After watching Prometheus, the prequel to Alien, I figured I’d watch the Blu-ray versions of Alien and Aliens that I’ve had for some time. It didn’t take long for me to re-appreciate Sigourney Weaver’s acting in these two movies. Ridley Scott directed Alien back in 1979. It’s basically a Haunted House movie. The creepy alien sneaks around the space ship killing everyone and Sigourney Weaver ends up going one-on-one with it. James Cameron directed Aliens (1986) and it is very different movie from its predecessor. Sigourney Weaver duels the Alien Queen. Yikes! For their times, both films were ground-breaking and should be re-visited.
We’re going to re-watch these too, probably after we see PROMETHEUS.
Sigourney rocks!
Great minds think alike, Jeff! ALIEN and ALIENS hold up after all those years.
And did Prometheus still seem as good after watching them?
The jarring part of PROMETHEUS is that the instrumentation on the Bridge (3D!) is more advanced than the instruments in ALIEN and ALIENS despite the fact that both movies are set in PROMETHEUS’ future.
I guess Ridley couldn’t stop himself from showing off. Seeing them all in a row must have made that stuff obvious.
Those cool 3D displays in PROMETHEUS are far superior to anything in ALIEN and ALIENS, Jeff. The technology just wasn’t there in 1979 or 1986.
I guess after all this time it won’t be a spoiler if I say I still remember the jolt when that alien burst out of John Hurt’s chest. There wasn’t so much advance knowledge of movie plots then, so no one in the theater knew what was about to happen. What a shock!
I remember the screams in the theater when that monster burst out of John Hurt’s chest, Deb. We were all in shock!
Never liked ALIEN much…too much aggressively dumb about it, from jump (and too many mechanical jump-scares)…and I tend to upset the easily upset by noting that each ALIEN film of the original four was better than the one before it. Will probably give PROM a pass, even with Rapace.
PROMETHEUS is causing all kinds of controversy in geekdom, Todd. Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron are the best reasons to see PROMETHEUS.
When a film’s futuristic technology seems less advanced than a Commodore 64, you know you’re watching a fairly old movie. (But maybe that adds a bit of charm.)
I think ALIENS is your typical piece of crude and boring Cameron hackwork, but ALIEN is a creepy and effective thriller that still works very well. It is, along with the mostly forgotten THE DUELLISTS, my favorite among Scott’s films. Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett’s script probably deserves some of the credit.
George, it’s a pleasure to reminisce about some of the movies that I enjoyed so much in my childhood.
These films brought plenty of enjoyment to me, too, Drongo. Yes, ALIENS is flawed, but it allowed Sigourney Weaver to really stretch as a female lead character. For the times, her action role was ground-breaking.
I quite enjoyed PROMETHEUS but frankly it tells the same story as MISSION TO MARS, a much derided movie that I actually quite liked (ducks for low flying approbrium) so that made it a bit of a letdown. Havign said that, I didn’t even realise the new film was not set on the same planet as ALIEN, so maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention and should, as you smartly did, have re-watched the original first!
I’m a fan of MISSION TO MARS, too, Sergio. If you’re interested in the controversy over PROMETHEUS, check out http://digitaldigging.net/prometheus-an-archaeological-perspective/ and http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1. The first review is very snarky (but funny) and the second review reveals the connection between PROMETHEUS and Doctor Who.
While Drongo saw ALIEN “in his youth” I watched it when I was 34. Got off work early one day and dropped into a multiplex to see it after it had been out a while. I was one of two customers, so it felt like I had the place to myself. I was gripping the arms of the seat ’til I was white knuckled through much of it, I still think it may be the scariest film I ever saw. Carpenter’s THE THING a close second. I have watched it six or seven times since, and enjoyed it every time, though the better I know it the less startling the jump moments are. I’ll bet it was great in blu-ray, I have a VHS of it, which needs replacing. I liked ALIENS less but it was still good, then they fell off badly. I could barely watch the 4th film, and have never wanted to see it again.
I believe there is a blu-ray double set with these two, yes?
Yes, Rick, both ALIEN and ALIENS are available in Blu-ray. You need to upgrade to Blu-ray. Sam’s Club has SONY Blu-ray players under $100.