A marvel of pacing and gripping action

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2014)

You've gotta hand it to Cameron and his zest for strong female characters. Even in a movie full of hardcore marines (especially Jeanette Goldstein), it's Sigourney Weaver who gets the real crowd- pleasing moments. Ripley doesn't have the muscles or the training, but she's got baggage and maternal instincts. Her taping together of the flamethrower and pulse rifle is one of my all-time favorite gear-up scenes. It's short, but emotionally driven. She even gets the best line of the movie: "Get away from her, you B----!" Seriously, you take her young and you've got a bloodthirsty ursine on your hands.
But that's just the sweet spot. ALIENS has pretty much everything going for it. It's a brilliant mix of action sci-fi and war movie, and an excellent bit of escapism. It's amazingly paced and the action is unrelentingly tense. Reiser is sleaze of the highest order (to go along with the slimy Weyland-Yutani Corporation), and the whole cast in this thing just feels perfectly chosen. But the really cool thing about the movie is that, even though I've seen this movie many many times and know all the beats, it doesn't fail to entertain and keep the pulse pounding. That counts for a whole hell of a lot.
9/10