Amazon.com Essentials:
Aliens is one of the few cases of a sequel that far surpassed the
original. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, who awakens on Earth only
to discover that she has been hibernating in space so long that everyone
she knows is dead. Then she is talked into traveling (along with a squad
of Marines) to a planet under assault by the same aliens that nearly
killed her. Once she gets there, she finds a lost little girl who
triggers her maternal instincts--and she discovers that the company has
once again double-crossed her, in hopes of capturing one of the aliens
to study as a military weapon. Directed and written by James Cameron,
this is one of the most intensely exciting (not to mention intensely
frightening) action films ever, with a large ensemble
cast that includes Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and Michael
Biehn. Weaver defined the action woman in this film and walked away with
an Oscar nomination for her trouble. --Marshall Fine
Amazon.com Essentials:
An interesting feature of Alien, Aliens,
Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection, worth watching together if only for the
chance to see how different directors handle essentially the same idea. The results are
decidedly mixed. Ridley Scott's Alien is the most traditional of the
bunch, essentially a haunted-house picture set on a space freighter,
where a monster is picking off crew members one by one. James Cameron's
Aliens is the all-out adrenaline bath, a pulse-pounding action
thriller from start to finish. It plays a little like a Western in
outer space, where the settlers are waiting for a cavalry that never
comes--and the Indians are acid-veined aliens. And David Fincher's
Alien 3 is the rock-video version, in which substance and
storytelling are sacrificed to editing and imagery, as the aliens
attempt to take over a space penal colony.
--Marshall Fine
