Alien

Rating:
Summary: here jonesy...(meow)!
Review: As we all know, Alien is an excellent film and probably about the best cast i have ever seen, but to me, Harry Dean Stanton stole the show as the befuddled and uncomprehending Brett. I just really love his character because he portrays just a normal guy trying to earn some bread. the chemistry between him and Yaphet Kotto is amusing at times but always sincere. blue collar buddies. plus harry is from the midwest i sort of understood his character more, especially coming up with the cattle prod thing.
and killed by looking for a cat! i like the recognition that slowly seeps into his visage as he holds the alien's shed skin in his hand.. he obviously was familiar with snakes. i guess i just think he is the kind of guy you could go into your small town local bar and see playing the jukebox or buyin ya a beer.
sorry, Harry, but Sigourney and Veronica are sexier than you ahahaha

Rating:
Summary: One of the BEST
Review: One of the best scifi/horror movies ever. This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat-beginning to end. A must to complete your SciFi collection.

Rating:
Summary: a classic thriller and scifi movie
Review: this is a brilliant hybrid of science fiction and horror. i happened to have seen it when i was a small kid and it gave me nightmares. ever since then, whenever i had seen this film, i always felt afraid. Ridley Scott did a wonderful job in creating suspense and mystery involving the alien ship they found. I always had questions as to what the ship was. were there still aliens around? would they come back to find their lost ship? that's one thing i loved about this first "alien" film.

Comparisons can't be made with "Aliens" because they are actually quite different forms of film. Ridley Scott meant this film to be a thriller, while James Cameron meant his to me more action oriented. One deals with the fears of clausterphobia, the alien is in the same small space that the crew lived in. what could they do about it? the other had marines with some nasty weaponry. two different films to be seen in two different lights. Both excellent in their own ways.

Rating:
Summary: The First Word In Terror
Review: Alien, by Ridley Scott, is one of the most terrifying films of all time about a group of space travelers who recieve a distress signal from a alien world. They arive and find a hive of eggs. A alien attaches itself to the head of someone and a alien bursts out of him later. Then, they find themselves one by one being killed by the most terrifying creature, the Alien. It was one of the key films of the Horror Golden Age Of The 70s and made a carrer for Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott.

Rating:
Summary: Alien
Review: Simply one of the most innovative, intriguing, and ruthless of its kind, "Alien" is still one of the most horrifying, intense, and heart-pounding cinematic experiences of all time. A deep-space mission crewship lands on LV-426 to investigate the surroundings for future residental opportunities, only to let an alien parasite onboard. When the parasite infects the crew members and eventually takes full form, Nostromo spaceship is under a full-force attack by an alien evil that becomes increasingly ferocious and feeds on human flesh. Sigourney Weaver is commanding in the lead position, proving that woman are just as capable of being a hero as anyone else. Stunning special effects and powerful directing from Ridley Scott. A true science-fiction/horror masterpiece. Director: Ridley Scott. Cast: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright. Rated R for gruesome horror violence and language. 116 minutes.

Rating:
Summary: Scary Stuff
Review: Quite possibly the best looking horror/sci-fi film around, thanks to the anamorphic Widescreen (2:35 to 1)YEAH!!!! Ridley Scott isn't given enough credit for this film.
In my opinion:
One of the three scariest films
Top ten home theater movies
Great ensemble of a cast
One of the best ART DIRECTION movies

And what the hay...Veronica Cartwright gives cinema one of the most creepy, ah...creepiest screams.

The DVD is great, the deleted scenes rock.
the commentary is always insightful

and storyboards (not always the highlight of my DVDing) come on its H.R. GIGERtime!!!This is incredible.

Like Agatha Christie's "TEN LITTLE INDIANS", the flow of the film is tight. The killer and characters (there are only seven) are contained with no way out, and that is scary...cause like the tagline says "In space no one can hear you scream".

Rating:
Summary: Stands the test of time
Review: At the time of its release twenty years ago Alien was talked about for its gross out scenes. People missed what was different about it. For indeed,Alien is probably the first serious science fiction film. Prior to it being made most science fiction films had poor scripts, had little money put into them and was only of interests to Science Fiction fans and kids.

Alien is a movie that tried to present characters that were real. Instead of having actors in funny suits Aliens had people who were trying to portray normal working class people in a non-patronising way. The film was also important in the way it portrays women. Prior to Alien a woman?s role in a film was to be a plot device. That is a love interest or someone to be rescued. Sigourney Weaver portrayed the first female character who did not have to wait around for a man to rescue her, and who had more presence of mind than the other characters. She wins not by using feminin charms but by using her brain.

Despite these break throughs the film still has annoying bits. Why for instance when faced by a danger, do characters in horror movies always split up, and walk into dark rooms backwards, not looking at what is around? Well of course it is a plot device to enable a film to have some length as individual characters meet their fate. However in reality if people are faced with a danger they tend to stick together to provide each other with assistance.

Despite this built in tribute to the horror genre the film is one that still looks okay today. The dialogue has not dated because of the quality of the scripting, as happens in most Science Fiction films. It is still effective even though the special effects do not have the impact that they once did. All in all a film like Blade Runner which stands up to the test of time.

Rating:
Summary: As "Seemingly Authentic" As Science Fiction Gets
Review: This film, directed by Ridley Scott, is without a doubt one of finest science fiction films ever. Resultantly, it is also one of the most effective horror films as well.

The casting for the film is excellent. While Scott was going for the "truck drivers in space" look, he succeeded in accidentally finding the perfect middle ground. Obviously actors aren't going to be as un-photogenic as real truck drivers, but at least his goal moved the casting away from Beautiful People Syndrome that plagues other projects. This is further built upon with a very "lived in" large industrial towing spaceship. Their clothing also looked used and functional, rather than the product of artistic fashion/costume designers. I'm struck by how Russian everything looks: the laced-up underclothing that goes under the pressure suit, the space-suit's big round helmet, the woven-cloth insulated wiring on the self destruct controls, etc. The name Nostromo may also be further evidence that the production designers looked to the Russians for inspiration. Considering that nation was (and still is) more practical and successful in extended-duration space missions, this reflects well on the filmmakers.

Another nice addition was the mention of Zeta Reticuli, which in the alien phenomenon field is synonymous with their home planet as supposedly claimed by the Betty Hill case. Interestingly, it was not Betty Hill who said that, but a public school teacher & astrologer who erroneously tried to match Hill's star map to known constellations. The fact that this is completely bogus even if one hypothetically thought there were little gray men does not detract from the film, but is yet another goody for the attentive viewer, especially for one released in 1979.

With all these positive comments, it is important to point out how they are presented to the audience. The acting is very good. The dialog is always realistic chatter, not the obviously scripted lines of most films. Multiple characters are often speaking at the same time and there is a sense of room ambience, perhaps because much of the audio was recorded live on set (or evidence of how good the ADR and foley people were). Much of this chatter is already seemingly underway when the scene switches to it, as if we are observing real events. With a horror element that is already expertly managed, all of this serves to heighten our involvement in the movie and help us empathize with the characters.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest films ever made
Review: Well, where do you start with this marvel? Yes, the effects are fantastic, the acting is first-rate, the direction is flawless, and the score is perfect. However this film touches on something more than that and there's a strong reason why it's still going strong in 2002'. The camera drifts across a dark planet then through the corridors of the characters lives. These corridors are dark, cold, sterile, some are wet, ravished, and broken. The theme of corridors keeps working it's way through the film and you come to see that not only are we looking at the interiors of the spaceship, but, we are looking at the interiors of our collective unconsciousness. Here, in this most puzzling of places, we become mother and father, giving birth to our destruction (the alien) going on to blow up our salvation (Nostromo) and then hope as we merge with the stars that "help" will rescue us (the ending), as bleak a picture as any. You can read 'Alien' on many different levels which is why it goes in the cannon of the masterpieces, not just alongside 'It' or 'The Fly', but alongside the great meditations on existence (the flaming circle of life & death) like 'Cries & Whispers', 'Stalker', 'La Jettee', and 'Jacob's Ladder'. A film such as this has it's own raison d'etre; watch and figure it out for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: The best of the Alien films!
Review: Ridley Scott's classic Sci Fi thriller is the best of the franchise, no question, no debate, it is the best. Great visuals and special effects from maestro H.R Giger and masterful direction from Scott give the film it's dark, horror-house look. A great performance from Sigourney Weaver and haunting music by Jerry Goldsmith all combine to create one of the greatest Sci Fi films ever made.