Recent Reviews for Alien
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MCT:December 31, 2006Good Flick, better than average.
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MCT:November 28, 2008Ash: Ripley, for God's sake, this is the first time that we've encountered a species like this. It has to go back. All sorts of tests have to be made.
Ripley: Ash, are you kidding? This thing bled acid. Who knows what it's gonna do when it's dead?
Ash: I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.
A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates.
Sigourney Weaver: Ripley.
Alien sees us following a seven man crew journeying to Earth aboard a huge space freighter aptly named Nostromo. The crew is in cryo-sleep, but the on-board Computer A.I. interrupts the journey, thanks to a foreign radio signal is picked up. It originates from an uninhabited planet and the crew lands to investigate. There they make contact with a foreign entity...
What makes Alien legendary is the constant feel of uneasiness it leaves in the pit of your stomach. Right from the beginning you have a sense that something isn't right. The crew is not particularly friendly towards one another, and you truly feel all the Crew relation tension. The ship itself is a huge worn out industrial-style maze of metallic halls and lonely corridors, and it feels more like a prison than a place to live. It is as if not only the alien but also the ship itself is against them. The Alien itself is the scariest monster in history because it is a ruthless, soul-less parasite completely devoid of any human or civilized attributes. The design of the monster is a stroke of genius. Sure it has a humanoid corporeal form, but it has no facial traits or anything else which could give away emotions or intentions,apart from it's gritted teeth visage. Its actions reveals no weaknesses nor rationally intelligence, its more or less the opposite of human and more of an insectoid, instinctive creature, plus it's nature and instinct allows for the alien to be more adapted to the inhumane interior of the ship. To sum up, you then have a setting where the humans are caught in a web of in-group tensions, an inhospitable ship and the perfect killer which thrives in the ships intestines. You almost get the feel that the humans are the ones who are alienated to each other and to their own ship.
Dallas: [looks at a pen being dissolved by alien's body fluid] I haven't seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid.
Brett: It must be using it for blood.
Parker: It's got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it.
Ridely Scott is such a minimalist in some of his film projects, sci-fi nuts find it to be slow and unenterprising. So many people prefer Aliens, its sequel, to this one, which is unfair. I think Aliens, directed by James Cameron, is another sci-fi masterpiece (and maybe the best action film ever made), but I think Alien is the same quality but for alternative reasons. In fact, I would say that it is among the best films ever made, in sci-fi, only equaled or rivaled to, the enigmatic 2001:A Space Oddysey.
The plot absolutely lacks contrivance. All the plot points develop how they would naturally. And there are great surprises throughout the film. Even if you haven't seen the film, you know about the chest-bursting scene. You probably saw it parodied dozens of times. But watch the scene where Ian Holm reveals his secret! That is one amazing scene! I actually saw the sequel first, so I kind of knew that secret, too, but it still shocked me. It was so well directed.
Notice how the dialogue works. It never particularly draws attention to itself. It actually reminds me of Robert Altman, how he directed such movies as Nashville, where many characters are speaking at the same time, and nothing seems more or less important than anything else. It is just like real life. Alien is one of the most realistic, documentary-like sci-fi films ever made.
Also notice the setting. The Nostromo's design is so believable that I feel that I'm actually seeing a real space vehicle. The alien ship also beams with its spookiness.
The characters are also extremely believable. They are so well written that even the first character who dies is completely developed. If you get the DVD, they actually created dossiers about each of the crew members. It also has extra scenes which round out the characters even more. I think Ripley is one of the most endearing characters in film history. Even in the last two sequels, which were visually interesting but not very well written or directed, Ripley held my interest. I teared up when she died at the end of 3. If they made a fifth one, I would go, no matter how terrible I knew it would be. The acting is also top-notch. Ian Holm, a great actor, gives one of his best performances here. I love the last scene that he is in. Truly a master. And of course Sigourney Weaver could have just as easily been nominated for an Oscar for her performance here as she was for Aliens.
Ripley: [nervously eyeing Alien while she pushes buttons] You are my lucky star. You... Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.
The most important part of a film, in my mind, is the mood. And heck, does Alien have one of the most genuinely spooky movies I've ever seen. Make sure you watch it after the sun has gone down. Also, watching it alone will help. The special effects are kind of cheap, but Scott knows this well enough. He only shows the alien for seconds at a time. Besides keeping us from seeing the shoddiness of those puppets, this technique makes the alien seem all the more creepy and mysterious.
As mentioned the ship is very claustrophobic and Ridley Scott adds to the eeriness by using camera movement, lights and shadows in an effective way. The living quarters are bright and should be comfortable to the crew, but there is something sterile about it all. The rest of the ship is basically a huge basement.
The music by Jerry Goldsmith underlines the eeriness so well, and the movie wouldn't have worked without his score. Combined with the sounds of the ship it all adds to the uneasiness.
This is not a story about heroic people who boldly teams up against evil. It's a story about ordinary people facing true fear, which is the fear without a face. The fear we can't understand and can't negotiate with, because its only goal is to survive on the expense of us. It's a story where some people bravely fight back whilst others are destroyed by the terror. It's a story where people a killed in a completely random way. There is no higher-order justice behind who gets to live and who dies. All seven characters are just part of a race where the fittest - not necessarily the most righteous - will prevail, and all seven characters start the race on an equal footing. None of them are true heroes, and none of them are true villains.
All the above makes Alien so great as a horror movie, not just a tense psychological Sci-Fi one. The terror isn't just the Alien itself, it's the entire atmosphere, which gets so effectively crawling under your skin, that you just can't shrug it off, until after the end credits like you can with so many other Hollywood horror movies. The title Alien doesn't just refer to the monster, it is the theme of the movie and it is the feeling you have during and after the movie.''Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.''
[to Jonesy the cat]
''Come on, cat.'' -
MCT:November 27, 2008
In space no can hear you scream.
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In deep space, the crew of the commercial ship Nostromo--comprised of five men and two women--is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules, halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress c...( read more )all from an alien vessel. The tale unfolds as they further look into the S.O.S. distress call from that battered commercial space vessel--only to discover that it's a warning call, rather than a call for help. However, it is too late to turn back as three members of the crew have already left to investigate the derelict ship. Far away in space and time, all five encounter an awesome galactic horror, that begins to kill the crew members one by one
The beggining of one of the scariest sci fi franchises of all time.What a powerfull combination of science fiction and horror.(great mix).Before inovating the genre in Blade Runner,Ridley Scott made the audience scream of horror with the introduction of one of deadliest monsters of movie history.Even the second is my favorite,the original remains to be an oustanding classsic of science fiction. -
MCT:November 25, 2008
The classiest but also maybe the scariest horror out there. Mix that with the way Ridley Scott shot it, and Jerry Goldsmith's score, and you have one of the greats. Unmissable.
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MCT:November 25, 2008This movie gave birth to what is a still thriving series of acid bleeding horror retching, aliens that are just too real. Love it.
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MCT:November 23, 2008the first 2/3 of the movie is wonderful. the last act is a bit conventional, but it's not near enough to bring the movie down. film classes should screen this as an example of foreshadowing. very thorough and adept filmmaking.
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MCT:November 23, 2008
Directed :Ridley Scott Starring:Sigourney Weaver,Ian Holm,Veronica Cartwright,Tom Skerritt In space no one can hear you scream.
A landmark film for the way it effortlessly combined the genres of science-fiction/horror, this is that rarity where everything about it works, and it constantly keeps surprising you right up until the very end.
Coming Soon.... -
MCT:November 21, 2008
Still one of the scariest movies ever made. I didn't fully appreciate how overtly sexualized the entire design of Giger's monster made it even more viscerally horrifying. Also, check the quality of the sound design - it immediately puts you in the wrong mood. As a director, Ridley Scott is one of my idols.
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MCT:November 20, 2008
There are plenty of reviews spread out all over the internet telling you why this one's a must-see. They're all right. They've said damn near everything there is to say about it.
If I have a single gripe, it's that Ridley Scott--though he came close with Bladerunner--never surpassed this. And it's not that hard to see why: clever motion picture storytelling that still appeals to the masses doesn't get better than this. -
MCT:November 19, 2008
Being exposed to the Alien franchise too late alters lots of hype surrounding the greatness of each particular movie: I know this is the one that started it all - the one with the fantastic alien concept; it's just that I take the acclaimed premise for granted and only see it as a weak science fiction flick with one or two classic scenes. As a movie watcher who's big on endings, I'm completely disappointed with "Alien." And I know the first thirty minutes are supposed to add spatial claustrophobia, but, for me, it's an anti-insomnia device.
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MCT:November 18, 2008
Alien. It does for old 50's B-movies what Raiders of the lost Arc did for the old action cerials, uses an awesome concept and makes it even better.
This movie is said to be like a slasher film set in space, and considered to be one of the scariest movies ever made. And I agree, it's more than a sci-fi/horror movie. It's a claustraphobic, nightmare enducing, frightening yet very entertaining film.
The setting and atmosphere is visually stunning & very creepy. The Alien creature is great looking, the birth process from egg to adult is cool. Having the larva breath in your body then violently burst out your chest.
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Yeah,now that's awesome. -
MCT:November 17, 2008
The cuddliest downbeat Western succeeds on canny miscasting. Newman and Robert are dead wrong as ageing outlaws, but perfect as 1969 defiant youth.
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MCT:November 16, 2008
The suspence is killer and it's really hard to believe this actually came out in 1979. This film is so ahead of it's time and is definitely a genre defining flick.
The remastered high def version is a real treat.
13 November 2008 -
MCT:November 16, 2008
this was one of the greatest science fiction films ever to of come out in the 1970s. it might be also the best science fiction film of all time.
this is was film which meant to scare the daylights out of you. Best way to see this film is on the widescreen format the way it should be seen. a masterpeice of a film from director Ridley Scott. -
MCT:November 10, 2008
it took my mum months to get me to eat soup again after seeing this at a young age..years later I still appreciate the movies, and the soup of course..lol
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MCT:November 2, 2008
Oh my freakin' gosh!? Do you like science-fiction movies? Yes? Get off your lazy butt and go see Alien the original science-siction Alien movie. Ripley was so,so,so, cool! I totally love Sigourney Weaver (I wish I had some hair like that). I love the alians but you could so tell that it was somebody in a alien costume and not like CG or robotics, but Ash on the other hand was nothing that I had ever suspected coming. It was really creepy when that one guy got killed then it had the close up on Jones' face. I liked how it was all a conspiracy... Aliens, Yay
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MCT:October 30, 2008I liked these movies when I was younger, but that was when I was younger and didn't necessarily have the best taste in movies.
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MCT:October 28, 2008
Alien is one of my favorite movies because of its brilliant depiction of man brought against a physically superior killing machine. The alien itself is spectacular to behold, as we are give an introduction to the unique way they reproduce, grow, defend, and kill. Scott creates a visually rich world, giving the film a highly artistic feel, but it is subtle, which is what I love about a lot of Ridley Scott's work. And as far as Scott's filmography goes, this is nearly as good as it gets.
"You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility. I admire its purity. A survivor. Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality." -
MCT:October 28, 2008
One of the best, scariest things to ever hit the big screen. In a related note, my parents entered into a time warp on their wedding night, and saw this movie on HBO before it was even out in theaters!
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MCT:October 26, 2008I had high expectations of this movie. I have been told many times that this movie is the absolute scariest movie ever made. Well, I wasn't scared by this movie, and not only that, I found this movie had more gross out parts than scary parts. To make matters even worse this movie was so predictable. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie, or the plot line for the movie (other than the fact that it obviously involved an alien), and yet I was able to guess what would happen next throughout the entire movie. Had I known that this movie was not really scary, I may not have watched it. I can't even call it an enjoyable movie...more like a waste of time.
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MCT:October 25, 2008
This is a movie I could watch a million times and never get sick of. I?ve seen it on T.V., VHS, DVD, and I even saw it on the big screen when it got re-released in 2003. It?s my 30th favorite film of all time. The movie gets a lot of recognition for its gore and ?scaryness?, truth be told I?ve never really found it scary, but there are few movies I do. Without the horror aspects, there?s not much to like this as except for the sci-fi aspects and that?s more than enough for me. What it really should get credit for is Ridley Scott?s extremely polished direction and mastery of production values. The movie has aged remarkably well, thirty years after its debut I don?t think this has aged a bit outside of the computer monitors and a couple hair styles. The design of the alien is awesome, but the real masterwork is in the way they constructed the ship?s interiors.
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MCT:October 20, 2008
Dallas: Something has attached itself to him. We have to get him to the infirmary right away.
Ripley: What kind of thing? I need a clear definition.
Dallas: An organism. Open the hatch.
Ripley: Wait a minute. If we let it in, the ship could be infected. You know the quarantine procedure. Twenty-four hours for decontamination.
Dallas: He could die in twenty-four hours. Open the hatch.
Ripley: Listen to me, if we break quarantine, we could all die.
Ridley Scott's sci-fi/horror film was once billed as Jaws in space. That seems like a fair statement.
This is a great influential classic in the realm of horror, sci-fi, and alien related movies. It takes a very simple idea and turns it into a perfect example of how to create tension and thrills from creative ideas and a less-is-more approach for the most part.
Ripley: Ash, that transmission - Mother's deciphered part of it. It doesn't look like an S.O.S.
Ash: What is it, then?
Ripley: Well, I, it looks like a warning. I'm gonna go out after them.
Ash: What's the point? I mean by the, the time it takes to get there, you'll, they'll know if it's a warning or not, yes?
After awakening from hyper sleep a service crew on their way back home pick up a distress beacon and decide to check it out. After arriving on the planet and inspecting the distress call, one crew member encounters an unfortunate situation with an alien being. After being taken back to the ship things only get worse from there as a newly born alien slowly kills the crew members one by one.
Tom Skerritt begins as the leading man in this film, but it is Sigourney Weaver who takes the role of heroine by the end of this movie. You also have a minimal cast, all made up of great character actors, including John Hurt, Yaphet Koto, and Ian Holm, adding up to the seven person crew.
Ripley: Come on, Ash, I mean, the Science Department should be able to help us. What can we do to drive it?
Ash: Yes, well, it's adapted remarkably well to our atmosphere considering its nutritional requirements. The only thing we don't know about is temperature.
Ripley: OK, what about temperature? What happens if we change it?
Ash: Let's try it. I mean most animals retreat from fire, yes?
Dallas: Fire, yeah.
The way this film is constructed further adds to how great it is. The set design and creature designs are both great. The sets are very fitting and have a lived-in quality. The alien is slowly introduced throughout, and it is not until very late in the game that we actually see the creature, which works all for the better. The very setting that these characters are in also very well handled, with a space ship that almost functions as another character.
Although the movie is made up mainly of build up to key moments, the pacing is fantastic and the results are not cheap jump scares, but creative ways in which the alien encounters its victims and how the story continues without being gimmicky.
The score by Jerry Goldsmith is also very wonderful, perfectly working with the tone of the film.
Especially given that this film was made with a lower than average budget, the result is a very effective sci-fi thriller, with a unique creature that has gone on to become very iconic, not to mention the wonderful plot and characters also featured in this film.
Dallas: [looks at a pen being dissolved by alien's body fluid] I haven't seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid.
Brett: It must be using it for blood.
Parker: It's got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it. -
MCT:October 19, 2008
Saw this film in Rhodesia. Best bit was during the breakfast scene when the creature bursts from John Hurt's belly, some wag shouts, "Hello, Sooty!"
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MCT:October 16, 2008
Without a doubt, the best film in the Alien series. James Cameron makes the series more mainstream and more easily watchable, but Ridley Scott really nails a creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere in this film.
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MCT:October 14, 2008A great achiviement for the sciencie fiction genre, Alien combines the action and horror.
Hands down, a classic!!!!
