In space, no one can hear you scream...but in the theater/TV room, EVERYONE will!

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2005)

There may be debates over whether movies should portray aliens positively or negatively, but "Alien" shows that all bets are off. This is possibly THE perfect sci-fi/horror flick; in fact, it doesn't even suffice to call it such. From the moment when the egg attacks Kane (John Hurt) to Ellen Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) battles against the title character, this movie has you tensed up every second of the way. You may be very suspicious of every movement around you after watching this movie.
Obviously, what made "Alien" so great was that it had a woman going all bad-ass on a big ugly creature from another world. You probably know about the "chest" scene (or maybe you've seen a spoof of it), but you have to see it to believe it! All in all, this is a great movie. Weaver turns in a top-notch performance, and great support from Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright and Tom Skerritt, add to the movie's high quality. "Aliens" was also pretty good, "Alien 3" was tolerable, and "Alien: Resurrection" was...well, that's debatable. But this one remains the best. 1979 was truly a great year for movies, what with "Alien", "Apocalypse Now", "Being There", "The China Syndrome", "1941, "...And Justice For All" and "Nosferatu".