One of my favorite critics was raving about the "last stand" of Bill Paxton in Aliens so I rewatched it, well part of it

Wait, I spent this whole thread thinking you were talking about Bill Pullman’s last stand speech in Independence Day and agreeing what a bad movie it is. Then when I read Ripley, I was like they had a Ripley in this too?

I wish the black Sergeant had more scenes. He was great, having been an actual Marine infantry Sergeant in Vietnam.

Not one bad word about the late great Knuckles Bill. If Cameron’s a hack, that’s not on Paxton.

Let’s not forget the man was Clyde in STREETS OF FIRE, Severen in NEAR DARK, Dane in NAVY SEALS and Harding in TWISTER. He also did a Pat Benatar video.

He was an incredible Randall McCoy in Costner’s History Channel series.

[Quote] I wish the black Sergeant had more scenes.

Apone's constant frustration with Hudson was one of my favourite things about Aliens.

The best scene out of the whole movie is when they initially go in to the bunker (or whatever you'd call it) and there are aliens all over the place. That's when the majority of the crew gets wiped out. But the action sequence/scene itself is so short and that's all the movie is: action scenes and boredom. So there isn't much to the movie that's all that entertaining.

It's okay to hate action films as a genre. But if you like action and hate Aliens, then there's something wrong with you.

I don’t hate Aliens, I just think it’s overrated.

Let me get this straight, OP... you're vociferously complaining that the level of special effects for a film in 1986 is not sophisticated enough for you in 2020.

I prefer the original which was horror sci-fi, not Reagan era action.

R8 special effects are all James Cameron has going for him. You watch one movie he wrote you've seen em all.

I love everything about that movie, including the effects.

R11 great Cuntess of Oz has spoken.

Great movie. Brilliant suspense. Sigourney was nominated for an Academy Award. And this kind of movie has been copied less successfully several times in the years since. Iconic.

Okay millennial.

Stay frosty R14

Please enlighten us, o Great Film Critic, what IS a great movie in your estimation?

I don;t think it holds up quite as well as the original, but Aliens is a solidly made movie with an understated performance from Weaver, some great character actors and a truly horrific conception in the presence of the Alien Queen, who must be one of the most dreadful things ever filmed. The scene where the aliens are discovered crawling in the drop ceiling is even more startling. The finale goes on too long and some of the opening scenes could have been trimmed but it is still a movie that overall successfully balances Lovecraftian creepiness with action.

It hasn’t aged anywhere near as well Alien, but it’s still a classic.

Fucking stupid millennials rating old movies based present-day film norms. It was a movie of that 80s. Fuck off.

One of my favorite movies ever.

Love Aliens and Michael Biehn was hot as hell. Fuck you, OP. Fuck you with the acidic blood of a thousand aliens!

You seem angry, OP. Did someone hurt you? Can you show us on the doll?

OP, are you the overrated troll?

They mostly come at night ....mostly.

OP is clearly just a contrarian Devil’s Advocate maligning one of the greatest and most beloved movies of all time just for clicks and attention.

Don’t indulge it. I’m going to watch my Blu Ray of the Aliens director’s cut now.

Get away from Datalounge YOU BITCH!

[R22] I doubt it, as I believe it was only the head.

From Aliens to Call Me By Your Name.

Wow, OP! Did you know this thread would be so controversial?

Just to compare the execrable James Cameron Aliens, I rewatched Ridley's Alien. The difference was night and day. Ridley is a master film maker. He sets trends, doesn't only steal or plagiarize like Cameron. With Ridley you can imagine they really are in space. The movie was written by adults and we can understand his vision. With Cameron's Aliens there is zero suspension of disbelief. You are always conscious they are in a badly built cheap studio using Cameron's well known cheap tricks he has used in every other film.

R30 is a cheap hater who doesn’t know what it’s talking about.

James Cameron can actually write his own scripts and they usually turn out to become beloved hits.

Ridley Scott doesn’t have a literary bone in his body and takes whatever work dealmakers shove under his nose. His ALIEN prequels are pretentious, reductive and nonsensical garbage that mostly irritated fans. He made both Aliens and Robin Hood behated.

And what part of Cameron’s ALIENS did you not believe when they were in outer space?

The part where the Queen alien got sucked out of an airlock into outer space and froze to death?

Most of ALIENS is set on a terra-formed planet, dummy! That doesn’t make it bad.

The first ALIEN is good because the screenwriters and producers were solid. Ridley Scott was just good styling.

Please identify Cameron’s “cheap tricks he has used in every other film.” R30.

R32: Exactly. Scott is only as good as his collaborators. When he has weak screenwriters and scripts, he directs dreck like A Good Year, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and Exodus: Gods And Kings.

They didn't have CGI in 1986, OP. It's ridiculous to judge special effects in the 1980s by today's standards.

It's a well regarded film.

OP is a fan of the Critical Drinker. I think he leans a bit to the right, but he has damn funny reviews.

I don't mind Aliens--other than the junky "car" scene--but it didn't have the same mood as the first one. I think it could have been darker.

Bill Paxton was reunited with Lance Henricksen and Jenette Goldstein in 'Near Dark'. Watch it.

I apologize for a random, stream of conscience post, but did we know that CMBYN was dedicated to Bill Paxton? I never open any of the CMBYN threads, so I didn't know.

R38 ugh it came on tv the other day but it was nearly finished. Adrian was really cute back then.

Never saw this film so can't weigh in, but I always wanted (the living) Bill Paxton inside me, quite deeply.

Here's an article by somebody who knows what he's talking about to educate the OP.

I stopped reading OPs post as soon as he called "Aliens" one of the worst movies ever mad

It is such a moronic, hyperbolic statement that it causes anyone not to take it seriously.

Sure you can critique it, sure you can not be a fan, but in no universe is it one of the worst movies ever made.

Game over, man. Game over!

R41. I used to as well. These days, not so much.

I hate this movie for a completely different reason. When I was in severe agony and distress this is the movie I was forced to sit through in a hospital ward while I anxiously waited for the doctor to come see me and it was in HD which made it worse. The few patients that were there weren't interested, nobody was watching it but for some reason they kept it on. Ever since then I've hated it.

[quote]but I always wanted (the living) Bill Paxton inside me, quite deeply.

That would have been unlikely; he was hung like a raisin.

I fucking love Alien and Aliens. Easily two of the best films of any genre, ever. I'm technically a Millennial, but I'm an older Millennial, and younger Millennials have had their fucking brains fried by shitty parenting, the public schools, and deeply mediocre media for too long.

That's a great article at r42.

R42 Anyone who likes or raves about James crap version of Aliens is a fucking moron and has zero credibility.

R43 clearly you are one of the "worst cunts" ever made. Keep on cunting, cunty.

Jenette Goldstein would be canceled if she played a role like Vasquez today.

I love the Alien movies. Some are better than others. I remember years ago before Bill Paxton died. He said there was a scene in Aliens where he's being cocooned that was cut from the film. Hopefully one of these days we'll get to see it.

Are you against violence or horror movies in general, r46?

I prefer Alien as a film and feel a bit sorry that Aliens is generally better liked BUT I don't hate Aliens. I've seen it probably 20 times over the years. It is an action film and it is easier to watch than Alien. Sure it's sort of plasticky in many ways but the film still works quite well. James Cameron's The Abyss and Terminator 2 are some of my all time favorite films, right up there with Godard's Alphaville, La Dolce Vita, My Own Private Idaho and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Aliens doesn't get anywhere near those but it is still in so many ways almost the best high-end scifi horror you can get.

It's always good to remember how truly crappy badly made movies are. I've learnt to appreciate the professionalism that seeps through everything in big Hollywood productions. James Cameron might not be seen as an artistic auteur but he brought something so fresh to Hollywood and coupled with the town's professionals his earlier films are just pure joy to watch. I wouldn't call any of them truly perfect but that doesn't matter. Too bad he lost his way with Avatar, I mean dear god, the first one was terrible and now he's pretty much spending the latter part of his career making sequels to it. I wasn't too wild about Titanic either but I've watched it a few times over the years, mostly for the gorgeous effects.

R50 has stated her boundaries.

R52 you're not wrong. She really was good as Vasquez though.

Couldn't you have waited till more time had passed, OP.

There are horror contrarian trolls who live just to take ridiculous stances against widely held horror movie beliefs. They're attention whores.

We have the "HALLOWEEN 4 is the best Michael Myers movie ever!" Troll, the "EXORCIST III is the Best Exorcist Ever" Troll, the "Let's Have 72 EXORCIST Threads Per Season" Troll and "Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode Is a Shoo-In for the Oscar" Troll.

I wouldn't be surprised if the OP is the troll behind all these posts.

R58 big NO on that one, cunt. I don't push horribly made trash like Aliens as good movies. It is a horrible movie. Horribly written. A huge embarrassment for anyone who "starred" in it. The effects look like they were made for about 10 bucks. It does not look like it takes place in space at all.

Sigh. Aliens is a fucking classic. Everybody is perfectly cast but Weaver is perfection. She is brilliant in this film, and there is a reason her performance is considered to be one of the best - probably THE best - female action performance. It is so layered, nuanced and well-rounded. Her performance has stood the test of time.

In the '90s I had a laserdisc player and they released Aliens as a Special Edition. It featured tons of deleted scenes (though, sadly, nothing of the cocooned Hudson mentioned above). I understood why Cameron cut a lot of the footage; too much expository dialogue and it slowed the movie down (they showed the colonists, including Newt's parents). But I will never understand why Cameron cut the scene of Ripley learning the fate of her daughter (which was subsequently shown in TV airings). It just adds another layer to Weaver's already brilliant performance and has a huge impact on Ripley's relationship with Newt and the film's theme of protecting children (Ripley vs. The Alien Queen).

The action scenes are still thrilling. And I still prefer Cameron's '80s films - The Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss - over anything he did in the '90s and beyond.

R60 my dad still has the Aliens laserdisc lol. No idea where the player is though.

I saw laserdics at my art school years ago, never seen them anywhere else. They were practically the same size as LPs and their cover art looked gorgeous since it was so big.

The primary concern, r60, was keeping ALIENS under the 120 minute rule in Hollywood.

Feature films need to be 2 hours or less in order to 1) Not tire the shit out of the audience and 2) Fit as many screenings as possible into the theater in one day so as to make more money.

So fitting into 2 hours is why most good scenes were excluded from the theatrical release of ALIENS. It wasn't for artistry or flow of the film.

But you're in luck, because TITANIC ensured James Cameron's power to release a film at any length he chooses now. He didn't have that power in 1986.

And many of the good scenes deleted from both ALIEN and ALIENS are available on the extended/Directors' cuts and featurettes on the disc releases.

Here's the deleted scene of Burke being cocooned:

And here's the scene of Dallas under cocoon from Part One:

What makes the OP / r59 such a clueless twat and disingenuous troll is her failure to acknowledge ALIENS as one of the most influential movies of all time.

Together with ALIEN, you could hardly point to movies that have been more influential in the Science Fiction genre, or the Horror genre. ALIENS has been copied by hundreds of other films and artwork. More than METROPOLIS; perhaps more than STAR WARS.

Whether it's cheap ripoffs like PUMPKINHEAD and BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, Giger extensions like SPECIES or a hit video game franchise like HALO, ALIENS is the beloved force behind them all.

Just to give you an idea of how influential ALIENS continues to be, just look at what's playing in cinemas and new streamers today.

That Kristen Stewart flick UNDERWATER, Now Playing, owes everything to ALIENS 1 & 2. Literally nothing happens in the movie that didn't basically happen in the ALIENS.

Perhaps the best ALIEN ripoff I've ever seen was from just a couple of years ago — the outer space story LIFE.

It stars hotties Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds for good measure.

R65 hope it does better than Charlie's Angels.

R67, I hope it doesn’t because:

1. It’s yet another Alien ripoff.

2. Kristen is a mediocre actress.

Sigourney Weaver liked Cameron enough that she signed on for Avatar and all the sequels, and if Siggy Weaver likes someone, they're good enough for me.

That said, Titanic was a steaming pile of shit.

R68 I don't understand how she keeps getting work. But the Charlie's Angels reboot wasn't that bad. Kristen at least attempted to have something resembling a personality. And I thought Underwater was also a reboot of an 80s movie 🤔

Isn't Underwater a ripoff of Leviathan which was a ripoff of Alien/Aliens??

R71 I thought it was a Leviathin reboot but they changed the title.

r71 is right.

LEVIATHAN was an '80s ripoff of ALIEN/ALIENS that simply shares a similar tweak as UNDERWATER: setting the monster underwater instead of in outer space.

UNDERWATER actually has a minor element derivative of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, but at least it's directly acknowledged a couple of times in UNDERWATER.

A "reboot" of LEVIATHAN would have been called LEVIATHAN. It would have involved writers or writing credits from the original movie, too.

But LEVIATHAN is another testament to the enduring influence of ALIENS 1 & 2.

Look at how many scenes, styles and concepts happened in the ALIEN franchise first:

R74 jesus.... it isn't subtle at all.

It appears our OP got face-hugged early on.

Good.

Speaking of the massive influence of ALIEN, here's another ripoff I just discovered.

Notice there's not an original moment in the trailer — just cheaper production values.

If the ignoramus @ r30 thinks Ridley Scott "doesn't steal or plagiarize," then he's obviously never read HEAVY METAL magazine or watched METROPOLIS.

Why am I not surprised the OP was just another provocateur troll who doesn't believe anything he says?

That's DL 24/7 now.

[quote]Jenette Goldstein would be canceled if she played a role like Vasquez today.

Unfortunately that's true. We'd have a Twitter shitstorm because she wasn't really Latinx. Wokeness is really the enemy of art and creativity, because she gave a fantastic performance that really stood out. She was the perfect fit for the role.

I actually enjoyed 'Underwater', probably because i love Alien/Aliens so much.

It was a predictable but fun way to spend an afternoon.

[quote] I saw laserdics at my art school years ago, never seen them anywhere else.

I had a laserdisc player and maybe 20-25 movies. The video quality was actually pretty good for the pre-digital age, vastly superior to tape.

Sigourney sucked in Aliens.

Sigh.

OP is the Resident Loon (or, one of the Resident Loons because there is more than one on DL....obviously). He could be the Mary Poppins Loon from the Theatre Gossip threads because the shrill, insane writing style is similar.

When Michael Biehn’s character hands Weaver the tracker saying something like doesn’t mean we’re engaged....ooh! He’s so shy and playful in that scene. I would’ve jumped him then and there no doubt annoying Mr Cameron.