Aliens

There are really good movies and then there's that select few that change your life. Aliens is one of many movies from my adolescent years that is just as good today as it was back then.

Every aspect of this movie is spot on, which I can only put down to James Cameron's obsessive attention to detail. Rarely does a sequel do greater justice to an idea than the original. But 'Aliens' manages it in spades.

The action is totally relentless and packs a heck of a punch. But during the first hour you won't be seeing any of the aliens or the gunfights so we can focus on the characters and get to know them first. But the action has everything, big machine guns, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, you name it.

Sci-Fi action at it's very best 10/10

Released in 1986, Aliens is James Cameron's sequel to the award-winning Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Sigourney Weaver as Flight Lt Ellen Ripley, the film picks up 57 years after the self-destruction of the freight ship Nostromo with the interception of Ripley's lifeboat. Plagued by nightmares of her ordeal with the first Alien and the slaughter of the Nostromo's crew (who can forget John Hurt's legendary chest bursting scene?!), Ripley awakes onboard the near earth space station Gateway.

Here she learns (much to her dismay) that she is being held responsible for the loss of the star ship and that there is no evidence to support her claims of contact with a hostile xenomorph. Even worse, Ripley learns that the planet LV426 where the Alien was first encountered has been renamed Asheron and is now home to a colony of terraformers. The Weyland-Yutani Company is behind the colonisation and has entrusted a man called Burke (Paul Reiser) to extract information from Ripley.

When Gateway station loses contact with the colony on Asheron (LV426), the Company begins to take notice of Ripley's bizarre claims of a hostile alien life form that has acid for blood and two mouths (!). With a little effort, Burke and a marine, Lt Gorman (William Hope), Ripley is persuaded to return to LV426 with an investigation team (made up of bad ass space marines) solely in the role of advisor. When the team arrive at the colony, the film really kicks into overdrive.

The marines are all individuals with their own mannerisms and personalities and the actors playing them all deliver sterling performances (most notable are Bill Paxton as Private Hudson and Jeanette Goldstein as the hard as nails Vasquez). Cue the arrival of the marines at an eerily quite base, no sign of any of the colonists. What comes in the following 45 minutes is some of the best cinema ever filmed - awesome fire fights, groundbreaking visual effects and more tension than Rick Waller's mattress. There is a little sentimentality thrown in for good measure in the form of Newt (Carrie Henn) - a young girl who has been orphaned by the Aliens, who I suppose is assort of daughter figure for Ripley to look out for (in the Special Edition we are treated to a scene early on in the film where Ripley is told that her daughter has died of old age on Earth while Ripley drifted for 57 years through space in the Nostromo life boat, Narcissus).

Aliens is a stunning movie and won several awards including two Oscars (SFX editing and Visual Effects) and also launched the careers of Bill Paxton and others in the cast to star status. If you want a gripping plot, character development, sentimentality, unbelievable action, horror, tension, scares and unforgettable one liners ("Game over, man!"), then look no further than Aliens. Definitely one of the greatest action/sci-fi/horror movies ever produced.

Aliens - "This time, it`s war".

Fresh off The Terminator and having co-wrote Rambo II, James Cameron dumped Ridley Scott`s tension from Alien and replaced it with all-out action.

I agree with the fanbase that says that this is better than Alien, because it brings Ripley into a new setting and introduces us to gung-ho but likeable marines whom we don`t want to see die, but some of them do anyway. There`s the world-weary Hicks (Michael Biehn), Bishop (Lance

Henrikson),who is an android; Vasquez (Janette Goldstein) who has never been mistaken for a man; and stealing the movie is Hudson (Bill Paxton) who progresses from super-cocky to being a complete whino in the third act. On paper, he should be annoying, but Paxton brings so much life to him, you`ll grieve when he bites the dust.

Whereas the first film had Ripley against one alien, here she and her marine friends (and tagalong kid Newt) are upset by thousands of the acid blooded critters. The creatures are scarily realistic, thanks to Stan Winston`s Oscar winning effects.

Overall, Aliens rocks, thanks to a commanding performance from Ms. Weaver, great characters and great effects. If only Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection were as good as this.