One of the rare movie sequels that is just as good as the original film.
“Aliens” was released in 1986.
It was the sequel to highly-successful 1979 film “Alien“.
“Aliens” was directed by James Cameron. Cameron had previously enjoyed great success with the 1984 film “The Terminator“. Cameron also co-wrote the screenplay for “Aliens”. The film was produced by Gale Ann Hurd, who happened to be James Cameron’s wife at the time “Aliens” was made.
Sigourney Weaver was the only holdover star from the first film, easy to understand since hers was the only character to actually survive the first film.
The film was shot in and around London, England. Much of it was filmed inside an abandoned coal-fired power plant outside London.
The “Assault Vehicle” used by the Marines in the film was actually a modified Airport Vehicle used by British Airways to tow planes around Heathrow Airport.
All the actors portraying Marines in the film underwent 6 days of training with the Elite British SAS Special Forces prior to filming.
Entertainment Weekly voted the film the #42 best film of All-Time and described it as “the greatest pure action movie ever”.
The film features early roles for Television veterans Paul Reiser (Mad About You), and Bill Paxton (Big Love).
The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Actress for Sigourney Weaver.
The film won Academy Awards for Visual Effects and Sound Effects Editing.
The original “Alien” was a great film. It was much slower paced in that it took the first half of the film to set-up the Alien storyline and back story. Once the Alien was loose, that film was among the most intense and scary films I had ever seen. “Aliens” gets going shortly after the film opens and is a non-stop roller-coaster of violence, horror, terror, comedy, action, gore, etc. I first saw it in a British Theater while stationed in England and loved it so much, I turned around and saw it again later in the same day. It had virtually no advertising or promotion in England prior to its release so I really had no clue what to expect from the movie when I first went in. What a great film! Still one of my All-Time Favorites!
Get the extended length version – the extra footage gives some nice background on Newt and some of the goings-on without taking away from the film. By the by, the beautiful shot of the Sulaco, the Marines’ starship, was carefully done to hide the fact the model makers ran out of time and only finished the side facing the camera!
And if I recall correctly, Lance Henriksen’s casting as the “artificial person” was partially a “thank you/sorry” from Cameron for not using Henriksen as The Terminator in the first movie. Cameron wanted the Terminator to be able to “blend”, but when he met Arnie, he had to have him as the lead. (The other part of the “thank you/sorry” was casting Henriksen as the police lieutenant in “Terminator”.)
Great movie, one of my all-time faves!
By: johncerickson on August 16, 2011
at 3:07 pm