Rating: 
Summary: R.I.P. Ripley
Review: Sigourney Weaver is, as ever, marvellous, and obviously having quite a time playing the post-Ripley clone with alien DNA in this sequel. But overall, "Alien Resurrection" is an exercise in ponderous style that ultimately doesn't even seem too stylish. Darius Khondji's studied, heavily textured cinematography is stunning, and certainly a technical marvel, but it makes the whole movie seem as though it's been preserved in amber. This leaden artificiality-- which goes for Jeunet's direction as a whole-- leaves the film with little emotional force and, after a point, little point in continuing. Sure, since Ripley's dead anyway, this film is freed by the "alienation effect" from having to be true to its predecessors, and it seems to be trying to function like a Greek satyr play to the serious trilogy it follows. The over-the-top performances from Hedaya and Freeman give the film some sparks of pleasure; but the pirate crew is almost universally unendurable, as is the poor schmuck with an alien fetus inside him. And what in the name of god is the subtext in nuking subSaharan Africa?: it would seem that keeping the aliens from landing on earth has cost a couple of billion lives anyway. Perhaps "Alien Resurrection" is trying to be a live-action anime film, but that is hardly a worthy idea to follow the greatness of "Alien" and "Aliens." One has to respect the fact that Hollywood itself respected the series enough to recruit artists like Jeunet and Khondji to work on this project; but for whatever reasons, the results are considerably less than one would hope for.
Rating:
Summary: Pales in comparison to the first two movies.
Review: Does anyone see a lot of similarities between the Alien series and the Batman series? The first two movies in both series are the best, and the last two are the worst.Don't get me wrong. "Alien: Resurrection" actually started out pretty good, at least until the middle of the movie. The first two are the best by far, and the third was much too depressing. The idea of cloning Ripley sounded like a good idea, and I was looking forward to seeing this movie. Unfortunately, this movie went downhill as soon as the aliens escaped for a number of reasons. 1)At the first sign of trouble, the soldiers on the "Auriga" immediately retreat, not even bothering to put up a fight. The marines in "Aliens" kicked a**; how come the soldiers in this movie are portrayed as wimps? 2)Terrible acting and dialogue, especially Winona Ryder. She never should have been in the movie in the first place. Even Sigourney Weaver was awful; she barely did anything in this movie, and she didn't kill nearly as many aliens as she did in the second one. 3)The aliens were only seen in basically two scenes: when they escaped from their prison, and in the underwater scene. Most of the rest of the movie is just talking. It worked in "Alien", but not in this one. 4)What about the Queen? She's supposed to be the leader of the aliens, and we only saw her twice in the whole movie. And, to top it all off, that godawful Newborn kills her with one blow?!! What a crappy way to kill one of the best creations in this series! 5)And, the worst insult of all, the Newborn. A half-human, half-alien hybrid. Oooh, scary. The movie doesn't really explain how that thing came to be. The ending was the weakest in the movie. The Newborn gets blown out of space (deja vu), and the "Auriga" crashes into the Earth, wiping out a large percent of the planet's population. Think about it; crashing the ship into Earth will kill as many people as the aliens would've, probably even more. A stupid idea. Not to mention, the movie wasn't even scary or suspenseful. It had some redeeming qualities (the underwater battle, Ripley discovering the other attempts to clone her), and there's plenty of gore. But, other than that, the movie sucks, plain and simple. Stick with the first two, and ignore the rest. Hopefully, "Alien 5" will be an improvement.
Rating: 
Summary: A film with excellent potential, but horrid execution
Review: This is one of those movies that should have been much better than it should have been. It featured a script from one of my favorite creative artists, Joss Whedon of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE and ANGEL fame, direction by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director of A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, AMELIE, and CITY OF LOST CHILDREN), and reprises the greatest female action hero in movie history: Ellen Ripley. Or at least her clone. In 1997 when this was released Whedon was not yet known for what he would achieve with BUFFY on television nor Jeunet for what he would do with AMELIE and A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, but in retrospect the film on paper seems utterly ideal. First, you had the matching of Whedon with Ripley. More than any other recent American screen writer, Joss Whedon feels at home with strong female characters. He was, after all, the one who created in Buffy the supreme female action hero of our time (and set the stage for a host of imitators such as Max Guevera on DARK ANGEL and Sydney Bristow in ALIAS). Who better to write the screenplay for the fourth film in the ALIEN sequence? Unfortunately, although no other writers are credited, his script was extensively rewritten during production. Whedon has since disavowed his involvement with the film, and refused to be involved with the commentaries for the ALIEN boxed set.
One would have to agree with Whedon that the final outcome is not that great. One can often glimpse great potential in the film, but there is also a feeling that much of it was made on the fly, and that it is the victim of constant compromises. We know, for instance, that dozens of scenes had to be modified or altered for financial or other considerations. One also wonders to what extent Jeunet was the right person for the director's position. I have to confess to not being one of his fans. I loved AMELIE, but as I've seen his other films, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that while he possesses an extraordinary eye and can produce films that are wondrous to look at, he is seriously challenged by narrative. CITY OF LOST CHILDREN is a haunting film to watch, but the story really isn't worth discussing. A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is one of the most incoherent major releases of the past couple of decades, despite being exquisitely beautiful in very nearly every frame. Even AMELIE succeeds more as something to look at than as a story to follow. This is not a good combo for a writer like Whedon who is obsessed with narrative. They do not play off one another's strengths. My own suspicion is that the final film is a result of the wrong director for the wrong set up financially-minded producers to produce a screenplay that didn't mesh with the strengths of either the director or the producers. But the brute fact is that the film was severely under-budgeted (it was made for between $50 and $60 million, which was not much even in 1996-97 for a major science-fiction film), and too many compromises had to be made, especially considering that much of the budget had to go for salary.
Nonetheless, there are still many memorable moments in the movie, and all in all I'm glad it was made rather than not made. I do wish a different director had been involved, someone who understood narrative and was good at exposition. But what we have is often interesting. Ripley is simply the best female movie action hero ever, and anytime we get to see Sigourney Weaver reprise the role is something to be grateful for (there have been rumors on and off over the past few years that we might see one more ALIEN film). In this film she is a clone, and a disturbed clone at that. She is simultaneously world-weary and psychotic. She's been stripped of the compassion that was found in the first films, the intense passion for life. Only gradually does she regain some of her humanity in the course of the film. I liked Winona Ryder's turn as the android Annalee Call (which creates an odd conflict in Ripley, who has a history with androids), and many of the other characters as well. The cast wasn't the problem with the film. The problem with the film is the sense that everything is being done on the cheap.
Many Whedonesque touches survive in the dialogue. Before getting the chance to do BUFFY on TV, Whedon worked extensively as a script doctor, his job being to add sparkle and one liners to otherwise moribund scripts. It isn't an accident that BUFFY has perhaps more great one liners of any show in the history of American TV. The guy can write a great line. So, ALIEN RESURRECTION has a host of great lines, many of them containing words that makes it impossible to repeat here. But you have to love an exchange like:
Johner: So, I hear you, like, ran into these things before?
Ripley: Yeah.
Johner: What did you do?
Ripley: I died.
Or when Ripley is talking to someone who has had one of the aliens implanted in his chest for gestation:
Purvis: WHAT'S [expletive deleted] INSIDE ME?
Ripley: There's a monster in your chest. These guys hijacked your ship, and they sold your cryotube to this... human, and he put an alien inside of you. It's a really nasty one. And in a few hours, it's gonna burst its way through your rib cage, and you're gonna die. Any questions?
Purvis: Who are you?
Ripley: I'm the monster's mother.
Or this great line:
Distephano: I thought you were dead!
Ripley: Yeah, I get that a lot.
There is a lot of great talk like this in the film. Unfortunately, the talk is a whole lot better than the sets and the action. Throughout there is a sense of lack, as if things are not quite finished, or not sufficiently developed. All in all, it is better than nothing, and I think over the next few decades I'll go back to this from time to time, but it is always going to be more of a could-have-been than anything else.
The previews to this film when it first came out did provide one of the great comic moments of my life. I was sitting in the theater with the woman I was dating at the time, an utterly brilliant and astonishingly cute anthropology Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago (today graduated and teaching in a Midwestern university). I was trying to explain to her who Dan Hedaya was, developing my theory that for many years there was a secret contract somewhere that determined that he had to appear in every other film made in Hollywood, and had mentioned several of his roles, none of which struck home. In exasperation I said, "I swear, the guy is in everything!" At which point the lights went down and the previews began, the first of which was for ALIEN RESURRECTION and which began with a shot of Dan Hedaya. I elbowed her and said, "That's Dan Hedaya!" "Oh," she said, "he's in everything!" Just a perfect moment.
Rating:
Summary: takes all three films and shocks the best for last
Review: this film takes all the humor, shocking visuals
and ups them to their fullest
there is more humor
more action
more gut wrenching almost ready to puke visuals that one can take
I'm glad I have this on dvd as well
the directors of this Alien series are brilliant
each one recreated the terror even more terrifying every movie
and the best for last ( this one) lives up to it's predecessors
it not only shocks more
but the story gets more deep then the other 3 ever would
they all had great stories
and will always be watchable over and over
but this one really hooks you in the most
with its whole storyline and plot
truly a sick and amusing film
worth 3 Emmy's if you ask me
one for best actress
one for supporting actress
and one for best direction in sci fi horror movie
Rating: 
Summary: "Kiiiilllll Meeeeeee."
Review: This film didn't even deserve the one star it got from me, but that's the lowest option Amazon gave. I thought the third film was terrible, but this one takes the cake. The premise is this, Ripley is cloned many years after her death and she spawns an Alien queen from scientists tampering with genetic engineering. After she escapes with some more tough characters who we don't care about, she ends up killing a relative Alien born from her own Queen Alien which has its face ripped off by the half alien, half human alien, yeah, stupid. Ripley cries as her child Alien dies and a scientist looms over the situation and says one bad line after the other like "Look, a little baby," and " a perfect butterfly." The movie finally ends and Ripley is finally brought down to Earth, lets hope the movie studios milking this series to death are brought back to Earth as well. Terrible waste of time and money and not including one of the great creature creations ever. Yuck!
Rating:
Summary: What can I say?
Review: I wish the Aliens had gotten to Jean-Pierre Jeunet before he was allowed to release this garbage. This movie served no purpose other than to affirm that the Alien franchise is indeed dead. One of the worst sequels in the history of film.
Rating:
Summary: A Juenot Fan's Review
Review: I didn't have the same problems that almost everybody else had with this movie and I think it's just because I'm more a Jeunet fan than an Alien-series fan. Don't get me wrong, I loved the first two, turned off the third, and ignored this one for years. After being enchanted by The City of Lost Children and Delicatessen, I found out that the wildly creative director of those great films also did this one. Just imagine, if you will, the delight I felt when I learned that my favorite new director had added the last installment to a series I had grown up watching, and it was in English! I was thrilled and I loved the movie. It has a campy quality that doesn't always appeal to the American mass audience but which I love when done properly. Alien: Resurrection has the playful dark fantasy touch that seems so antithetical to the grim reality that defines the first two movies but is what makes the films of Terry Gilliam and Jeunet so tasty. Perhaps those of you who havent' seen his other films should give Jeunet another chance and then come back to this one. If you have fallen for his other films like I have, then maybe you see what I see in this one.
Rating: 
Summary: She'll breed, you'll die...any questions?
Review: Two hundred years after her death Ripley is cloned for the Alien inside her by a rogue military faction. After the Alien is surgically removed the Ripley left is one of mixed species' strengths and seemingly divided species loyalty. When the Alien breeds and decimates the military space station, it is left to Ripley and a group of "where the @#$% are the army guys?!" mercenary smugglers stuck on the outpost to stop the Aliens from reaching Earth.
The standard Alien and space special effects are in play here. The music has a tendency to get in the way of scenes instead of enhancing them. There's a nice mixed group of engaging characters in the smugglers (the lovers, the horny foul mouthed tough guy, the brainy soft hearted wheelchair bound guy, the calm leader, the one with a secret) and the obsessed to the point of arrogant blindness doctors. Over all, the idea of a hybrid Ripley/Alien is an interesting one and makes for a decent center to a good fun action film.
Did the director love Ron Perlman or what?! Gave his rough mercenary smuggler character Johnner (yeah, he's the horny foul mouthed tough guy) all the best lines in the movie ("If you don't want to play basketball I know some other indoor sports," "I can get you off...maybe not the boat..." "Waste of @#$%in' ammo...must be a chick thing," "I'm not the mechanic Ironsides, I just mostly hurt people!") and Ron Perlman makes the most of it, turning in the performance most likely to be the first thing remembered about the film.
Favorite line: "Earth? I'd rather stay here with the things man!" (guess who said it)
Rating:
Summary: Added scenes of Alien Resurrection below
Review: I give 2 1/2 stars for the theatrical release, 3 stars for the special edition and 5 stars for the DVD. Here are the added scenes in the special edition:
Chapter 1: Main Titles
This is the orginial, alternate opening of Alien Resurrection. This opening is also longer than the theatrical opening.
Chapter 3: Born Again
This extended scene shows Ripley trying to get away from the scientists when they remove the Alien Queen embryo.
Chapter 6: Memories
This extended scene shows Ripley having memeories about the girl in the picture a woman is showing her. It also shows added dialogue between Ripley and a scientist.
Chapter 7: The Betty
This extended scene has added dialogue between Elgyn and his co-pilot. It also shows Vriess joking around with Call.
Chapter 9: The Deal
This extended scene shows added dialogue between General Perez and Elgyn.
Chapter 21: "He's got one inside of him."
This scene has additional dialogue between Ripley and the crew.
Chapter 22: A Trap
This scene shows additional dialogue between Ripley and Call.
Chapter 24: Connecting at the Chapel
This extended scene has added dialogue between Ripley, Call, and everyone else about their "disposable" weapons before they make their plunge their weapons.
Chapter 31: "I'm a stranger here myself."
This is the alternate ending for Alien Resurrection, and it shows Ripley, Call, Vriess, and Johner landing on post-apyopaltic Earth.
This is the Uncut Version of Alien Resurrection, since everything that was filmed was added in, reguardless of any missing plot elements.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good, no!
Review: But at least the monsters look good! First time (at the cinema) I was very disappointed - but the movie (as ridicolous as it may be) is entertainig and watchable - and far more "watertight" than Alien vs Predator, the so far worst one, this one at least is based on the same characters and origin of story. And the acting is not worse than the sockers overacting as a some-kind-of-space-army in Aliens.
The first Alien is still the best!
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