Movie review: ‘Aliens’

FloridaGator80

It’s exceptionally rare that a sequel betters the original. “The Godfather: Part II” comes close and you wouldn’t be wrong in considering it to be the equal in most parts to “The Godfather,” which I believe is the best-ever in American cinema. However, sequels usually fall flat as they are just vehicles to make some money off the success or name recognition of the original (see “Weekend at Bernie’s II” – click here for my review of bad sequels – or “Caddyshack II” – click here for my review). One outstanding exception is “Aliens,” which followed the original by seven years and it wasn’t special effects that made it better: It was better acted, it was better written and it is a James Cameron blockbuster. “Aliens” has stood the test of time and more than 30 years later is as fresh a sci-fi film as you could expect, just as it was when it made its premiere in 1986. The only discordant note in the film is the abominable work by the talentless Paul Reiser.

‘Aliens’
(1986; 137 minutes; rated R; directed by James Cameron and starring Sigorney Weaver, Michael Biehn and Carrie Henn)

A RARE EXAMPLE OF A SEQUEL BEING BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some more opinion, additional trivia and the updating of links on April 16, 2018. I again expanded the review and updated links on April 24, 2021.)

In 1979, audiences were treated to a sci-fi scare fest called “Alien.” The film’s slogan was: “In space no one can hear you scream.” Unlike many scare-fests, it was clever, well-acted and laced with ever-tightening tension. Fast forward to 1986 and you have just about the same – and it’s called “Aliens” – “This Time It’s War” – and it is just better in every respect to the original as well as benefiting from the evolution of special effects.

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“Aliens” also benefits from the talent of James “Titanic” Cameron. He’s the director and wrote the screenplay. He’s a big gun in cinema – just check out “Avatar” and its franchise. He’s a great storyteller through film and especially that which works well in science fiction and doesn’t get bogged down in the technology of it all. Cameron had a tough job following the original, which was an almost instant sci-fi classic, but managed to pull it off.

“Aliens” won two Oscars and was nominated for five more. Both wins were for special effects and Sigourney Weaver got her first Oscar nomination for this one. The rest of the nominations were for music, editing, sound and set decoration. All well-deserved and no one can ever argue that Sigourney had even a snowball’s chance over Marlee Matlin and her work in “Children of a Lesser God.”

Drama always trumps sci-fi! And Marlee was better, but only because she wasn’t in a sci-fi thriller. Slightly … but better.

The interesting part is that you don’t need to have seen the original to truly appreciate “Aliens.” The backstory puts a little extra snap into the beginning scenes and gives the sequel initial context without wasting time. Yet, it didn’t really need it.

The worst part of “Aliens” is that talentless actor Paul Reiser, who is stomach-churning and film-ruining on his best day, is here. Still, Reiser-the-talentless doesn’t manage to sink the production (you would have thought he sank the “Titanic” because of his dinner-theater acting ability, but he wasn’t in that one).

“Aliens” begins 57 years after the original. Sigorney Weaver, who would work with Cameron on “Avatar,” plays “Ellen Ripley.” She’s found in “hyper-sleep” when found by a deep-space exploration ship – the only survivor of her original ship, whose crew was wiped out by an alien. Weaver awakes to find a different world – including the colonization of the barren planet with the killer aliens.

Soon she’s winging her way back (always a bad idea in film – from teens who go into the maniac’s house to making a return visit to a murderous alien’s nest) with a brace of “Colonial Marines,” who are prepared, or so they think, to deal with any aliens. They believe it will be a “bug hunt.”

The rest of the film plays out as expected, but it is done really, really well: The group fights with the aliens (now hatched from the eggs from the first film); a bunch die; only Weaver and a couple of other survive only to fight the mother alien as they try to get away. Of course, Weaver finally notches the victory and the film closes like the original.

The neat twist here is finding Carrie Henn, who plays “Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jorden” – a young girl who is the only survivor of the colony’s families. It brings out something of a mother instinct in the distinctly formidable Weaver and is quite the neat touch.

  • In the final analysis, this film is a spotlight performance for Weaver. The three-time Oscar nominee is the star (she got her first here) is the best in action; and she has more heart and guts than everyone except Henn. Weaver handles the swing of emotions from the vulnerable survivor to the scrambling action hero who’s battling face-to-face with the alien. Good job, Sigourney (as if you needed me to tell you today). She has also been in “Ghostbusters” and showed her versatility as the First Lady in “Dave” with Kevin Kline (click here for my review). Two of her nominations came in the same year with honors for “Working Girl” and “Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey,” which were both released in 1988.
  • Michael Biehn plays “Cpl. Dwayne Hicks” of the Colonial Marines. Biehn, who was sent back in time to battle Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator,” isn’t as single-minded and tough here as that one, but he’s smooth and obviously gives his all. While undeniably a true soldier, Biehn does a good job in showing the human side to his soldier’s character. It’s not an easy hill to climb for an actor, but he’s pretty good at it. He was also in “The Rock” and “The Abyss.”
  • Henn was 10 when “Aliens” was released and had no acting experience before getting the part. It is her only acting credit (she was in a couple of documentaries about the film) and she later reportedly pursued a career as a teacher. It’s too bad for the world of entertainment, but in the real world I hope she’s helping shape young minds in a positive manner. Henn is simply terrific here and acts better than six out of 10 women working in film today (and eight out 10 on television).
  • Two others, Lance Henriksen as the android “Bishop” and the almost always entertaining Bill Paxton as “Pvt. Hudson,” do good, solid work and were also fellow vampires in the little-remembered “Near Dark” horror flick (click here for my review). Henriksen does an almost out-of-body experience as he channels the android who is at first hated by Weaver and then saves her life before being dismembered by the alien. Paxton, who would go on to a much better role with Tom Hanks in “Apollo 13,” is the over-confident but ultimately fearful soldier who gets on the fast track to terror quickly. Paxton was also great in supporting roles in both “True Lies” (click here for my review) and John Hughes’ “Weird Science” (click here for my review). Paxton died at 61 in 2017 of a stroke following surgery.
  • Unfortunately, we have to put up with talentless Reiser here as company man “Carter J. Burke.” He simply oozes the part of playing a worm that you just know it’s what he’s like in real life (probably not, but since it’s my opinion that he’s a piss-poor actor, I’ll write it). He does his oozing, slimy best here, but the film would have been better had any other actor had been cast. He is a suppurating wound in the piece of crap called “Bye Bye Love” (click here for my review) and he was in other films and TV such as … oh, who cares? Certainly not me.
  • One really solid turn here is by Jenette Goldstein, who plays “Pvt. Vasquez,” and she is really tough as the confident and brash heavy-weapons expert. She holds up her courage right to the bitter end (but not to the end of the film, if you get my meaning). She was the MP killed in “The Presidio” (click here for my review) and you might recognize her as the foster mother of “John Connor” in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” She also had a small part as “Irish Mommy” in “Titanic.”

I reviewed another great film that’s what I call an “extension” of the original: “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (click here for my review). Just like “Aliens,” that one extended the franchise in a most positive manner. Both films make sure that, just like “Jurassic World” (click here for my review), today’s films move forward with competence instead of the quick-buck opportunists who believe any name from the 1970s or 1980s can turn a profit today with one of Hollywood’s deficient “reboots.”

The film will have its 35th anniversary in the summer of 2021 as “Aliens” made its premiere on July 18, 1986, at a theater in Westwood, Calif.

“Aliens” was the No. 7 film of 1986 at the domestic box office with $85.1 million in ticket sales and made $131 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film showed the way to the “danger zone” as Tom Cruise and “Top Gun” raked in $176.7 million, which was just ahead of the refreshing adventure film “Crocodile Dundee” with Paul Hogan (it brought in $174.8 million). Films from 1986 that I’ve reviewed are:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Weaver had rejected offers to reprise her role as “Ripley,” but reconsidered after reading Cameron’s screenplay (he was actually allowed to interrupt his writing for “The Terminator” and resumed after).
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “In both the standard and special edition versions, the fifteen-minute countdown at the end of the film is indeed fifteen minutes”
  • The film has 25 f-bombs spoke and Paxton has 18 of them.
  • The alien screams were baboon shrieks altered in post-production.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Sigourney Weaver‘s Best Actress Academy Award nomination for this movie was the first ever for an actress in an action role in an action movie.”
  • Hendricksen said that since the film “Full Metal Jacket” (click here for my review) was being produced at the same time and so the crews from the two films often partied together.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Hicks was originally played by James Remar, but Michael Biehn replaced him a few days after principal photography began. The often given reason for Remar being removed was due to ‘artistic differences’ between Remar and director James Cameron. But in episode #128 of the ‘Sidebar’ podcast, Remar states that he was fired from the production because he was busted for possession of drugs. He said this was in a period of his life where he said he had developed a terrible drug problem. Remar still appears in the finished film – he is seen for one shot when the marines enter the alien nest. Because he is seen from behind wearing the same armor as Michael Biehn, it’s impossible to tell the difference between the two actors.”
  • The film was reportedly never shown to test audiences because it wasn’t finished until the week before its release in theaters.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “When filming the scene with Newt in the duct, Carrie Henn kept deliberately blowing her scene so she could slide down the vent, which she later called a slide three stories tall. James Cameron finally dissuaded her by saying that if she completed the shot, she could play on it as much as she wanted. She did, and he kept his promise.”
  • Click here for IMDb.com’s extensive “Aliens” trivia page.

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