Lights, camera, ACTION!!!

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2003)

In this movie the above standing one line summary has more than this one meaning. (some spoilers thoroughout the rest of this comment!)
This movie is literally action-packed. Although, it has the slow start that ALIEN had, which is good thing for such movies.
The surviving cast of the previous movie is reunited in this one. Well, as good as it can, especially considering that Sigourney Weaver and Jones the cat were the only ones to survive the first encounter with the alien. ;)
But instead we get some new faces. Let me mention a few of them here (Many of which also starred in James Cameron's The Terminator):
Michael Biehn: Two years before Aliens, he played the good guy in another James Cameron film, The Terminator (1984). He played this roll well, although he in most of his films portrays a soldier of some kind. A great point in his charachter, Cpl. Dwight Hicks, is that even though he builds an attraction to Weaver's charachter, there is no sexual stuff involved.
Bill Paxton: After having a very small role in James Cameron's The Terminator (1984), Bill got a part in this James Cameron movie. (NOTE: Bill Paxton actually spent more time in frame with Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator than Michael Biehn did but that's besides the point.) Bill's charachter's name is Private Hudson and has the most significant charachter development if you can call it that. In the beginning, he's this "Ultimate Bad Ass"-wannabe, and in the 2nd half of the movie, he's, well, a coward. But as in many others of his performances he did a great job.
Lance Henriksen: He also played in The Terminator (1984). In this one, he's Bishop, the droid. Ripley has her suspicions about him from the start, and in one scene even we, the audience, are tempted to think, that he's the bad guy.
Carrie Henn: This is the only movie Carrie Henn has ever been in. And what a magnificent job, she did. A shame, she didn't do more, but it's best to quit at the top, right?
Paul Reiser: I saw both Beverly Hills Cop I & II and the Mad about you-series before I saw Aliens. I was a bit surprised when I saw his name on the opening title sequence. And all things considered he did a great job, even though it's still hard for me to imagine him in such a serious movie.
It's surprising to see, how many people worked in both The Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986), and Aliens and Titanic (1997). F.ex. G.A.Hurd produced T1 and Aliens, James Horner wrote the music for Aliens and Titanic, James Cameron directed them all and Bill Paxton was seen in all three.
In short, the story of the movie takes place 57 years after Alien. After been found adrift and then returned to Earth, Ripley finds out that the planet in the first movie, LV-426 has been colonized. Later, contact is lost with the planet. At first, Ripley doesn't want to go back, but in the end she goes anyway. There she teams up with remaining cast en route to LV-426 unknowingly what surprises lie ahead.
I found this movie to be excellent. I saw this movie the first time in 2000 or 2001 and I've liked it ever since. Great directing, acting and music. Two thumbs up!