Over two decades later it still packs a real punch

Rating: Null/10 (15 May 2003)

I fought shy of watching this film for years, having once seen the famous exploding chest scene and figured it was just a gore-fest! Twenty something years later I finally sat down to a major surpise. This is a superb movie. It's tense, claustrophobic, great too look at and packed with actors who can really act. As expected Ridley Scott's direction is visually arresting and unltra classy. The visual effects are surpisingly good and remind us that digital tinkering hasn't made that much difference really to good old model-work and process shots. Weaver is hard as nails as Ripley and Ian Holme acts ten times better here as the science officer than he managed in Lord of the Rings! John Hurt suffers wonderfully, but then he has made a career out of doing that in movies! All in all a great movie and the sequals, which I have yet to see, are next on my 'hit list'. For once, a classic movie that doesn't disappoint in any way or show it's age to bad effect.