Alien 3

Or Alien cubed for those mathematically inclined.

There's only so many ways I can just say, what the hell people?! Here we go again, a movie I have not heard a scrap of good things about and guess what I'm about to say? It was quite good! I just can't rely on anyone's opinion but mine. Almost every criticism I've heard I can rebuke even, maybe it was just a good day but I can applaud the movie for the direction it wanted to take. So we pick up pretty soon after Aliens ends and admittedly this is one of the few marks against the plot, but somehow an egg was on the ship as Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop escaped on which hatched and through some loss of blood that isn't rightly explained causes the ship to malfunction and the cryopods get jettisoned onto an ore mining prison world known as Fury 161, killing all members aboard except Ripley. Now can I understand why people were upset over that? Yes. Can I also understand why the movie went in the direction it did? Yes. So Ripley is now trapped on a prison world with a Xenomorph about, no weapons of any kind, and the Weyland company is inbound to claim it, so let's go do this. You'd be surprised though how little you truly see the alien until the climax of the movie, the majority of the film is Ripley getting acquainted with her surroundings, cooperating with inmates, it's way more a prison drama if anything. I like that! We get good conversations, pretty damn good actors, and the movie moves at a quick enough pace. Sigourney is still just as good as ever and stood staunchly by the director through the tumultous production, it's friggin' awesome to see a young Charles Dance in a fairly prominent role and rightfully is a highlight, to see Paul McGann in anything is a treat for a whovian like myself even if his part is more lessened in the theatrical cut, and we even get Lance Henriksen back for a bit and we love that guy! Like I'm just floundering so hard to comprehend why people think it's a bad movie, that's it's bleak and nihilistic, even the so called claims of religion are next door to zilch. Like...did I just watch the wrong fucking movie?? I know there's a producer's cut out there that's a bit different but my confusion is unending here. I mean yes losing our crew from Aliens just sucks, that there is no light at the end of the tunnel for them, but I felt they wanted to cap this series off entirely. I wish it was true but no dice there as we'll talk about tomorrow. Yes it's a pretty dystopian shithole world that's potrayed but it's a prison planet, cry about it I don't know what to tell you. I'll at least give credit for some solid sets and corridors plus some cool exterior shots. The nihilistic one is what fucking slays me, pretty soon the inmates are aware of the creature and that it's more likely than not a no-win scenario for them but instead of sitting on their asses waiting to get head fucked by a Xenomorph they start forming plans and taking action. There is no severe cloud of dread or depression here, there's moments yes but you'd think this would either be the movie that bores you to sleep or tempts you to eat cyanide from the word of mouth since 1992. And the religion thing, frankly I think people need to realize a cigar is just a cigar. Albeit there are inmates who stick to a code of religion, there's one shot of exterior wreckage that looks like a cross, and they initially describe the alien as a "dragon" and "the beast" two monikers for Satan (and that's if you are well read on such things), I mean it's not like Ripley is touted as the Lisan al-Gaib or some shit. I am so close to losing it here, it has been a hot ass minute since I have so feverishly disagreed with just about every person under the sun on a movie, and I just. Don't. Get it. Admittedly the production was a far cry from a cakewalk, so much interference from 20th Century Fox in fact to the point where the director was fired not once, not twice, but three times a go fuck yourself Hollywood when in truth he was just having to make the best of a terrible situation trying to get this movie in the can and is the movie's biggest detractor to this day because of all this nonsense. To which I reply, I think you did mighty fine work overall. You wanna know what the biggest problem is for me? I'll tell you, it's spoilery as all get out but I'll tell you. To those who want out, go watch it for yourself, I quite liked it, there is something you can get out of it. Kay? Kay. The chestburster in Ripley. That is the most handwaved aspect of the entire movie! How did she get it? When did she get it? Why did it take like a fortnight to burst? I know it's to facilitate the death of the character at the end and bring this shit to a stop as a trilogy, but it's not very well explained much like the egg of the facehugger at the beginning of the movie. And the alien at times looks pretty off which is odd because they used the practical suit technique but green screened it into shots, because that makes sense right? But beyond that, very solid movie. Relatively small gripes wouldn't you say? I'm never letting this go for as long as I live, I shan't. 3 stars, 7/10, I'm out.

Nightmares In Red White And Blue

What a day. What a lovely day!

YES!!! It's here, the most wonderful time of year! And what better occasion to actually talk about one of my favorite documentaries of all time, no joke I really do sit down and watch this at least once every single year. And I've seen really good documentaries on Friday The 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, and I can't truly put my finger on why this one is such a instant classic for me. It follows the basic history of the horror genre from 1910 to 2009, seeing how the genre shaped and formed throughout each decade. I think the biggest reason I always come back to this is because of the guests, they really pulled all the stops cause you get John Carpenter, Joe Dante, friggin' Lance Henriksen narrates, Roger Corman the king himself, and good ol' Mr. Romero all are there among other dignified and quite intelligent guests. It's just so interesting to hear their stances on specific films and what horror meant to them as time went on. And in true horror style they don't shy away from anything, oh sure you see the blood and the nipples and the hoopblah, but it brings up real world shit and they show real world shit whereas other documentaries might not even bring it up. The collection of clips did elicit reactions from me whether from film or life, and it's a practical feast to the eyes seeing so many advertisments for horror movies and clips galore. But the film is not terribly in-depth and the production values while still good are on the lower end of the spectrum, and that honestly doesn't hurt it for me personally, credits and all it's about an hour and forty minutes so you certainly get ample time. To be honest the thought never once occured to me until I watched this for the first time, is the fact that horror movies are the most reflective and product of their times pieces of media ever. You get a real strong grasp on that time and place in the world and more importantly what scared it by watching a certain horror movie, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers sums up the 1950s, The Exorcist sums up the 70s, and so on. I was just watching a scary movie before but if you stop and think about it, pieces of the jigsaw start popping into place. It's just a wonderful documentary and you can watch it on Amazon Prime right now, it gets nothing but recommendations from me and I hope you have a real good time with it as well. 4 stars, 8/10! And I might just say screw it and give you a fun and family friendly movie to check out this Saturday, I mean this year is off enough as is so if you can't beat it join it.

Aliens (1986)

Is this movie better than the first? Well it all just depends, do you like horror or action more?

So Aliens takes the franchise into an action territory with stellar results. The movie takes place 57 years after the original Alien, with Ripley found by a salvage team still in cryo-sleep. She awakens to find that the original planet that her crew found the alien has been colonized, and they've lost contact. So send in the marines, with Ripley as their advisor to clean house, and rescue as many as people as possible. Yeah right. I can't even explain how the base looks on the planet, it's beyond description. The only thing I can say is, it's bad. But that doesn't cover it. The tension is brought on tenfold from the first Alien movie, since you know there isn't just one alien but hundreds if not thousands. Now the marines are the best part and it shows because even today they have a stallwart and heavily devoted fanbase, each marine brought on the force feels like real soldiers, they badmouth and talk shit to each other, but in the end you still know they are a tight team. Vasquez is one bad ass motherfraker, Hudson is just awesome (Thank you Mr. Bill Paxton for continuing to be awesome!), and the surprising thing is that there isn't tok much action in the movie. We have the initial encounter with the aliens, the fight in the nest which takes out damn near every marine, and then the escape from the planet, and the fight with the queen. And that kind of pisses me off, how easily almost all the marines are wiped out. Now I know the reason why, these guys are way too confident and are over their heads, not even slightly prepared for the threat. Acting wise, leaps and bounds better than Alien, not just with the character interaction with the marines but Ripley herself. I mean after all that crap she put up with in the first movie she is fed up with the bullshit, and she kicks ass! Obviously it goes deeper than that but we got to move on. Sets....whew. The sets, first movie ain't got nothing on this film. You thought they were ipressive before? You don't even know. The design is still the same even though we jumped ahead almost 60 years, which is fine but the less I say about the look of the film the better I think you will enjoy it. A feast to the eyes if I've seen one. The climax is impossible to forget, the action is great, characters are memorable, and many people consider this to be superior than the first. In fact, you could argue more people saw this movie than the first, due to it being a popular VHS rental so more people saw the sequel first. Action is more accesible than horror for most people, which is fine. I get that. I took me until I was about halfway through my teen years to start loving horror movies, I was a pansy as a kid. But interests grew through years and years of slowly being exposed to it, to the point where I greatly enjoy it. And I hope you enjoy these movies too, and look forward to seeing Alien Covenant in theaters tomorrow. I know I certainly am, first Alien movie I'll see in theaters. Well that's it for now, game over man. Game over.