-fi ever. 10/10

ixoy

Superb iconic brilliance. I've seen this movie about three times as often as my next most watched movie and, at one time, was almost able to quote the entire dialogue verbatim.

If asked why, I'd have to point out just what makes the movie work. For a start, as pointed out above, it's a sequel that takes the premise of the original - the chest-bursting, oddly sexually-aspected insectile terror of the original and expands on it. It's not just that they said "Hey let's not have one aliens - let's have thousands!" It's that they put extra thought into it with the alien queen and yet still keep the dark spectre of implantation that the first movie gave.

From a character point of view, it's one of the best in the genre. Ripley has characterisation, growing from the prequel - something sorely rare in the sci-fi genre. Her relationship with Newt, her burgeoning friendship with Hicks, and her development of trust with Bishop - all fantastic. She's one of the true strong female action leads, iconic even. I'm not quite sure about this, but I believe it's one of the very few times (if ever) that an actor got nominated for an Oscar for their role in a sci-fi film. Well deserver.
Of course she's not the only acting talent - Michael Biehn is great at displaying both the tough side and the caring side, as he has in 'The Terminator'. Lance Henrisken's role as Bishop is superb (e.g. the delivery of "Not bad for a .. human" with a faint smile).

In fact they're all good - a strong strength of the film is the ability to individualize even those who have small parts. That's thanks to the script, which pays attentions to these areas. Even though we know most are going to die, we care more because there's emphasis placed on them as people - remember, it's a long time before anyone actually gets hurt and yet never seems it.

Direction is spot on too. Whoever thought of the motion trackers, with that soft phut phut noise, deserves a standing ovation - I've yet to see a device that can invoke so much tension. Indeed there's lots of moments of great tension that Cameron manages to skilfully invoke and then when it comes to the action scenes, he's more than capable.
The general atmosphere and attention to detail is great too - I've rarely found a sci-fi movie whose world I can believe in so much. The dark, damp, wet feel is a strong factor in dragging us into their world.

Word of praise for the score too - James Horner's pieces here have been reused elsewhere but lost none of their effectiveness. I still get shivers down my spine hearing them.

Little word to be said that I prefer the Special Edition to the Theatrical release. Although some say that the Hadley's Hope colony scene removes the surprise, I think it adds to it because of how little we see. I also think that the inclusion of the scene relating to what happened to Ripley's daughter (with, ironically, a photo of Weaver's mum), was an awful omission on the original feature given what it explains about Newt.

I could go on and on and on about this movie. I've grown up with it too much not too - from the ITV censored versions (dubbed favourite there including "I say we go in there and blow up the whole goddamn nest") to my first ever purchase of a movie on VHS, to my first ever DVD purchase (Region 1), to my first ever repeat DVD purchase (wanted Region 2).
This film remains unbeaten with me. I love lots of movies, think they're excellent, but only 'Aliens' deserves the italicization - I love Aliens.

Movie of the week? Movie of the lifetime for me.

Galvasean

Love this movie, absolute classic. I would go on but I think the first three posts say it all.

egan007

Here's something closely related....
(If it's a nice evning tomorrow evening! it could be !)

ALIENS is been shown in temple bar outdor theatre

http://www.templebar.ie/home_nav_2_t_2_c_8_e_452.html

Pugsley

Absolutely superb film, I cant count how many times I've seen this film and its still as enjoyable now as the first time I watched it when I was 6. The only complaint that can ever be made about this film is that it took 28 weeks to get a FotW

User45701

ye fiar enough, aliens is a great movie.

It was always my favurate of the lot and it has the most re-watchabality of the aliens movies

johnny_ultimate

Lots of love here for this film - seems to hold a place in the mods' hearts anyway
Anyway, great film. Before my time (only caught it on TV a year or two ago), but it holds up excellently. One of the few sequels that is as good as the original, all the more impressive for being a completely different kind of film - action replacing horror. One Ive been meaning to get around to watching again.

Duggy747

Excellent choice people!! My favourite movie of all time! It has everything, action, horror, tension, suspense, and just sheer strokes of brilliance in this movie. Easily Cameron's masterpiece. I watch this movie over & over again and I can honestly say it's the only movie in my vast library that still makes me squirm, raise my heartbeat, and utterily grab my attention.

Recently I went into some guy's house that my mate's knew, as I was coming in the hallway I heard from the TV in living room:

"What are we supposed to use, harsh language?"

Immediately I noticed it was Aliens, shocked everyone at how I got without even being near the room, I just love that movie so much. I also have a special bond with it too, the scene where the marines hop off the APC to find the located survivors was filmed on the 30th September 1985, the day I was born

It's a timeless classic which has barely even aged, the concept is still as fresh as it was the day it first became a twinkle in Cameron's eye. Where most sequels fails this delivers in spades and some might say it's better than the first. I don't say that really, cuz I value Alien too much as well. Really the two movies are of seperate form and shouldn't be compared, the 1st for brilliant horror, the 2nd for brilliant action. It's as if they can both cater for different people's taste. Though even if you hate action movies you'd be hard pressed not to like this movie.

It was also a tour de force of imagination. The Alien Queen being construction from a simple shell covered in black bags with two puppetiers sitting in the belly. Cotton wool to perform the nuke explosion at the end. The power-loader made of crappy cardboard-ish material but painted brilliantly to give a rusted metallic look, and a big guy at the back of it to move it. The M41A pulse rifle being just a modified Thompson SMG and, of course, the invention of the smart gun. The motion tracker has to be one of the greatest types of props used in cinema, the sheer sound of it is enough to drive you insane with tension (Puh......Puh......Puh.....wow-woo......wow-woo).

The characters as well are also of excellent standard from Hicks to much-loved Hudson ("Game over man, GAME OVER!!") to the sleazy but believable Burke and, of course, Ripley who doesn't come out in this movie like some sort of heartless killing machine ("Get away from her you BITCH!!") Then we got the main stars who make this movie turn, the xenomorphs. The reason this movie got to everyone is because we were disgusted and freaked out by the one in Alien. Then in this one there's a fúcking colony of them and our protaginists were trapped with them. The scene where the aliens come out of the walls for the first time still stops my heart.

And of course one of my most disgusted organisms in cinema history; The Facehugger *shudders* The scene were Newt & Ripley are trapped with 2 of them still freaks me right the fúck out!! Eurgh, I can still hear the slimey noise of it tongue trying to get down your throat *shudders again!*

Easily, easily, easily the best action movie ever to grace the silver screen (yes, even beating T2, Matrix, Total Recall, etc respectively). Long live the time when CGI wasn't an excuse to do a scene, you can really appreciate the enormous and fantastic work that went into this movie! I'll never get sick of this movie or watching it with others (It's funny to watch them squirm and jump at some scenes) The pinnacle of action cinema and it stands up there nicely with the giants of Sci-Fi and Horror along with Alien.

Really, you'd have to be ignorant of cinema to pass this movie off as "another action / horror movie" or "meh, it was okay, a bit gammy!"

EDIT: Funny thing actually, I was thinking of Cameron last night and the story of how he & Scott were talking about making another Alien and he had begun penning a script for Alien 5, but when he heard AVP was being released he chucked it in the bin having seeing the franchise as nothing more than Fox's assest.

Necronomicon

What can I say that hasn't already been said? Most deserved a winner so far.

Pugsley

Duggy747 wrote:

The M41A pulse rifle being just a modified Thompson SMG and, of course, the invention of the smart gun.

The smartgun was an MG42 with bits ripped off a motor bike for a harness.
http://www.frenchparadise.net/modules/Page/html/images/mg42.jpg
http://www.alienscollection.com/jeanettebts2.jpg

You can see a pretty good comparison there

senordingdong

egan007 wrote:

Here's something closely related....
(If it's a nice evning tomorrow evening! it could be !)

ALIENS is been shown in temple bar outdor theatre

http://www.templebar.ie/home_nav_2_t_2_c_8_e_452.html

So it rained an awful lot on saturday. Did the film go ahead?

BopNiblets

"Game over man, game over!"


Alien is classic and all, but I enjoy this more.

Smellyirishman

Loved it, all that needs to be said has been said. This FotW thing is great btw.

galactus

"You still don't realize what you're dealing with. The Alien is a perfect organism."

I have to say I much prefer the original Alien movie which would definitely make my top 5 movies of all time and is (to me) the greatest horror movie of all time. Yes, even scarier than Hellraiser.

Even went up to Dubland to watch the 25th anniversary edition - was great to see it on the big screen after all these years.

There is no doubt that Aliens, the sequel to the superior Alien, is a fantastic movie: I have really enjoyed reading previous posters comments on this but to me the sequel just doesn't have the subtlety of the original (think of the scene with the cat witnessing The Alien killing Brett...or the entire last 20mins with hardly any dialog).

OK, I'll stop now

Aliens is a very good s/f movie but not up there with the original or with Blade Runner, the 2nd greatest* s/f movie of all time IMHO - both directed by Ridley Scott of course.

* Warts and all, I'll give #1 to Dune.

BlitzKrieg

rottentomatoes named Aliens at number 10 in the rottentomatoes top 100 sci fi films

Alien was at 4


just to add.

p.s love Aliens.

Tar.Aldarion

Love this movie, great choice.
Alien was better I think. I would have to watch them both together and it would be hard to choose.

The Bollox

"hey vasquez, do you ever get mistaken for a man?"
"no, do you?"

what a comeback!

classic film, absolute classic. it outstrips the others in the series by a considirable margin

Basq

As someone already mentioned, everything's been said that needs to be!

One of the reasons why i adore 'Aliens' is the difference from it's predecessor. 'Alien' was an effective enthralling horror whereas 'Aliens' felt more like a balls-out action war movie with plenty of witty dialogue (pretty much all of the best lines from Bill Paxton)

Slutmonkey57b

Whenever I have to address my minions at work I always have to resist starting off with "all right men, I want this thing done smoooooth and by the numbers... I want weapons loadout at oh-six-hundred..."