Alien"In space, no one can hear you scream." A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in
Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the
Nostromo's crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas' (
Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (
John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (
Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (
Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane's stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
AliensBig-budget special effects, swiftly paced action, and a distinct feminist subtext from writer/director
James Cameron turned what should have been a by-the-numbers sci-fi sequel into both a blockbuster and a seven-time Oscar nominee.
Sigourney Weaver returns as Ellen Ripley, the last surviving crew member of a corporate spaceship destroyed after an attack by a vicious, virtually unbeatable alien life form. Adrift in space for half a century, Ripley grapples with depression until she's informed by her company's representative, Carter Burke (
Paul Reiser) that the planet where her crew discovered the alien has since been settled by colonists. Contact with the colony has suddenly been lost, and a detachment of colonial marines is being sent to investigate. Invited along as an advisor, Ripley predicts disaster, and sure enough, the aliens have infested the colony, leaving a sole survivor, the young girl Newt (
Carrie Henn). With the soldiers picked off one by one, a final all-female showdown brews between the alien queen and Ripley, who's become a surrogate mother to Newt. Several future stars made early career appearances in Aliens (1986), including
Lance Henriksen,
Bill Paxton, and
Reiser. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Alien ³Acclaimed director
David Fincher's promising career was lucky to survive this astonishingly wrong-headed, almost universally despised second sequel to Alien (1979). The film careens into oblivion virtually from the beginning, as Lt. Ellen Ripley (
Sigourney Weaver) is the only survivor of a crash-landing on a hellish, God-forsaken prison planet. Not only does the crash kill little Newt, completely obviating the entire point of the superior Aliens (1986), but
Fincher then compounds his betrayal of that film's fans by having Ripley attend the girl's gruesome autopsy and barely bat an eye as the child's chest is bloodily ripped open with a steel bonesaw. Things just go downhill from there, as the rather unthreatening rapists and murderers harass Ripley and curse a great deal before being torn apart by large fans, having their heads crushed by the unconvincing CGI alien, and finally volunteering to be murdered by the beast rather than letting the evil Company get hold of it.
Fincher does the best he can with a terrible script, and there are some nice supporting turns by
Charles S. Dutton,
Charles Dance, and
Brian Glover, but nothing could redeem the film's first 15 minutes. By the time Ripley takes a suicidal swan-dive into a vat of molten lead, cradling a baby alien as it explodes from her chest, many viewers will not know whether to reach for the remote control or a warm bath and a razorblade. A loathsome experience by any standard, Alien 3 still made enough money for
Weaver to return as a Ripley clone in Alien Resurrection (1997). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Alien ResurrectionThe fourth film in the Alien series, directed by
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) at a cost of 70 million dollars, takes place aboard an immense ship, the
Auriga, where General Perez (
Dan Hedaya) heads a staff of seven science officers and 42 enlisted, all employed by United Systems Military (replacing the Company of the earlier films). The time is 200 years after the events of Alien 3. Scientists researching the aliens need hosts, and they rely on space mercenaries who make spacecraft raids to acquire bodies. The research requires an Alien Queen specimen, so Ellen Ripley (
Sigourney Weaver) has been cloned from preserved blood samples. The scientific team then removes the baby Alien Queen from Ripley's chest. Since the Ripley clone has alien DNA mixed into her genetic structure, she is not totally human. Later, a commercial freighter, the
Betty, arrives with a crew of mercenaries -- Elgyn (
Michael Wincott), pilot Hillard (
Kim Flowers), paralyzed mechanic Vriess (
Dominique Pinon), space jock Johner (
Ron Perlman), and junior mechanic Annalee Call (
Winona Ryder) -- who deliver a load of human hosts with alien eggs. Problems begin when the mercenaries take over the
Auriga, and aliens escape to massacre humans. As the aliens attack, Ripley and the mercenaries try to reach the
Betty in order to escape. Cinematography by
Darius Khondji features the same ENR process he used on Seven, adding silver to the printing process to heighten contrasts, making the dark colors richer. An electric-blue tint was employed during the underwater firefight between the mercenaries and the aliens. For the more physical aspects of her role,
Ryder got in shape with six hours of daily workouts. Although all previous films in the series were shot at London's Pinewood Studios, filming of Alien Resurrection took place West Los Angeles soundstages with special effects in California and Paris. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
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