Thursday, July 28, 2011

Pithy Reviews (5) - "Alien" Edition

Ever seen a downward spiral? How about this one?

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
A science-fiction horror that is full of subtext(s) and exploits our deep, subconscious, collective fears. In my opinion, it's Ridley Scott's finest film (with apologies to the excellent "Blade Runner" and "The Duelists", but it's open to debate anyway...) and, certainly, it's Sigourney Weaver's most iconic character. 
Rating: 4.5 out of 5  

Aliens (James Cameron, 1984)
This is much more of an action picture than the first one and much less of a horror film. Cameron is in his comfort zone and he delivers a few gripping action sequences and a bunch of quotable moments. He also uses a lot of clichés and the final product is not really to my taste. A lot of people like it, though...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Alien³ (David Fincher, 1992)
This movie is a mess and it's not entirely Fincher's fault. There are so many things wrong with it and so many disturbing things in it that I don't even want to talk about it. However, there are a couple of moments that makes you wonder what kind of a movie Fincher might have pulled off had he been allowed to actually make the movie he wanted to make.
Rating: 2 out of 5

Alien: Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997)
Another movie that is kind of a mess, somewhere between a gory, Cronenberg-esque horror and a dark comedy in the style of "Delicatessen". Sigourney gets to do something a bit different and she is still the highlight of every single sequel in the series. Ron Perlman is also here and Darius Khondji is the DP, so, all things taken into consideration, this is a pretty flawed film, but it could be enjoyable assuming you have rather low expectations.
Rating: 2 out of 5


3 comments:

Silviu said...

What's with the aliens?
What's with the short review?

Alien is the best, very creepy atmosphere. Very enjoyable.
Alien 3 always seemed like a mix between Alien and The Name of the Rose for me, don't know why....

Victor said...

Lol... It kinda is "The Name of the Rose" in space... A single female character surrounded by religious extremists in a place of confinement (monastery = penitentiary colony)

Victor said...

P.S.: What bothers me is not that the reviews are short, but that they're still too long for twitter. :p