From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 17 18:52:17 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: archer@frmug.org (Vincent Archer) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 Nov 1997 17:08:31 GMT Organization: Frmug Park Lines: 69 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <64i0if$rh$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 879527311 881 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09792 Keywords: author=archer X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9133 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1629 Alien: Resurrection (Aliens 4) Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman Personal grade: B+ I knew that living in France would turn out useful once in my life. Well, this is the occasion, as we frenchmen are treated with an advance release of the latest release in the Aliens sage. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (without its usual complice Marc Caro) was selected by the producers on the strength of _The City of the Lost Children_, whose bizarre vision showed that he could create yet another different style for _Aliens_. The fact that he didn't spoke english at all didn't faze them, God be thanked. For those who didn't follow the press releases, it's been 200 years since Florina. The Company is defunct, but General Perez has acquired the samples that were preleved on Ellen Ripley for diagnosis, and has mounted a covert private operation to extract the Aliens' genetic pattern and resurrect the species. Guess what? Right, they clone Ripley and extract a Queen, whose genetic patterns were mixed with Ripley's. Enter a band of colorful mercenaries, who hijacked a shuttle full of frozen miners on their way to colonies, and are delivering twelve warm bodies for incubation. Winona Ryder plays the role of a romantic pirate wannabee who used the bed to buy into the team, while long-standing Jeunet complice Dominique Pinon plays the crippled ship mecanic and Ron Perlman who already starred in _The City_ is a though and gruffy mercenary. No one is surprised when, after a while, the Aliens, instead of being tamed, manage to escape, and all hell breaks loose. Our heroes now have to cross the entire starship to get back to their own, ensure that the ship (who, of course automatically set course to Earth when any emergency arise) is destroyed, while dodging a few aliens on their way. The personal touch of Jeunet is evident everywhere in the movie. I doubt that anyone would have used bad breath as an authentification method, or have Ripley weep when she kills the last Alien. Each character exsudes a je-ne-sais-quoi suggesting of (moral) decay, and small little details draw smiles at odd moments. Such as the best TV channel ever (a home shopping channel with every kind of gun and knife rotating for display, with full schematics all around), or a real hairy general woken up by the general emergency. The film also has its own gross moments, which one would expect when you start with bugs who build nests out of hardened saliva, but there are hard moments. I don't know if all of these will survive in the U.S. release. Judicious use of the Alien's double mandibles - preferably with a human head just in the trajectory - is also scattered thru the entire movie. But, if you are going to see an _Alien_ film, this is not something that would deter you so much. No sequel will probably ever make it to the level of the initial installment of the series, but this one comes close. The expected cop-out of "#3 never happened" doesn't occur, but you can forget all about that bad dream, and enjoy seeing a much toughened Ripley tearing her way - literally - thru the ship and a lot of human drama. When she's asked "Why do you keep on living?", the answer "Because I don't have much choice" somehow seems really adequate. I don't know what Jeunet will do next, but it sure will be worth waiting for! -- Vincent ARCHER Email: archer@frmug.org From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:28:24 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: redman@bvoice.com (Michael Redman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 Dec 1997 05:09:12 GMT Organization: ... Lines: 105 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <687b9o$ge0$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: redman@bvoice.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer20.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883372152 16832 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10348 Keywords: author=redman X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer20.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9732 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1715 Ripley is alienated and so are we Alien; Resurrection A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1997 By Michael Redman **1/2 (out of ****) "You're not Ellen Ripley. She died 200 years ago" accuses space pirate Call to the newly cloned Ripley-8 in the fourth film of the Alien trilogy. That's the primary defect with this movie: she's not the heroine of the first films, but..."something else". A couple of centuries after the alien-fighter made her long beautiful dive into molten metal to rid the universe of the dripping slimy killing machines, scientists for a top secret military operation have succeeded in recreating her from a blood sample found on the prison planet in "Aliens 3". Not only that, but they've extracted the queen from her chest. Working, as always, for the good of mankind, they allow the queen to hatch 12 new beasts. It's not ruining anything to reveal that the aliens escape their prisons and destroy almost the entire crew: that's a given in any Alien movie. The "heroes" this time around are a rag-tag group of rough space pirates who deliver humans to the science ship to serve as hosts for the infant monstrosities. The space-age highwaymen are a likable bunch for folks who sell living people to be used as incubators. We grow to like them before most get snuffed. Especially appealing in a humorously Rambo way is Johner (Ron Perlman). The hyper-tough guy and Weaver bounce off each other admirably: "So. I hear you, like, ran into these things before. "Yeah." "What did you do?" "I died." Crippled Vriess (Dominique Pinon) is the realest member of the cast. "Little girl playing pirate" Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) seems a bit too nice to be mixed up with the rest. She and Ripley form a relationship reminiscent of her attachment to the little girl in "Aliens". One touch of love in an otherwise detached film. Due to the cloning process, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has a mix of Alien DNA which gives her superhuman strength, acidic blood and a telepathic sense. She has become something more — or less — than human. The queen mother has picked up some Homo Sapiens DNA in the process and the creatures have become more man-like. Easily the best scene in the film is when Ripley discovers the flawed previous seven clones. Touching and grotesque at the same time, the moment allows her to briefly touch her humanity and help her sisters in the only way that she can. What constitutes humanity is a theme of the film. Our heroine is part alien. One of the characters is unveiled as an android. Vriess is something of a cyborg, attached to a high-tech wheelchair. The aliens have feelings. The scientists are monsters. There is a particularly interesting scene where the alienated Ripley is talking to a very humanized android in the ship's chapel. The clone is aloof and emotionless throughout almost the entire film. The android is sobbing because it is only a machine. Which one has a soul? The creatures are great for the most part. They have always been one of the best-designed visuals in any film. Now that computer technology has advanced further, they look even better, but it is disturbing that they sound and move exactly like the raptors in "Jurassic Park". The new type of alien near the end of the film is disappointing and could have been lifted out of "Seven Voyages Of Sinbad". H. R. Giger, designer of the original film, should have been brought back for this rather than using a rubber suit found in cinematic storage. The transformation of Ripley ruins one of the most appealing aspects of the previous films. As she is sniffing around for aliens (and everything seems to be smelling everything else in the film -- there's even a breathalyzer as a door lock) and ripping metal off the walls, she seems almost invulnerable. The old Ripley was constantly in danger: one person against an unstoppable force. This one is above that. There's no audience investment in her safety. There are some intriguing aspects of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's ("City Of Lost Children") film. Ripley, reborn after dying for mankind's sins, relearns of even more sacrifice. Witnessing unselfish actions by others, and although she unplugs the high-tech Bible from the computer, the final scene is straight from that book. As the baby boomers age, older actresses have had the opportunity to be leading women and with good reason. At two years shy of 50, Weaver is an accomplished performer and easily as sexy as anyone on "Bay Watch". Her performance clearly overshadows the youthful Ryder's. She plays exactly who she is supposed to be. It's just disappointing who that person is. This is a difficult one to write. "Alien: Resurrection" was my most anticipated film of the year and coming out of it, I was filled with very mixed emotions. It's fun but not nearly as much as it should be. Weaver is great in her role, but that role is disappointing. Asked numerous times, I've responded with my three-word review: "good, not great". Oh well. There's always the next one and trust me, there will be an "Alien 5". Count on it. (Michael Redman has written this column so long that this is his fourth "Alien" review. He's overjoyed to announce that he is again one with the electrons at redman@bvoice.com. Now if he'd only get something there.) [This appeared in the 12/4/97 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com ] -- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:30:38 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Tim Voon Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 2 Jan 1998 16:44:06 GMT Organization: Mariah Lines: 59 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <68j5gm$6um$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883759446 7126 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10442 Keywords: author=voon X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9717 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1713 ALIEN RESURRECTION 1997 A film review by Timothy Voon Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon 2 :-) :-) for bringing the beast back from the grave Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Dan Hedaya, J. E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, Michael Wincott. Screenplay: Joss Whedon. Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. In this resurrection of alien carnage only a handful will survive the acid test of death. If nightmares could be personified in a living creature, then whisper the word Alien. Through the miraculous wonders of cloning we are represented with a newly revived Queen Alien and a healthier, more robust Ripley. These two mothers who are perpetually on heat are armed to the teeth, and when it comes down to a dogfight they really know how to bitch. The role of Ripley fits Sigourney Weaver as tightly as Indiana Jones has become synonymous with Harrison Ford. She was made to battle Aliens and come out smirking. Without her the family gathering would never be the same. Once again Weaver does her sex proud as she claims the position of dominant female and takes charge of the situation when aliens start misbehaving. Unfortunately, the new Queen Alien is not as feisty as reputed and it will suffice to say that she does a very maternal thing towards the end of the movie. The big question on every ones mind is how does this movie compare to its predecessors? It is not as suspenseful as ALIEN, not as thrilling as ALIENS and not as outright awful as ALIEN3. Writer Joss Whedon has decided to mix the popular elements of the previous three movies into his script. We’re back on a research vessel with only a handful of crew still on board, regenerating the claustrophobic feeling created in ALIEN. The crew are once again grossly outnumbered and hunted down by a pack of bloodthirsty aliens as introduced by James Cameron in ALIENS. As for the other characters beside Ripley and the Queen, they are an assorted rat bag of space scum, not too dissimilar to the inmates of ALIEN3. The real fun comes in guessing who is going to have their head bitten of next. Let’s just say if you’re not mutilated, mutated, robotic or crippled – you have a pretty good chance of becoming monster chomp. In terms of the general feel of the movie. The suspense is greatest when the aliens are still caged and waiting to escape. After this it becomes standard running about, with only a few memorable scenes worth mentioning. Let’s just say the aliens are graceful swimmers and I would like to have them on my water ballet squad. As for acrobatics, I like a man who can shoot a gun hanging upside down. The ending is not as spectacular as the 1986 showdown between Ripley and the Queen, not as melodramatic as the 1992 Ripley throwing herself into an inferno, but it carries a lot more suck than the 1979 version of vacuuming the beast into to space. If you’re wandering what I mean - think about eating spaghetti through a straw. Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:30:51 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Kristian Lin Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 9 Jan 1998 05:10:56 GMT Organization: None Lines: 115 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <694bh0$981$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: kristianlin@sprintmail.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer29.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 884322656 9473 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10536 Keywords: author=lin X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer29.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9792 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1723 Warning: This review gives out crucial plot information. Do not read further if you wish to be surprised. MUST BE A CHICK THING by Kristian Lin I ha't. It is engendered. Hell and night Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. Othello Act I, Scene 1 I think ALIEN: RESURRECTION might have been more easily understood (if not necessarily better liked) if more moviegoers were familiar with the filmography of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet remains a cult figure due to his surrealistic, nightmarish, darkly funny French films such as DELICATESSEN and THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. For its own reasons, 20th Century Fox tapped him for the fourth film in the ALIEN franchise. The result is a mixed bag that's bound to turn off some Jeunet fans and action-movie nuts, but I find it fascinating. The film begins when Lt. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), or at least a facsimile of her, wakes up in a laboratory. She's part of extralegal weapons research conducted by the U.S. military, which has cloned her 200 years after her death and cross-bred her with the aliens that in an attempt to create a new weapon. Alas, the aliens get loose and eat the army people, and Ripley must lead a team of smugglers that had been helping the project to safety. What we should understand about Jeunet is that, like Terry Gilliam, he's a futuristic visionary poet rather than a nuts-and-bolts action-film director, although ALIEN: RESURRECTION works well enough on that level. For better and worse, Jeunet is more interested in throwing weird, psychedelic visuals up on the screen than he is in forming tightly constructed narratives. This isn't to say that his movies are plotless, but rather that they obey their own logic the way nightmares do. That's why the spaceship's cooling tanks open up directly on to the kitchen - the water from the tanks floods the kitchen and creates a dreamy but terrifying De Palma-esque underwater chase. So who cares if it's architecturally implausible? Jeunet's visions also have their own poker-faced sense of play, like the cube of whiskey or the death of Gen. Perez (Dan Hedaya), which references the villain's death in DELICATESSEN. Screenwriter Joss Whedon shares Jeunet's taste for gallows humor, but that's about it. With this film, TOY STORY, his uncredited work on SPEED, and the movie and TV versions of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Joss Whedon is now one of Hollywood's top screenwriters. Of course, we said that about another promising Hollywood black comedy writer, Daniel Waters (HEATHERS, BATMAN RETURNS), and he's disappeared. Whedon and Jeunet are a strange pair, and it's too bad that the collaboration doesn't find either of them at their very best. Jeunet resorts to a few cheap tricks like the old it's-not-sex-it's-only-a-foot-massage gag. His willingness to let things go unaccounted for leads to miscalculations like Call's reappearance after being shot. How she survives the shooting is explained, but her materialization on the other side of a locked door stretches credibility too far. Whedon, for his part, is cut off from the pop-culture references that make "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" such fun to watch. He comes up with a few clunkers like "No human being is that humane," but the script has many more zesty lines, most of them well served by Ron Perlman as Johner, the crew's muscleman and jokester ("I'm not a mechanic. I just hurt people, mostly," he snaps). Nevertheless, Whedon creates an interesting character in Call that holds out great potential for the series's promised fifth installment, whenever that may be. She turns out to be hiding her identity as one of a line of defective androids recalled for its problems with authority. Call is a technological freak whose mere existence renders her an outlaw. That shapes her agenda; she knows about the government's illegal research and means to single-handedly sabotage it. Her anger, though, isn't only directed at the authorities. She also hates herself, like some minorities who encounter such widespread prejudice among larger society that they internalize it and see themselves as deviants ("Look at me, I'm disgusting," says Call). Except for Ripley and the wheelchair-bound Vriess, the other characters react with amused condescension when they discover Call's secret. "Can't believe I almost fucked her," sneers Johner, and you can't help but feel his reaction would be similar had she turned out to be a lesbian (her situation strongly resembles that of some closeted homosexuals). Having given Call such a background, it's puzzling that Whedon can't think of anything interesting to have happen to her. It's suggested (mainly by the actresses) that Ripley's show of toughness has directed Call's energy toward more constructive ends. It's an intriguing idea for a feminist action flick, but Jeunet's imagination doesn't run that way, and the movie never gets more specific on this point. As one of the few Hollywood actresses who can project genuine self-loathing, Winona Ryder's certainly the right choice to play Call. She's strong in support, which is hardly surprising, but given the lack of a character arc and the actress's near-impeccable taste in roles, I have to conclude that she picked this one less for the scripted part itself than for its future possibilities. We can only hope there will be a fifth film to explore them. No, ALIEN: RESURRECTION is all Sigourney Weaver's show, and she gives the performance of her career. Ripley was human in the three earlier installments, but Weaver's now playing a being that's part alien. She responds by raising her alertness to a stratospheric level. She's coiled, like a lioness on the hunt. She seems to be hearing frequencies nobody else can hear, and her brain and muscles work in startling sync. At first she's slightly taken aback by her new powers, but she comes to revel in the fact that she's now like Michael Jordan amid a grade-school basketball team. Maturity has given Weaver the ability to command situations and scenes effortlessly, and nowhere else has this quality suited her better. Even when Ripley's human emotions break down her composure, she retains her queenly dignity; she recognizes the deformed Ripley clone on the operating table, and we see a strong woman whose sense of self has been profoundly violated. This performance is unlike anything Weaver has ever done, and she's glorious. So powerful is her presence that it holds together a movie that would otherwise be a huge, sticky mess. Jeunet has his visions to pursue, and he makes ALIEN: RESURRECTION as big and noisy as you would expect, but Weaver stays calm even as her electricity fills the screen, and she carries the day. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:30:55 1998 From: chuckd21@leading.net (Chuck Dowling) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 Jan 1998 17:09:22 GMT Organization: Chuck's Movie Reviews Lines: 76 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <69irg2$c7g$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 884797762 12528 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10595 Keywords: author=dowling X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspeer.monmouth.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9846 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1728 ALIEN RESURRECTION Movie review by Chuck Dowling Copyright 1998 - Chuck's Movie Reviews http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Alien Resurrection (1997) *** out of ***** - Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, Michael Wincott. Written by: Joss Whedon. Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Running Time: 118 minutes. *** This review contains spoilers. *** "Alien Resurrection", the fourth film in the popular sci-fi/horror series, is a slight improvement over the third installment, but overall is a disappointment. Sigourney Weaver is surprisingly back as Ellen Ripley. I say surprisingly since the character killed herself at the end of the third film. This one is set 200 years after part three, and idiotic scientists have cloned Ripley in order to extract the alien queen she had been carrying inside her at the time of her death. These scientists hope to "train" the aliens. Amazing how after another 200 years of human evolution that scientists are still stupid. Well sure enough, the aliens reproduce and break free to terrorize everyone. None of the characters being chased by the aliens are the slightest bit compelling. You don't care if any of them escape or not. You've got the head idiot scientist, a band of space pirates (of which the only interesting one, Michael Wincott, is killed immediately), another android (Ryder, who's character contributes nothing to any aspect of the film), and Ripley, who really isn't Ripley so again, who cares. Some other minor problems I had: At one moment, the cloned Ripley doesn't know what a fork is, yet soon after she's got a witty one-liner for any occasion. Another thing, too many "witty" one-liners from the cast. Good to know that the aliens aren't too much of a concern anymore. Along those same lines, Dan Hedaya's character is just too cartoonish for the film. Let's make a serious film here people. I'm also curious why after all these hundreds of years of human and scientific evolution that spacecraft are still dirty, grimy, bulky and blocky. It didn't take long after the invention of the automobile to make it a nice looking, streamlined machine, so why after so many hundreds of years are spaceships still clunky and crappy looking? About the film's finale and lead up to that finale, haven't we seen this before? Blow up the ship and blow the alien out into space? All I kept thinking was how much better the ending of part three was since it was something completely different. The ship then at the end crashes into earth, seemingly destroying a couple of continents (!), and this is treated as a good thing? What gives here? Weaver keeps voicing in interviews about how she likes the erotic aspects of the series. Personally, I just don't get what's erotic about monsters, blood, and goo. But, there's plenty of "erotica" here for you if you happen to agree with Weaver. "Alien Resurrection" starts out very intriguing. Information is only given to the audience gradually, and therefore the first third of the film is quite compelling. But as soon as the aliens escape, the film just becomes a mindless bloody gorefest. If this wasn't an "Alien" film then I'd have to just catagorize it as a shameless "Alien" rip-off. Since there will probably never be an "Aliens vs. Predator" film, then there's really only two things I'd like to see if the series continues. Either aliens make it to Earth somehow (even though this film manages to completely trounce that premise by constantly telling us what a hellhole Earth has become), or we find the alien's homeworld WITH only the intent of destroying these things for good. Anything aside from that will most likely be just as disappointing as this effort was. [R] -- Chuck Dowling -- Over 1,600 movies rated and/or reviewed at Chuck's Movie Reviews. Web address: http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 5 14:07:12 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!Cabal.CESspool!bofh.vszbr.cz!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Luke Buckmaster" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 30 Apr 1998 04:26:40 GMT Organization: OzEmail Ltd. Lines: 79 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6i8ui0$sna$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer11.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 893910400 29418 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12237 Keywords: author=buckmaster X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer11.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11454 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1889 REVIEW: Alien Resurrection (1998) by Luke Buckmaster 1 star out of 5 I wont even pretend that I have seen the other 3 alien films. I saw glimpses of Alien and Aliens and fragments of Alien 3, but I have by no means actually sat down and watched any of them. So take my opinion from an unbiased and impartial perspective: Alien Resurrection is not worth the large bag of lollies I was munching into after a hard days work. I didnt just dislike it so much because the plot was awful; most of the acting was very average or the special effects got tiresome after 5 minutes of painful viewing  but also the fact that every tedious ingredient thrown in attempts to give this pointless dribble some meaning. Sigourney Weaver, whos role in Alien earned her an Academy Award nomination, plays the character of Ripley, who died fighting against extraterrestrial scum in Alien 3. 200 years later, scientists use a sample of blood found at the site of her death to recreate Ripley - including the alien that was stuck inside her. In no time they remove the alien from her body and separate the two; yet Ripley is now not completely human, possessing strange amounts of strength and being able to withhold greater pain than a normal being. Im sure someone can explain exactly why this is so, but for now well just ignore it and move on. Why, you ask, would Ripley and the alien inside her be recreated? Well, the smart little lab researchers believed that they would be able to discover many advancements in science from studying the alien creature. These were the same people who said they could control the alien and that their was no danger in their research. They (yawn) were wrong. It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the rest of the film is a continuous cat and mouse chase between the humans who die off one by one and the aliens who open their mouths on every possible occasion to show off their frightfully scary un-flossed teeth. Theres a little saying that goes something like this: If youre going to make a bad film, do it well. I have seen plenty of disappointing and underachieving movies, but they are not the ones that really bother me. Alien Resurrection, a good example of a film that really gets up my nose, is not so much a discouraging experience but an off putting one. There is no way to describe why the Australian MA rating was given to this film other than unnecessary and repulsive gore, which attempts to distract us from the wandering-but-not-going-anywhere plot. In one scene my stomach churned as I witnessed a mawkish looking alien put its hand on a characters head and literally ripped most of his face off. Another one featured Ripley sticking a knife through her hand just to impress someone she was talking to. Fair enough if it were in a horror film or even if it bared any significance to the story, but this is unfortunately not the case, and this sort of bizarre gore is inexcusable. If you think Im struggling to find one good aspect about the film, then you thought right. One exciting scene is a credit (and the only part remotely worth seeing) to the film, in which an alien chases two men (one a cripple) up a tall ladder with interesting results. But of course after that thrilling scene Alien Resurrection had no problem in returning to its pathetically low standard, and ends up crashing into the shores of movie dullness more often than Japanese kamikaze jet fighters fall off their skis. So in a film where the one liners come as bad as Earth man, what a shit hole and the primary means for one mans strategic attack is to bounce bullets off walls to hit an opponent, its no wonder why Alien: Resurrection turned out to be as off putting and clumsy as it is. Oh, and in case youre wondering about my bag of lollies  the less I enjoy a film, the more I eat. So all the lollies were gone in 15 minutes; but however empty the bag turned out to be, it was still a long way ahead of the movie -------------------------------------------------------------------- For more of my reviews, visit Movie Zone: http://moviezone.alphalink.com.au bucky@alphalink.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 6 20:39:27 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!wn4feed!135.173.83.24!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Matthew Brissette Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.reviews Date: 4 Jun 1998 04:35:29 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 106 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6l586h$do9$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: mouche@rodier.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: homer39.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 896934929 14089 (None) 140.142.64.5 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12686 Keywords: author=brissette X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer39.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11876 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1921 I was six years old when my parents dragged me to see Aliens. Now , I had seen the original but since I was probably still drooling back then I really did not know what to expect from it's sequel. I think my parent's were trying to get rid of me early by scaring me to death , that's the only possible explanation for making a child watch Aliens in a dark room during the first days of surround sound. You've all heard the expression "traumatic experience" , well to this day I cannot watch Aliens alone or in the dark. This is not meant as a joke , I start to breathe faster , for some reason I need to swallow every ten seconds and I keep grabbing hold of whatever is available. For some people it's going into the cellar , for others it's spiders , for me it's James Cameron's Aliens. Imagine being immersed in a dark so total that closing your eyes could provide the same effect , then imagine knowing that something is in there with you , stalking you , circling just out of your reach. The room is chilly , the wind is more annoying than cold but it still makes the small hairs between your shoulders stand up in alarm. All the blood as left your legs , you feel like two empty paper bags are the only things holding you up . You feel unsure where exactly to place your arms: by your side , maybe you should cross them , you cannot even see them. You are in desperate need of air , you've stayed too long underwater and it is like some great weight is pressing down on your lungs. You try to force air in but your heart is beating too fast to keep any precious oxygen inside you. The noise is terrifying , a great orchestra drum is beating between your breasts. You clutch your heart , you feel as if your hand is the only thing keeping your heart from bursting out of your chest. You are affraid to look to either side of you , you are affraid to to expose the naked flesh of your neck to the other side as you turn. You fall to your knees , bending in half , praying for some warmth and silence. Then everything stops , your heart beats normally , breath comes easily , you feel safe and pure bliss overwhelms you... ....that's when a cold pair of hands grabs you by the throat from behind! It's a bit melodramatic , I know. But it's the best I can describe what it is like for me to watch this movie. Especially with surround sound , I remember I kept looking all around because I thought the monsters were in the theater with us. When Michael Biehn lifts the grate above the marines and swings his flashlight around I was also looking up. All of this just so you can better understand my disapointment at the direction the series has taken. The problem with the Alien franchise is that it as not followed a natural progression. Explanation: first we had one alien and several humans with practically no weapons. It seemed only natural to follow that up with several hundred aliens and tough marines armed with state of the art gear. Then something went wrong , instead of moving up we took a step back. Afer experiencing the onslaught of a hundred aliens plus their queen it was kind of a downer to just having one running after us. And without weapons the possibility of maximum carnage was very limited. Plus , for the first time in the franchise's history the supporting cast was extremely weak. I wanted Lance Henricksen and Michael Biehn to have survived to pod's crash. Heck , I wanted to see more of the Ripley/Newt relationship. After having taken the fight to the ennemy in Aliens it was sad to just being able to run away and hide in Alien 3. Which brings us to the latest instalment in the franchise: Alien Resurection. Let me start off by saying the director was wrong for this project. Why? Everything scene he shoots is too bright. Even the dark corridors of the ship aren't dark. Part of what makes the alien lethal is that you cannot see it coming , but now we can clearly see down the length of every corridor which makes it hard for a surprise attack. Also , in the three previous flicks we only caught glimpses of the creature , when we saw completely it was only for a few seconds.Now , the Alien is fully exposed in most scenes and it becomes just another B movie monster. Can somebody explain this to me: The first flick was about a hundred years into the future , the second was ninety , I think , the third was a couple of decades and this latest is , again I think , a hundred. Now , we can travel through space , clone entire persons and establish colonies on distant worlds but guns still need bullets? Oh sure , they had small lasers but come on... Now we move on to Alien Resurection's biggest fault: Ripley , the original ( well , okay , her clone , but let's not split hairs ) psycho bitch. What people want to see is Ripley tape two big ass guns together and lob grenades at aliens and alien eggs , oh , and let's not forget the flamethrower. But , unfortunately , in this movie Ripley is not pro-active she is only re-active. Meaning she is just running away with the others instead of doing what we want to see her do: open up a can of whup ass on them critters. I know that she is not the original Ripley but instead of leading the men to safety she just hangs back and offers some less than inspiring comments once in a while. "What did you do?" he asks. "I died." So much for morale. Another little nitpick: the alien's acid can melt through a dozen bulkheads but if you get a face full of the stuff you just get a not so nasty burn? Right , as if you'd still have a head after that. While we are bitching: the "use the airlock to get rid of the final alien" bit got old back in Aliens. Movies are supposed to have big , explosive endings ( again I must mention Aliens in regards to this comment ) , instead we get a really fake looking atmospheric re-entry. Rating: Half a star out of 5 for a legend in the breaking , bad CG effects ( mostly when the Alien jumps out of the water , ugh! ) and the half of star is for the ok but not great underwater chase.