Reviews

Because of all the hype over Titanic and the Terminator films, it's a shame that hardly anyone brings this movie up with James Cameron in mind. It's a very good continuation of the first film, and it's one of those rare sequels that are done by a differebt crew and is just as worthy as the film it succeeds.

A few spoilers ahead...

Aliens faithfully follows the concept that movie monsters are best seen midway (or later) through the film, even though we had already caught a glimpse of what one little soldier alien looks like at the ending of Alien. Then we finally see the queen...holy cow! What a nasty creature! It's probably the most hideous monster in movie history. The scene with Sigourney Weaver going down the elevator and loading one gun after the other until we see the doors open and reveals Ripley and her one-woman arsenal is awesome. It made us realize that a woman with a well-written role can be a tough-as-nails action hero in a non-comic book fashion. Bill Paxton is hysterical in this film, and his final few minutes in the movie are classic. And when we see our few remaining heroes in a room lit by only by a red emergency light as Hudson anxiously reads from his little radar is one of the best scenes in all of sci-fi history. The intensity of this scene soon ends and right away the film kicks into high octane and never lets up. The film is relentlessly exciting from this point on, and the excitement continues even after a brief moment in which we think the movie is about to enter a sappy ending. And when we see the bay doors open and Ripley walk forward in the giant robot is the epitome of the word awesome...and then her first line from that point puts on the exclamation point. It's a shame that this movie was followed by the awful Alien 3 and the even worse Alien: Resurrection (one of the worst movies I've ever seen). I'm still awaiting for that rumored Alien 5, in which the aliens make their way to Earth. If the idea ever turns into a production, I'll be satisfied if it's only half as good as Aliens is.

Warning! A few spoilers!...Roland Emmerich directed this film, which is the reason I was skeptical as I walked into the theater. Then as the ending credits rolled I realized that I had wrongly underestimated Emmerich. His films have had very good direction, just lackluster screenplays and careless editing (Independence Day was written in less than a week by Emmerich and Dean Devlin while the two were vacationing in Mexico, and a good portion of Stargate was removed which resulted in Act III lasting only 10-12 minutes). Now, working from a screenplay from Saving Private Ryan pen man Robert Rodat, The Patriot works well with Emmerich at the helm. Most compare it to Mel Gibson's Braveheart. Why support a film that glorifies another country's independence more than a film that glorifies our own? British actor Jason Isaacs finally gets to show off his fine acting skills in a good film, and I thought he was wonderful as the evil Redcoat Colonel (Many British were offended by this character, but he was based on a real officer under Cornwallis's command). He played an evil man almost as effectively as Ralph Fiennes did in Schindler's List. Isaacs would be the perfect bad guy in a Bond film. I loved the vicious "cannonball to the face" shot, and the slo-mo attack on the Redcoats led by Martin's eldest son. And I heard more sniffles when Martin's youngest daughter begged for her father to stay than I did when Leo sunk to the ocean floor at the end of Titanic. The only thing I didn't like about this film was John William's score. It was cheesy and gave some of the "serious" battle scenes an almost cartoon feel. I wish David Arnold, who usually scores Emmerich's films and the new James Bond flicks, had done this one. Arnold is an overlooked talent and is (in my opinion) the best composer in the business today. And although it effectively and brutally showed us how young children saw the carnage of this war up close, I seriously doubt that Martin and two young sons could have killed that many British soldiers. We also never find out what happened to the loyalist who, like a coward, succumbed to carrying out Tavington's order to burn the church. Overall, it's a film worth seeing, and it shows us what those flute and drum-fanfared History Channel specials couldn't quite get across about the Revolutionary War, even though the film uses the war as a backdrop to the main story.