Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted February 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2012 This was on telly a couple weeks back and I saw it for the first time since it first came out... It was great, and really has barely aged at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Justice Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 The first 18 rated film I ever watched at the cinema. I was 15 at the time, and me and my mate had paid to see something else (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls I believe) but watched this instead. My mate left after about 20 minutes because he said it was boring, but I was hooked and wanted to finish it. This was something I classed at the time as a "proper" film, and where my love for movies began. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 You and Thunderplex are nutters. Se7en is brilliant. The next film on this list will see me reporting ANYONE who disagrees with its inclusion. I want to make this clear before the event.  Nutter? How Austin Powers of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Astro Hollywood Posted February 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2012 Definitely a film that would have made my top 20, had we gone that far. It's on my list of films that I rewatch every year around Halloween. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators neil Posted February 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2012 I struggle to watch Seven purely because it absolutely terrifies me. Something about the murders and the way they are done just scares the utter shit out of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 (edited) I struggle to watch Seven purely because it absolutely terrifies me. Something about the murders and the way they are done just scares the utter shit out of me. Aye, I usually spend the following week certain some nutter is going to bugger me with a strap-on knife/spear. Even though I've watched the film numerous times, the 'sloth' scene always horrifies me. Edited February 9, 2012 by Blackson Jackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted February 9, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 It's an unnerving film. Very few films have genuinely unsettled me, but Se7en is one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 It's also desperately misunderstood by lesser directors, and hence spawned the current craze for torture porn films. Most of the bad stuff happened off-screen, suggested, which is far far worse as your imagination fills in the gaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted February 9, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 This is long. And I don't care.  14  Aliens (1986)   GLADSTONE'S CHOICE - 1st PLACE  People wot put it in 1st place: Only me  IMDB Rating: 8.5  What's it about?  In space, no-one can hear Michael Biehn.  What do we say?  I have to admit to being as surprised as I am disappointed that Aliens only managed to get to number 14. In fact, with a few days of voting to go it wasn't even troubling the top 50, and if that had happened I would have put it at number 1 anyway. Good job I have friends like smp and Astro Hollywood:-  "A hugely rewatchable and fun film, which perfectly combines action and sci-fi."  "Super quotable, and both the finest action movie, and the finest sequel in cinema."  There was an argument in an on-topic thread today about how you can start to hate your favourite things if you have too much of them - but for me, the measure of how good something is is that you can be exposed to it over and over and over again, and still enjoy it and appreciate it as much as when you first experienced it. Perhaps even more so. Aliens is the ultimate proof of that for me and I almost certainly love it a lot more than when I first saw it when I was 10.  In fact, I started to REALLY appreciate it when I was 14 on one Saturday afternoon. All the family were out and I was just looking through some old tapes, probably looking for something to tape Saint & Greavsie on while I nipped to The Likely Lads on Stockport Road to buy a budget game for my C64. I happened across a recording of Aliens - admittedly it was the ITV edit but actually as ITV edits go it wasn't bad, just a few bits of language dubbed over. So I sat and watched it because I had nothing better to do (plus I was still working on Flimbo's Quest), and that was when I really fell in love with this film.  As sequels go, it's about as bold as you could possibly get back in the 1980s. Whilst Alien was a claustrophobic horror thriller, Aliens takes those elements, throws in a hell of a lot more humour, some fantastic action scenes, and of course a shitload more aliens, and comes up with something that was never prepared to be just the poor little brother of Ridley Scott's original. It is better, but it is also very very different. It needed to be, though. So many horror franchises have floundered at the second hurdle by just trying to redo what the original did. James Cameron clearly was having none of that and not in the slightest bit interested in going for the safe option.  The pacing of the film really is quite incredible and the establishment of the characters even more so. Setting the Marines up as bravado-riddled brainless types being led by an inexperienced lieutenant who is clearly out of his depth from the get-go, the slow on-screen evolution of Burke from well-meaning company guy to ruthless and cowardly fortune hunter, Bishop kept at a slight distance from the group with regular subtle hints that he might do an Ian Holm at any moment, and the slow building sense that there is very little chance they will be getting off LV-426 are all pointers to how well paced Aliens is.  You see, it's not just a sci-fi shoot 'em up with Bill Paxton occasionally yelling "GAME OVER!" Aliens is so much more than that. Paxton is exceptional, though - one of those actors that, technically, isn't actually all THAT great and clearly someone with limits but when given the right role, utterly splendid. Watch him in One False Move (an absolutely tremendous and ridiculously unknown film) and A Simple Plan to see him at his very best. Sigourney Weaver outdoes her prequel performance and even grabbed an Oscar nomination - unheard of for a film like this, while Michael Biehn produces the performance of his patchy but occasionally inspired career. The same could also be said of Lance Henriksen and an inspired Paul Reiser, too. Fucking hell, it even has a cute kid in it that is charming rather annoying.  You really need to see the Director's Cut, though. Aliens was one of the first films to give the public a chance to experience a slightly altered version and choose which version it preferred. Nowadays, pretty much every two-bit shitty action and horror film gives you an 'extreme' or 'uncut' version to consume. Here, though, the minutes snipped actually add something - Ripley receiving news on her daughter from Burke, Newt's family finding THAT ship and kick-starting the mayhem on that rock, plus the awesome drone guns set up in the corridors. These scenes matter. They make the great even greater.  Perhaps as much as the better known set-piece scenes such as Newt and Ripley locked in the lab with a couple of face-huggers or the aliens dropping through the ceiling and coming through the floor, it is the little things that elevate it. Hicks remarking to Ripley that they're not engaged when he gives her a tracking device, Ripley's remark to her cat, one of only two survivors from the original, before she sets off on her journey, and Newt's two chilling one liners ("That won't make any difference." and "They mostly come at night. Mostly.") are just some of a never-ending procession of smaller moments that stick in the mind.  Everything matters in Aliens. There are no wasted moments in it. Cameron may infuriate these days with his wilful refusal to make a proper film, but maybe he finally realised that he was never going to better Aliens. He's right - he won't. And it's entirely possible that nobody else will.  Some good bits!   "Trust me."  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 I wanted it to scare me, but it just didn't. Must be a hard bastard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted February 9, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 Don't take this the wrong way because it really isn't meant the wrong way because you're alright, but do you like anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 Haven't seen Alien in ages. Used to love it. Had a boxed set of VHS tapes when I was at school. I had the game for the Amega (I think) as well. Like Gladders, I first saw the ITV edit, so was in for a bit of a shock watching it in full. Great film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bellenda Carlisle Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 Cameron may infuriate these days with his wilful refusal to make a proper film, but maybe he finally realised that he was never going to better Aliens. He's right - he won't. And it's entirely possible that nobody else will. Â I love Aliens but The first Terminator is the best film of all time. Â I really do love Aliens though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 Don't take this the wrong way because it really isn't meant the wrong way because you're alright, but do you like anything?  "Shagging your Mrs" would be a wonderful reply, but I'm above such missives  The scared comment was aimed at Seven, I must have pressed add reply the same time as you posted the Aliens message.  Aliens I love. Really love. Some real suspense and jump out of your seat moments. Would always rate in my top 5 movies of all time. Just a wonderful film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted February 9, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 Don't take this the wrong way because it really isn't meant the wrong way because you're alright, but do you like anything?  "Shagging your Mrs" would be a wonderful reply, but I'm above such missives  The scared comment was aimed at Seven, I must have pressed add reply the same time as you posted the Aliens message.  Aliens I love. Really love. Some real suspense and jump out of your seat moments. Would always rate in my top 5 movies of all time. Just a wonderful film.  Ahh, fair enough, I'll let you off then.  Be interesting to know if people preferred the original version or the director's cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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