At the movies

I really, really like Alien 3. I watched the…assembly? cut…on the weekend and it’s almost a completely different movie. The prisoners who were just alien fodder in the theatrical release actually have a bit more substance this time around. The start is different, how the alien gets there is different, the entire middle of the movie is basically new, the end scene is different.

Even as a kid I just remember liking how dark and depressing it was. Everyone Ripley knows is dead, she’s a dead woman walking, and stuck in a place where everyone else isn’t really a character you should be barracking for. The feeling of dread in that movie is fantastic.

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Predator
Jaws
Tombstone
There Will Be Blood
Aliens

Endlessly rewatchable.

Rocky IV is disappointingly absent from that list.

@Davo
I’ll give Alien 3 another chance after watching the Cut you recommended.

It’s not as good as the first two obviously but it’s heaps better than Resurrection in my opinion (save for the underwater scene that’s great).

Alien 3 (especially the assembly cut) was a well-shot, well acted, beautiful looking film that was hamstrung by a fundamentally flawed premise.

I mean really, you ■■■■ the entire emotional arc of the previous film up against the wall in the first 5 minutes, and you kill ripley at the end. Bonus points for having all characters with identical haircuts and clothes to make them hard to tell apart so it’s harder to get to know them either. If you’d deliberately set out to anger everyone who loved the previous films (ESPECIALLY Aliens) and ensure that a successful, high-quality and lucrative franchise was dead and could never be meaningfully resurrected, you’d have made something like Alien 3. Still boggles my mind how the script got greenlighted. Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.

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Die Hard
Ferris Beuller
Back to The Future (1)
Blues Brothers
Beverly Hills Cop
The Terminator
Aliens
Lethal Weapon (1)

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Rocky IV isn’t a movie, it’s a documentary on how Rocky helped end the cold war.

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5 I often return to:

Big Lebowski
Catch 22
Sunset Blvd.
So I Married an Axe Murderer
Zelig

Loving the Jaws noms (sorry).
Am I weird for thinking the shark is the least interesting thing about that movie?

There’s something missing in the core of my being that I can’t understand what there is to like about FBDO

I’d say it was an eighties thing, but LMW likes it, too, so…

I think I read somewhere the only reason Weaver came back was on the proviso that Ripley died.

And I know the reasons I like it are the reasons the vast majority don’t like it. It’s not a happy film. It’s not Hollywood. No one is going to live happily ever after.

Ferris is a good movie but not quite worth the hype that it gets.

Loving the Beverly Hills cop nominations. Great fun flick. Eddie Murphy was born to play that role

Saw justice league last night. Was decent but not great. I found the best bits were the little character moments and the interactions between the team. Some of the Action scenes were a little disappointing.

I do think there is heaps of potential in a standalone flash and aqua man film. The scene at the end of the credits was very cool

Overall it doesn’t compare to the original avengers but it’s better than Age of Ultron.

6/10

Next you’re going to say you don’t like ‘Dumb and Dumber’ ?

If you’re absolutely 100% locked into killing Ripley (and I reckon weaver could have been talked around, she did Resurrection after all), why kill Hicks?

I understand the impulse towards grimness (and multiple happy endings along the lines of Aliens would have killed the franchise too) but there’s MUCH better ways to do grim than simply ‘o m g everyone dies!’ As someone or other said about GRRM and his (many many) imitators - any writer can kill characters, making the audience care about them first is the important bit. Alien 3 generated its grimness by killing characters that were created by superior filmmakers in superior films. Cheap and cynical.

Yes, I’ve thought about this far too much. I’ve even got a personal headcanon of 'how it REALLY went which allows me to cheerfully ignore A3, A:R, the two AvP films AND the two Prometheus films.

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My top 5:

Bladerunner
A Clockwork Orange
Dazed and Confused
The Dark Knight
Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Ooooh, A Clockwork Orange has reminded me of The Shining.
Ehhhh, still no. Not top 5.

Edit: Goodfellas would be close, though…

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Went and saw Justice League also.

I’ll start by saying I am not a comic book aficionado. I can understand why big fans of comics will be able to overlook the flaws in these movies and I’d be the same if I was in their shoes. I spoke to a friend who attends Comic shows (Comic Con etc) and he says often the movies are not that great but fans of the books will be like - that wasn’t the best, and then go and see it again.

Having said that I’m also not an avid committed follower of Avengers or X Men, but I thought they were better and X Men especially had far better characters providing fantastic depth.

Maybe its partly because I’m tired and maybe Action Hero’d out, but it was not even a 5 out of 10 for me, and probably would get a 3. Leigh Paatsch gave it 2.5 stars. That was generous. I haven’t seen any other DC Comics movies apart from Man of Steel which was ok - I love Superman flicks (Henry Cavill is great, Amy Adams, not so great).

It doesn’t match up to Avengers or X-Men and obviously will only go on because of hard core fans cause even the snippet after the credits did not inspire.

Affleck as Batman is seriously grotesque and the worst casting of a super hero ever. It makes me sick to see him in most movies but this is so insulting it isn’t funny.

I like the idea of Jason Momoa as Aquaman, but he had to be sided with Affleck and Ezra Miller as the Flash who is ok, but removes any mystique away from Aquamans potentially brooding character. I hope the stand alone movie reaches the depth it has potential to cause it could be a winner. Cyborg is a non event for me and didn’t add anything to the flick.

Gil Gardot as Wonderwoman is great and I’ll now watch her earlier movie now as its rated well and she pulls of her role terrifically.

All in all, a difficult movie to watch and the dynamic and quips were always going to be hard pressed to match Avengers with R Downey Jnr and co’s efforts, which were already growing tired.

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lack of Gladiator in top 5 is interesting

Gladiator
Dunkirk
The Dark Knight
Terminator 2
The Departed

It’d take a long time to pick my top 5 favourite movies… so hard!

But here is a list I’ll leave here as I think about it:

The Empire Strikes Back
Lethal Weapon
Die Hard
The Dark Knight
The Matrix
Terminator 2
Back to the Future
Beverley Hills Cop
Black Hawk Down
Young Guns