Review #60: Alien (1979)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Ridley Scott (Director): Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001)

Sigourney Weaver (Ripley):

Tom Skerritt (Dallas): Top Gun (1986), Contact (1997)

Yaphet Kotto (Parker): Nightmare Part 6

Veronica Cartwright (Lambert): The Invasion, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Birds (1963), Candyman 2 (1995), Scary Movie 2 (2001)

Harry Dean Stanton (Brett): Escape from New York (1981), Red Dawn (1984),

John Hurt (Kane): Hellboy 1 (2004) & 2 (2008), Indiana Jones 4 (2008), Skeleton Key (2005)

Ian Holm (Ash): Lord Of The Rings 1 (2001) & 3 (2003), From Hell (2001), The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Trailer:


Plot:

While returning from a deep-space mission, the crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo is awakened by a supposed SOS call from a system they are passing through. Members of the crew take a shuttle to the planet's surface, and they discover a strange derelict spaceship - the apparent source of the transmission.

One of the crew (Kane) descends into the hold of the spaceship. What he finds are thousands of strange alien eggs. While examining one of the eggs, it hatches and the spider-like parasite inside (known as a Face-hugger) attacks him. The Face-hugger attaches itself to Kane’s face, wraps its long tail around his throat and places Kane in a comatose state.

Against protocol and protest, Kane is brought back aboard the shuttle and the crew attempts to separate the alien and its host but cannot succeed without endangering Kane’s life. The shuttle returns to the Nostromo and the crew takes off again to head for Earth. The alien parasite subsequently dies and all seems well again. But what no one knows is that another alien is quietly forming within Kane…and when it emerges, the crew finds itself in serious trouble as the new alien proceeds to pick them off one by one.

Villain:

Truly the most scariest monster ever made in my opinion. EVER! Funny that the Alien design was basically constructed by using the male reproductive organ as a starting point. Along those lines...ripped condoms were used as the tendons of the Alien's jaw and KY Jelly was used as the slime (or acid for blood).

The "facehugger" idea kicks butt! An alien spider looking thing that smothers itself to someone's face and impregnates them with an evil alien seed. Who knew they could make a monster out of a male's reproductive organ? *** Note: if any of the bold terms in this paragraph can be used to explain a drunken college experience that ended wrong, you can blame this movie! Yeah...good luck with that.

Cast:

Let's see we have Viper from Top Gun (pictured right...at least the movie cover. Sorry Gangles, I couldn't find a picture from the shirtless volleyball game.) Dana from Ghostbusters (Dana doesn't live here any more!)...the professor from Hellboy and Bilbo Baggins the psychotic robot man. I think the cast speaks for itself. Even Yaphet from Freddy's Dead!

SFX/Gore:
Super job! Especially for the 70's.

TNA:

This category gets a pass because...well, I wasn't attracted to any of the chicks. Sorry, not a Weaver fan. It does get a bonus point for the effort it made to get Sig in her panties. If it got some smokin' hot chicks in here and showed some of their goods, then...probably best movie ever! This also applies to the sequel. Here's a picture of Cate Blanchett. Who appears in Lord of the Rings with Ian Holm and Indy 4 with John Hurt.

T.Gun's Take:

Fantastic job all around. The atmosphere of the movie was awesome. It was dark, creepy, suspenseful and didn't have to use some cheap Hollywood tricks to achieve it. The chestbursting scene goes down as most memorable scene in a horror/monster/sci-fi movie of all time. Classic.

This movie had a lot of kick ass parts to it, but I there have been some things that has always bugged me over the years.

Here's the Top 5 things that could have been improved:
1. Personal gripe: Dallas in the tunnels. Great sequence. Build up of suspension and terror, but for Christ's sake...Get the F*ck Outta There! He just "took one for the team" when he could have gotten out. I hated that.


2. Kane's alive! Oh...Kane's okay, let's get some grub and go to bed. Are you kidding me? If some weird ass alien thing attached itself to one of my friends for over a day and just "fell off" and died, I would raise some suspicion. Especially if the thing was that much in a pain in the butt to remove. I would be, "Fuck no. You can keep your ass down here in sick bay all quarantined and all. I'm not gonna pretend everything is alright."

3. Jonesy the cat...fuck 'em. Sorry kitty. You have 9 lives, and I don't. I'm not on all fours on the floor looking for your ass as some pissed off alien is picking off the crew one by one.

4. That dumb bitch Lambert standing there with the "deer in headlights" look as the alien takes out Parker...who by the way was sacrificing himself so your sorry ass could escape. Poor Parker. What a noble thing to do...only to go to waste.

5. Got Milk. Didn't like the milk looking fluids out of Ash. It never set right with me. I love milk. It does a body good. And now it's tainted. Doesn't help knowing that Bilbo was an evil psychotic robot in the beginning.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened May 25, 1979 and made $78.9 million at the box office ($3.5 million opening weekend)
- Original title: Star Beast
-130 Alien eggs were made for the chamber sequence
-Chestbursting scene filmed in one take (4 cameras)
-Bolaji Badejo is credited as playing the Alien. He beat out Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) for the role. BOO! HISS! Should have been Chewie's role! Not that I'm a biased Star Wars fan.