Ged MaheuxThese people are here to protect you. They’re soldiers.
It won’t make any difference.
I may be synthetic but I’m not stupid.
As far as I’m concerned Newt, Ripley, Hicks and Bishop not only made it home but lived happily ever after. 🖕
Watched the Siskel & Ebert for James Cameron’s Aliens. Siskel gave it a *thumbs down* 👎 because it was non-stop action and put a kid in peril for too long a period of time. Even Ebert only barely gave it a thumbs up. 👍 Signorney’s performance was great but the film was too horrific, too disturbing for him to actually recommend seeing it. No joke.
Aliens is one of the best sci-fi action movies OF ALL TIME. Amazing how wrong these guys got it.
“I’m a company man but don’t let that fool you, I’m really an okay guy.” #Aliens
Dominic Hopton
Brian Grinter
Sal De Gusto
Karl Baron@gedeonm They did a few episodes (or was it part of the year end recap? Can’t recall) on “films we got wrong” that are worth watching
@kalleboo Ooooh might have to check those out.
Michael B. Johnson@gedeonm Personally, as a person who lived through their heyday, neither of them was a critic whose specific opinion of a film held much sway with me.
I appreciated their passion and intelligence, but rarely agreed with them.
Joe Morgenstern (Newsweek, WSJ) was the rare film critic who I mostly agreed with. Sad he retired.
It's interesting & rare to find a critic who you either largely agree or disagree with. That can can be helpful.
Both Siskel & Ebert were a scatter plot for me.
John Gruber@Drwave @gedeonm Ebert’s tastes aligned with mine remarkable. (But my all-time most-aligned fun critic was Janet Maslin.) His full review of “Aliens” holds up and what he disliked about it was quite personal: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aliens-1986
Aliens movie review & film summary (1986) | Roger Ebert
The ads for "Aliens" claim that this movie will frighten you as few movies have, and, for once, the ads don't lie. The movie is so intense that it creates a problem for me as a reviewer: Do I praise its craftsmanship, or do I tell you it left me feeling wrung out and unhappy? It has been a week since I saw it, so the emotions have faded a little, leaving with me an appreciation of the movie's technical qualities. But when I walked out of the theater, there were knots in my stomach from the film's roller-coaster ride of violence. This is not the kind of movie where it means anything to say you "enjoyed" it.
Brian DearMy wife and I loved the film esp the Director’s Cut laserdisc. In fact once back in the early 90s I ran the audio output of the whole movie from the laserdisc player into my cassette recorder and made tapes of it. Then whenever we went on long road trips we “watched” the movie in our minds while listening to it in the car.
It has one of the best action film screenplays ever written. Every line is memorable.
Smoking, or non-smoking?
We still quote from the film today
@brianstorms @gruber @Drwave It’s a masterclass in storytelling and suspense. I saw it in a theater that had many small kids. The screams from the audience in parts were almost blood curdling. No idea what those parents were thinking.
Getting to LV-426 and *knowing* it’s all going to go horribly wrong and there’s not a GD thing we can do about it is INTENSE..
The causal delivery of lines like Ferro’s “Where’s the damned beacon? Oh, there it is.” And then it all goes to literal hell.
JtsW@gedeonm I don’t agree with those reviews. But I also don’t really like Aliens. I can recogonize the craftsmanship, but my problem is:
Alien is a perfect horror film, with an almost Lovecraftian terror of the unknown and incomprehensible. It’s strange and gross and unlike anything else. Cameron’s sequel is basically Starship Troopers without the satire.
I also adore The Terminator and dislike T2 for similar reasons.
**I know I am extremely in the nerd minority here.**
Alien is a perfect horror film, with an almost Lovecraftian terror of the unknown and incomprehensible. It’s strange and gross and unlike anything else. Cameron’s sequel is basically Starship Troopers without the satire.
I also adore The Terminator and dislike T2 for similar reasons.
**I know I am extremely in the nerd minority here.**
sanguish@gedeonm definitely got it wrong.
And Newt’s peril isn’t that scary.
Chancerubbage@gedeonm how did they feel about Alien? Alien successfully crossed SF & Horror. Aliens sucessfully added more action and suspense.
I was literally on the edge of my seat watching Aliens. Maybe it WAS only the large soda I had. But what remember is I dare not excuse myself to go to the bathroom less I miss something.
@Chancerubbage Not sure if they were together reviewing movies in 1979 but I’ll see. I’d be interested to know.
@gedeonm PBS carried the show nationally in the states in most markets in 1978, it went into syndication in 1982. I was watching it from the start.
Book below might have an index to the films reviewed- I have the book but haven’t checked it out that way. Yet.
Singer, Matt (2023). Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-59354-015-2
Christian Rishel@gedeonm I think all three of you are right. They were right then, you are right now. Norms have shifted. What was horrific then is commonplace now.
If given the chance, not sure I’d do the tour of H.R. Giger’s nightmarish imagination over again — the talent of Ridley Scott and James Cameron notwithstanding.
Nicole ParsonsAliens was one of the first successful movie franchises with a female protagonist.
Like many media critics, there's a long history of discomfort and cognitive dissonance with women in the starring role in any action movie.
Blockbusters with women at the helm just didn't fit with their worldview at the time.
https://www.jezebel.com/movie-critic-recounts-that-one-time-his-misogynistic-editor-asked-him-to-stop-reviewing-movies-with-strong-female-leads
https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/reactionary-men-who-fear-and-hate-strong-women