RIDLEY SCOTT AT HIS BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 2003)

In 1979, I was four years old. I had just seen STAR WARS for the first time and was amazed. I remember my neighbor had a sleepover birthday party for my friend Chris in the fall of 1980 and we were all fascinated by space movies (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, BUCK RODGERS) ESPECIALLY after just seeing THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. This kid's mother was not the brightest bulb in the bunch. She rented some space sci-fi movies for us, one of them was ALIEN.

We all know what happened at the dinner table scene with Kane. When that part happened, the crying began and the Beta tape was taken out of the tape player by the mom.
I actually finished watching ALIEN around 1988 or so. Even as a 14-year old kid who was starting to love horror movies, ALIEN still freaked me out. Ironically enough, I was still hanging out with my friend Chris at the time and we watched ALIEN and HALLOWEEN for the first time.
ALIEN is a classic Sci-Fi/Horror film with an outstanding cast. Tom Skerrit is Dallas, the ship commander. Yapphet Kotto redeems himself from playing a TERRIBLE villian in the Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE, as the tough guy Parker. Ian "Bilbo Baggins" Holm is Ash, the science offer with ulterior motives. Rounding out the cast is John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright and of course, Sigourney Weaver.
The movie begins when the commercial towing vessel, the NOSTROMO, is ordered by The Company to explore a transmission of unknown origin on a deserted planet. Without giving anything away, an alien gets on board the ship and wreaks havoc on the crew.
Like BLADE RUNNER, this is literally a dark movie. Most of it takes place on a dark spaceship and you don't know what is lurking around the corner. This adds to the scariness of the film. I have watched this so many times that I'm immune to it freaking me out now. Unfortunately, the sequels were not as good, in my opinion (I know everyone argues that ALIENS was superior.)
This movie is Ridley Scott's best work and BLADE RUNNER follows a very close second.