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Reviews
The Critic: The Pilot (1994)
Great introduction, some very funny scenes
The pilot episode for The Critic contains plenty fun moments, odd characters and awkward moments, and thus serves as a good introduction to the rest of the series.
The plot revolves around Jay Sherman, film critic and host of his own TV show. Jay is chubby, balding and disturbingly short, and so is perplexed when he meets the beautiful actress Valerie Fox, who appears to genuinely like him. His puzzlement continues as she prefers him over his handsome Australian friend, meets with his parents and even puts up with his personality. However, the plot thickens as it is revealed that Valerie could just be seeing him for a good review for her upcoming film.
The episode works quite well and features some of the signature gags of later episodes. We're introduced to all of the regular cast members, all of them expertly voiced - this series was blessed by a brilliant cast, with Jon Lovitz leading the cast as the sarcastic yet curiously optimistic Jay.
Although it includes many great gags, the pilot does fall short of the later episodes in the series. The writers hadn't established the boundaries and borders of the humour yet, which is clearly shown in the "Beauty and the Beast"-spoof. It simply tries too hard, relies on references and spoofs to succeed, rather than spawning jokes on its own. All in all though, the pilot episode is entertaining enough to pass by, and it introduces the viewer to all of the cast. A wonderful introduction to the series, even though the later episodes did a better job.
Alien³ (1992)
The Alien was a dog!
I absolutely adored the first two Alien films. Alien creates a dense atmosphere of paranoia, claustrophobia and sheer terror. Aliens was a fantastic continuation of the story, adding a great adrenaline rush as well as an amazing character study. After watching these two masterpieces, I was a bit uneasy about watching Alien3, mainly because of the low scores it had received. I gave it a spin anyway, and was sorely disappointed.
The film is much darker than the previous ones, and opens with most of the larger roles of Aliens being killed in a crash. All right, it might still work. Ripley is held on a prison planet where the inmates have found religion. Odd, but all right. An Alien survived the crash and is now loose in the prison. Ah, the plot thickens! In the prison, there are quite a few interesting personalities, such as the insane Golic (Withnail & I actor Paul McGann) and Dillon, the spiritual leader of the inmates. The most interesting one is the doctor of the place, Clemens. We get a glimpse of his story and his life, but he is eaten by what has become a grotesque hybrid between the world's worst killer machine and a vicious chihuahua before his story reaches a conclusion.
And this is the problem with the film. The most interesting characters are killed off at the beginning, Ripley just wanders around, trying to stay alive, without any real motive. In Alien, the crew wanted to get home. In Aliens, Ripley wanted to protect Newt. In Alien3, she just doesn't want to die. Sure, the whole Alien Queen thing was interesting, but it wasn't enough for the character, and so I think it ended on a sour note.
The inmates are the worst, however. Where Ripley just lacks depth, these attempt to preserve a hard-boiled street style, throwing foul language and punches around meaninglessly. The whole religion-thing just seems tacked on and is largely forgotten by the end of the film (which was, by the way, far from satisfactory).
And the Alien itself is just horrible as well. I like the idea of it changing with every film, but here it more resembles a dog than it does the fearsome killer we saw in the previous films. Come on, this is Alien, not Cujo! The terror of the first film is completely forgotten here, and we're supposed to be entertained by an adrenaline rush. I certainly wasn't.
Alien: Resurrection wasn't a good film. But at least it had a proper ending, and decent characters. Alien3 was just a misfire, and I don't think of it as canon in the Alien storyline. David Fincher is a fantastic director, and he has created some absolute masterpieces. But Alien3 isn't one of them. It could have been great, there were many interesting elements, but overall, it should never have happened. 6/10 is being extremely generous.