Watched Alien last night for the first time in maybe 7/8 years. Just a brilliant film. 9.5/10. Looking forward to watching the sequel tonight.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
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This and ET are my two favourite films of all time. Alien (especially the director's cut) is just a pure masterpiece. Perfect tension, satisfying ending, great script writing, interesting characters...I absolutely love it.
Aliens is also the perfect action film. The conversion from horror thriller to action thriller is a masterstroke. I'm a big fan of Alien3 and appreciate it for what it is (the extended version, though, although it is choppy in a few places) but the franchise takes a maaaaasssive nosedive after that.
Tempted to put on Alien tonight.
This and ET are my two favourite films of all time. Alien (especially the director's cut) is just a pure masterpiece. Perfect tension, satisfying ending, great script writing, interesting characters...I absolutely love it.
Aliens is also the perfect action film. The conversion from horror thriller to action thriller is a masterstroke. I'm a big fan of Alien3 and appreciate it for what it is (the extended version, though, although it is choppy in a few places) but the franchise takes a maaaaasssive nosedive after that.
Tempted to put on Alien tonight.
Ah I watched the original version, is the Directors cut better?
Absolutely. A bleak, cynical and strangely superior puritan view.
His directorial films make me feel sick.
I guess it's more like a "slight alteration" rather than a rework. There are one or two scenes thrown in, but also some scenes are made a bit shorter for pacing. I think the director's cut is actually slightly shorter than the original, somehow. Fans seem to be split on which one is better, with many opting for the theatrical cut. I might watch the theatrical/original cut tonight because it's been a while since I've seen that.
In short: either version is good without one being noticeably superior to the other.
The director's cut of Aliens has a lot more footage thrown in, so I'd watch that if you can.
Great performance by Brad Pitt as well. But I think the movie's greatness really primarily comes from the plot and Terry Gilliam directing in this case.
Yeah Pitt was brilliant, I was just surprised at how good Willis was tbh.
Agree with you the both the plot and director are the real stars of the film. It's a pretty crazy idea yet you never feel completely out of the loop or detached from what is happening on the screen. It covers a lot of topics but the film views on mental illness really resonate with today's world. The line psychology is the new religion was a nice standout.
Also Gilliam attention to detail is unmatched and a bit mad!
Brazil is still my favourite Gilliam film(Brazil is a far intelligence version of Orwells 1984 imo)but 12 Monkeys really isn't far behind and definitely added on to the Christmas movie list(I wonder why Gilliam likes Christmas so much ?)
There's also a great behind the scenes doc - The Hamster Factor (and Other Tales of 12 Monkeys)
Try La Jetee.
And
Yeah, agree on all those points. It's funny somehow to see an action star act properly - like Stallone in Copland or Schwarzenegger in... ok, never mind him.
Thanks is for the video! I'll watch that.
Aliens
Not as good as Alien, but still very good. Unlike the first movie, this is more sci-fi action rather than sci-fi horror. There's some 80's cheese, one dimensional characters and moments where you just have to shut off your brain and accept things for what they are, but everything else is so well done that you can easily brush it off. Sigourney Weaver is damn icon. She carries these films.
Not as good as Alien, but still very good. Unlike the first movie, this is more sci-fi action rather than sci-fi horror. There's some 80's cheese, one dimensional characters and moments where you just have to shut off your brain and accept things for what they are, but everything else is so well done that you can easily brush it off. Sigourney Weaver is damn icon. She carries these films.
I love the first two Alien films. I'm a massive fan of horror and also love action movies so these two really hit the sweet spot for me (as do Terminator 1 and 2).
I might have to revisit this eventually. My last impression was that Alien is vastly superior. The latter is next in my HBO Max queue so maybe it’s a good time for the sequel too.
And absolutely nothing really needed. I dislike DC of Aliens a lot.
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Willis was an actor first, then an action star, so I’d argue different from Arnie and Stallone.
He’s been in a good few films that were not just action films.
Seems like he’s an utter tit these days mind, and his films are complete shite, direct to video rubbish, where he’s a name, but not even the star of the film. Shame.
Willis was an actor first, then an action star, so I’d argue different from Arnie and Stallone.
He’s been in a good few films that were not just action films.
Seems like he’s an utter tit these days mind, and his films are complete shite, direct to video rubbish, where he’s a name, but not even the star of the film. Shame.
Yeah this the next one on my list after hearing about it from 12 Monkeys. It will be interesting to see the similarities.
I will have to one day watch this movie.
Schwarzenegger has never really nailed the serious type role(imo End Of Days is a underrated weird movie).
Still out of the hall of the frame action stars, he's easily the best. Having watched a lot of interviews with James Camron, the terminator films really are a joint efforts between Cameron and Arnie. It was Schwarzenegger who forced the studio to get Verhoven on as director for Total Recall as well.
Oh for anyone that doesn't know Scott's original ending for Alien Ripley gets killed
Thank Christ for studio executives.
Weird. That is the kind of (increasingly tired) modern ending you'd likely get today; one that focuses on the futility of the struggle and tries to wrong foot the audience. Alien Covenant and Life effectively end on that note. Although the the way those films are structured lend themselves more to that type of ending.
Ripley sort of has to survive to make sense of the preceding actions, to do otherwise would be to undermine the focus of the movie. Her decision making and character agency drive the film. You can pie the audience for effect but I doubt the film endures in the way it does now. Besides the survivor give the story narrative integrity with the tale living on, as with the Ancient Mariner and Ishmael.
Ripley sort of has to survive to make sense of the preceding actions, to do otherwise would be to undermine the focus of the movie. Her decision making and character agency drive the film. You can pie the audience for effect but I doubt the film endures in the way it does now. Besides the survivor give the story narrative integrity with the tale living on, as with the Ancient Mariner and Ishmael.
Danger Close. Didn’t know what to even watch on Netflix. Getting to a point now where I’ve seen every good to great movie. So this looked at least entertaining. It definitely was, about 100 NZ and Australian soldiers are in the Vietnam war. They find themselves completely overrun with 2000 Vietcong. Start a deadly and intense standoff waiting for more support while bombarding them with everything they’ve got and still they keep on coming. Very good movie, glad I watched it. True story aswel. I’d give it an 8/10.
It's also in general more satisfactory for viewers to see the protagonist survive in whom they've been investing a lot of energy. I get the dramatic effect of a negative ending, but why bother your audience unnecessarily? It's for effect either way; films are usually pretty inconsequential, after all.
I write scripts in the side of my full time job and therefore read a lot of professional scripts in my spare time. A lot of Hollywood scripts I read end in a negative way and in the movie the endings always get changed to something more positive.
But I get why screenwriters want to end on negative. I for one feel the script is getting too cheesy to have the protagonist win so I end most of my scripts on a bad note.
Maybe that's why I've not sold one
And 3 years later.....
Scott is for me one of the greatest directors of all time but the alternative endings to Alien and Bladerunner are good examples of narrative decisions going completely against the rest of the film.
The face off between Deckard and Batty only makes sense if Deckard is a human otherwise it's just a very pretty looking episode of robot warz(Plus everything else in the film is geared towards Deckard as a human). It's odd.
I guess Scott is more interested in throwing up questions then making a coherent sci fi film.
I really like it, although I can see why some would just prefer the theatrical version. It doesn't stop being a great film in the DC, although it could quite easily not exist either since the original was perfect the way it was.
The one thing I would've wanted in the original film:
In the original film, after Dallas is confronted by the alien in the vents, there's a very short scene where Parker is on the way to refuel his flamethrower. It's so small and it's cut out of the Director's Cut for some reason. That scene was originally meant to be a bigger scene where Parker has a confrontation with the alien and they attempt to eject it out of the airlock. There's some basic footage of Ripley and Lambert during this scene that can be found online. I would have loved to have seen that full scene in the director's cut or the original version, but obviously with Parker vs. the alien footage filmed, too.
I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World again last weekend. Such an awesome film - large stretches of it are just inch perfect. The finale might actually be its weakest bit; or at least Gideon is not the best Evil Ex, as he should have been. But I absolutely love the humour, cinematography, CGI inserts, pace, cutting - basically everything of this film. (Although I read afterwards that the writer of the original comic thought the cast could have been more diverse, and he is very right about that.)
"He punched the highlights out of her hair. HE PUNCHED THE HIGHLIGHTS OUT OF HER HAIR!"
Wallace wins the film though. Pity he isn't present at the finale.
1917
Enjoyable
7/10
Enjoyable
7/10
All is Lost
Robert Redford stuck on a boat, virtually no script, really enjoyed it. Been going through a 'bit of people stuck on boats up shit creek' phase for a while and out of Their Finest Hours, Perfect Storm, this, Adrift and Sea Fever this is my fave.
7.5/10
===
Sunshine
Danny Boyle sci-fi save the world stuff. This is on lots of recommended lists, for me it was just OK
6/10
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Primer
Time-travelling shenanigans which instead of skirting around the issues of past/future affecting future/past just tells it how it is; therefore, it needs a couple of watches to fully-understand (well, it did for me), but I really liked it and will be watching again whilst praying for a version that doesn't look crap on a modern telly/4k projector. I had to buy this on DVD (that's the best available) but it's on Prime Video for purchase in the UK if you want to see it now
8.5/10
Robert Redford stuck on a boat, virtually no script, really enjoyed it. Been going through a 'bit of people stuck on boats up shit creek' phase for a while and out of Their Finest Hours, Perfect Storm, this, Adrift and Sea Fever this is my fave.
7.5/10
===
Sunshine
Danny Boyle sci-fi save the world stuff. This is on lots of recommended lists, for me it was just OK
6/10
===
Primer
Time-travelling shenanigans which instead of skirting around the issues of past/future affecting future/past just tells it how it is; therefore, it needs a couple of watches to fully-understand (well, it did for me), but I really liked it and will be watching again whilst praying for a version that doesn't look crap on a modern telly/4k projector. I had to buy this on DVD (that's the best available) but it's on Prime Video for purchase in the UK if you want to see it now
8.5/10
I need to give that a watch, still never seen it.
It used be one of those DVDs that always cost 3 quid in the early/mid 00s, like Secretary and Donnie Darko.
Aye, I have a bit of a 15 year gap of films around that time for reasons; I paid 6 quid i think + postage from Amazon. That's like the new 3 quid.
Finally got round to watching Knives Out, fun film. A little silly at times but the cast seemed to enjoy making it and I found it enjoyable to watch. Ana de Armas really is insanely beautiful. It certainly was a better watch than the remake of Orient Express which I found hard work but the plot of that film grates me.
And 3 years later.....
Scott is for me one of the greatest directors of all time but the alternative endings to Alien and Bladerunner are good examples of narrative decisions going completely against the rest of the film.
The face off between Deckard and Batty only makes sense if Deckard is a human otherwise it's just a very pretty looking episode of robot warz(Plus everything else in the film is geared towards Deckard as a human). It's odd.
I guess Scott is more interested in throwing up questions then making a coherent sci fi film.
Even after the second film there is nothing to definitively say that Deckard is or isn't a replicant. He could be a human or an replicant with no end date and doesn't know if his memories are real or implanted. This was hinted at in the first film and the (much better) alternative ending only increases those doubts.
I tend towards him being a replicant who doesn't know (or certainly didn't know in the first film) but I also think the ambiguity is very well played. Can't wait for the third film as the 2nd was surprisingly great.
Not seen it but so many DC's are worse ranging from Donny Darko to Apocalypse Now to There is Something About Mary.
The exception is the Final Cut of Blade Runner which is brilliant and a huge upgrade on the original (which I still love as a guilt pleasure for the cheesy voiceover).
Interview With the Vampire: Good popcorn and a friend(s) affair, especially since you can take a break during the middle act to do whatever without missing any fun. I don’t know if he is a good actor or just really suited to these roles, but Tom Cruise plays an excellent lunatic. This one, Magnolia, Tropic Thunder...it all works.
12/20
12/20
one of the many good decisions taken in the 2nd film was to dump "is deckard a replicant" entirely to the side, and focus on rachel and their offspring.And 3 years later.....
Scott is for me one of the greatest directors of all time but the alternative endings to Alien and Bladerunner are good examples of narrative decisions going completely against the rest of the film.
The face off between Deckard and Batty only makes sense if Deckard is a human otherwise it's just a very pretty looking episode of robot warz(Plus everything else in the film is geared towards Deckard as a human). It's odd.
I guess Scott is more interested in throwing up questions then making a coherent sci fi film.
You could talk me into a 14/20. I just got bored. It needed...something.12/20?
that's stingy
The second is overall a better film imo but the first has higher peaks(Batty speech might be the greatest sci fi moment in film). It's a shame it completely bombed at the box office(Just like the first movie), I saw the bloody thing like 3 times in the cinema! So it's not my fault if we don't get another one.
It also peaked up my interest in Villeneuve incoming Dune film.
You wanted... more?
Another Earth
A middling 90-minuter, but I enjoyed it well enough. The parallel earth bit is somewhat secondary, more about the mental issues after the protaganist does what she does at the start and her attempts to sort her head out/put things right.
5 or 6/10
A middling 90-minuter, but I enjoyed it well enough. The parallel earth bit is somewhat secondary, more about the mental issues after the protaganist does what she does at the start and her attempts to sort her head out/put things right.
5 or 6/10