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Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
I finally got around to watching Don't Breathe. It was amazing. Easily the best horror film in years and the twist packed a punch.
It gave a completely different spin on the home invasion concept. The Strangers should've offered something unique like this.
I also watched 10 Cloverfield Lane. It was pretty good. I liked how the expected twist never came. That in itself is a kind of twist.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
I also watched 10 Cloverfield Lane. It was pretty good. I liked how the expected twist never came. That in itself is a kind of twist.
You know that film originally had nothing to do with Cloverfield? Studio didn't like it, so they re-done the ending script so that they could add in Cloverfield name?
Just watched Exorcist again for the first time in awhile. It's a really pretty good well done film. It losses the effectiveness though after you seen it so many times and know everything that happens, but it's great film making.
The version I watched was the re-edited version with the Spider walk. It's easy to see why the other versions didn't include it, really out off place in context and makes the film much less visceral.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
The Alien quadrilogy. Haven't watched them in years.
Alien- This one doesn't hold up well. I was getting bored. Ripley in panties got my juices flowing though.
Aliens- Still the best one.
Alien 3- I hate the opening. I realize why they needed to kill off the Newt and Hicks characters but it was still sad. I also don't like how they're only fighting one alien.
Resurrection- Ugh. Story is idiotic from jump street. They clone Ripley and the alien embryo that was inside her two hundred years ago? How is that even possible? They make Ripley have some of the alien characteristics. No wonder this flopped. Winona was hot in this. Her career already in a downward spiral.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Finally watched rogue one. Started slow but ended great. Best Star Wars yet.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Oddly enough I also watched the Alien films again recently, partly inspired by paxtons passing.
Alien remains one of my all time favourites, if not my favourite film. Still remains prob the best experience I've ever had in a cinema, the first time I saw it.
Aliens is great but hasn't aged well in comparison to 1 & 3. More a comedy than anything else these days.
Alien 3 is fuckin brilliant. One of the bleakest most depressing films ever! Yea in its original form it's a little undercooked but they did a great job piecing it together again.
4 is actually ok. A little out there but I get the direction they went with.
I also rewatched the matrix trilogy. Holy fuck but do those films suck. Morpheus must be the most irritating character in film history.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Resurrection- They clone Ripley and the alien embryo that was inside her two hundred years ago? How is that even possible?
It's called science fiction mate.
Gave a bit more thought to your analysis and think you're completely wrong. (There's a surprise!). I mean in relation to your opinion on the first two specifically.
The 2nd one is 'just' a great action film set in the alien universe, in reality there's not actually much to distinguish it from the plethora of 80's/90's sci-fi action films.
In terms of story telling and world building, Alien is incomparable to Aliens. The first is just a masterpiece of film, melding genres and creating a new universe in film history. It's an incredible chase/horror/monster film and that's even before you get to the wider storyline and influence it still has. The 2nd one is just a very traditional action film whose very best ideas are directly inspired by the first film, but it doesn't bring enough good new ideas to the universe, in say the way Prometheus did, or even Resurrection tried to do.
I couldn't give a shit about newt or hicks. Think biehn was maybe a bit of a dick about his image being used?
There being only one alien? It's in the fuckin title of the movie man(!). Pretty cool alien in it i thought.. but that's just me, great introduction of it with the dead ox & the guy holding up the shed skin.
Being bored & "Ripley in panties still got my juices flowing" tho says it all really.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Here's my take on the Alien Franchise:
Warning - includes spoilers for the series.
Alien
Pros: The movie that started it all. What would have been a typical B grade monster movie beautifully crafted into an art movie that is still entertaining as genuine horror. The political and sexual subtexts are cleverly incorporated to a thrill fest. Interesting vision of the future in terms of corporate dominance, distrust of AI etc. The use of the H.R. geiger imagery was overwhelming genius and of course is what really created this whole franchise and set the whole mood.
Cons: Not many. Our computer technology was unforeseeable at the time of this movie and so their monochrome-industrial-scifi is no longer a credible vision of what will be our future. That said - it presents a marvellous fantasy future of it's own - to people of my age there's something enjoyable about a future of that type of technology - and so this isn't really a problem.
Aliens
Pros: Perhaps the most impressive sequel ever. This movie was a sleeper when you consider the change in directors and that a sequel to a monster movie like Alien was likely to be bad. However James Cameron did something very clever - he saw how well Alien operated in its genre...and so moved the sequel to a new genre. It doesn't try and beat Alien at it's own game - which to my mind is why it works - it's complimentary not a replacement. Amazing casting, amazing dialogue, interesting meshing of the themes of the first movie with some new aspects like motherhood, the corporation having blended with a Japanese corporation too, the mecha tech stuff. Pretty much amazing to pull off this movie in 1986.
Cons: Like with Alien - there's not much to say. Closest thing I can think of again is that certain things dated unexpectedly - such as the indoor smoking board members of Weyland Yutani. However if that's what I don't believe about a 30 year old movie with this plot line...then we're doing pretty well!!!
Alien 3
Pros: This movie has incredible mood. There's something just awful about the vibe of it and it works to really hit you in the gut in almost every sequence. Taking the art-house approach of sacrificing Ripley was in keeping with the high-art tone of the first film. I also like it didn't attempt to out-fun Aliens but went back to a more sinister vibe. The art direction in this movie is great too. Stuff just looks beautifully bleak. Bishop 2 was a fun idea to link it to the last movie, and there's a lot of great imagery - such as the iconic "face to face with the alien" shots.
Cons: The nihilist tone of the movie - while it's strength - is also it's weakness - it's just too nasty for most audiences. I can deal with Ripley sacrificing herself, but the killing of Newt and Hicks seemed to unnecessarily invalidate the previous movie. I'm fine with them writing them out but I would have gone a different direction - like them being jettisoned and we never know what happened to them. Meanwhile I felt this movie kills people just as they became interesting - eg the Drug addict doctor. After a while it becomes jarring to watch - perhaps by intent - but it makes it hard to love the film. The "assembly cut" is superior I think, and watching the making of one learns a lot of the problems of this movie came from the studio rushing development. Overall it's the movie I love to hate. I hate what they did - but they maybe the did well to make me hate it! There's something very good about it...
Alien Resurrection
Pros: The choice of Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct was inspired at the time. His previous movies such as "The city of lost Children" had a surreal and macabre look that suited the alien mythology perfectly. One of the interesting things about this franchise was that each instalment had fresh and cutting edge directors. Jeunet delivered a movie that looked wondrous. This is one of those good fun adventure movies. The water scenes were a great idea.
Cons: The story. Perhaps it's still the fault of Alien 3's plot choices...but it seemed somewhat of a hard sell to bring Ripley back. Worse...Joss Wheedon's script feels a bit like fan fiction. The themes feel shoehorned such as the A.I. now being Father, the burning of the androids modems, and a bunch of things that feel like Joss was writing up his on feminist fan fic. It doesn't help that the characters in this movie were essentially reused in firefly. Or that the newborn feels like a gimmic designed to copy Jim Cameron's introduction of the Alien Queen as a 'twist'. Meanwhile the company is written out for no apparent reason. Problematic for me. Overall though this is one of those guilty pleasures. I dislike all the things I've just said about it. But it's one of those movies it's trendy to hate yet I can ruthlessly enjoy with every screening....so it's really hard to say.
Alien vs Predator
Pros: The designs in this movie are actually pretty cool. There's a lot of fun moments - the pyramid etc. It was great to bust out Lance again as Wayland. Having him be sick was interesting.
Cons: I tend to agree with James Cameron that a "vs" movie lowered the artsy nature of the franchise to B grade. Although I like Predator (well ok I like Jessie and Arnold) I don't really think of them as on par with the stuff in Alien, so it was always going to be a problematic mashup. Basically I can kinda enjoy it just because I like the Alien but it's not the way I wanted them to go. Hard to accept them as real story canon so to speak - I just take them for what they are. This movie was also a bit tame for an Alien film.
Alien vs Predator 2: Requiem
Pros: The studio seemed to be less worried about making kids stuff this time and let the filmmakers get a bit nasty. It's more watchable than it should be...
Cons: The film makers were trying too hard to shock. Killing pregnant women etc. Just all seemed a bit try hard - especially when placed with the thin plot - which was really just the problem that the "Vs" concept has no place to go. Overall it has it's moments - but you can't take this seriously as a quality movie.
Prometheus
Pros: Somewhat of a reboot it was clear the studio wanted quality this time. The return to Ridley was a shame in a way considering the tradition of using edgy and young filmmakers - but it made great sense as an attempt to get this series up off the floor and back on track. This movie looks visually grand. The new synthetic David was a master piece. The general feel of this movie started to fit back in with the originals rather than the AvP digressions.
Cons: There's a sense this movie didn't know what it was doing. Watching the making of - it seems the scriptwriters wrote it to be an Alien Prequel, then it was decided to make it a stand alone story, then it was decided it would be a stand alone story but in the same universe as Alien, then it kind of became an Alien reboot, and what we ended up with was something awkwardly in the middle. Overall though my major issue was making the Alien turn out to have been invented as a bio weapon by the Engineers who also made humans. It takes us from a universe where we know 3 distinct species (Space Jocky, Xemomorph and Human) to everything being related to each other. I liked the original concept that the Alien was a just a natural parasitic animal - like the fucked bugs and stuff we have here on earth. I liked that they came across something dangerous like that exploring and that it had already injured another unknown mysterious race - and humans want to weaponise it now. So the "Engineers made the humans and the Alien" sort of spoiled a lot of parts of the first movie to me in terms of the mythology.
Alien Covenant
Out in a few weeks. Looks a bit like the studio let Ridley make a Pometheus sequel but demanded he get back to the main franchise. Also looks a bit like he is going to challenge Jim Cameron's additions now by addressing colonists and so on. Looked very fun on the trailer but who knows how it will turn out.
It's also notable that this movie is being produced at the expense of the rival "alternate Alien 3" concept film neill blomkamp had wanted to produce. So the pressure is on for the studio to deliver for fans.
Alien Isolation (ps4)
While i'm ranting about Alien couldn't help but give this game a plug. It's survival horror set in the Alien Universe. If you're a fan of the series I highly recommend it! The mood is perfect.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
I'm seeing Alien and Aliens again in the theatres next week for one of those special screenings ahead of Alien:Covenant.
I'll see what I think then.
Last time I watched Aliens though I was struck that overall for a film released in 1986 it looked remarkably well done.
What is it that you think is dated?
