ALIENS

(July 1986, U.S.)

There seemed something very fitting about James Cameron directing the sequel to ALIEN (1979). Perhaps THE TERMINATOR (1984) had been enough of a megahit to secure his name in the minds of moviegoers as a more-than-capable action-adventure director. ALIENS had seemed like a long-time-coming continuation of Lt. Ellen Ripley's story, but really, it had only been seven years since the first film.

The timing of this film could not have been better. American moviegoers in the mid 1980's were on the threshold of action movie stars with the likes of Sylvester Stallone in RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD-PART II (which Cameron co-wrote, by the way) and a slew of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. This time, though, our kick-ass movie hero was a women, and a serious bitch when she had to be! She also knew how to use her maternal insticts of love to keep the little girl, Newt (what the fuck kind of a name is that, anyway???) safe. Moviegoers loved Ripley, and the Oscar academy loved Sigourney Weaver when they nominated her for best actress of the year.

While ALIENS is an incredible sci-fi/action thriller, it is far from perfect. In my opinion, having to listen to Bill Paxton's character whine and whimper throughout most of the movie is by far worse than having to listen to Jar Jar Binks in THE PHANTOM MENACE. Seriously, sometimes you want to fast-forward just to avoid hearing his (Paxton's) voice!

It's amazing to think that James Cameron was already on a substantial roll as a director by this time, and yet some of his finest work was still years ahead of him.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Ripley: "Get away from her, you BITCH!!!'