The Film Snobs: Episode 2

In this episode of The Film Snobs Roth and Stray take a look at the remake of Dredd, Tarantino's Django unchained.
They also talk about the trailers for the up coming Star Trek sequel and Sly's new film Bullet in the head.

MP3 File
You can download the episode by clicking on the mp3 link under the player. We'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, and if you have any suggestions for films for us to watch and talk about. So feel free to leave us a comment!

Only War Episode One

The first podcast episode of our Only War adventure!

Staring...

Jonathan as the Games Master.
Josh as Sgt. Carmine
Walker as Gunner Fog
Daniel Rattling Sniper Torque

The Imperial Guardsmen of Fifth Squad "The No Hopers" set out from their garrison on a vital mission to investigate what has happened to the overdue supply convoy.


MP3 File

You can download the episode by clicking on the mp3 link under the player. We'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, and if you have any suggestions for films for us to watch and talk about. So feel free to leave us a comment!

The Film Snobs: Total Recall

Roth, Stray and Walker of Geeks Retreat take a look at the remake of Total Recall in the first ever episode of "The Film Snobs"


MP3 File

You can download the episode by clicking on the mp3 link under the player. We'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, and if you have any suggestions for films for us to watch and talk about. So feel free to leave us a comment!

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Director: Martin McDonagh

Rotten Tomatoes rating 81%

They Won't Take Any Shih Tzu

Those who have read my exploration of the Alien franchise will know that my previous endeavours have been heavy on detail and full of spoilers. This review will differ in both of these ways. There will one single spoiler in this review but this will be a very tiny one and will not give any plot details.

 Seven Psychopaths is the follow up to Anglo-Irish playwright and director Martin McDonagh’s 2008 hit In Bruges. Like the previous film Seven Psychopaths is a violent dark comedy. It features several completely bizarre scenes and a couple of entertaining deviations from the plot. 

The casting of Seven Psychopaths is sublime. The protagonist is portrayed by In Bruges star Colin Farrell. He plays Martin an alcoholic screenwriter who is supposed to have completed a script for a film called Seven Psychopaths. Unfortunately though he seems to spend most of his time drinking himself into oblivion. Trying to save him from himself is best friend Billy played by the enormously entertaining Sam Rockwell. Billy is a con artist who makes a living kidnapping dogs while kindly Hans (Christopher Walken) returns them for the reward money. The plot is kicked off in earnest when they steal the Shih Tzu of Mafia boss Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson). Interestingly the role of Costello was originally given to Mickey Rourke. However Rourke dropped out, and to mark this there is a headstone in the graveyard scene bearing his name. 

The plot of seven psychopaths is what leads it from one scene to another and not always in the way that you think it will, but what drives the film is the performances. Farrell is utterly brilliant as a man whose life has just taken a massive sequence of wrong turns. Harrelson treads a fine line between compassion for his lost pet and homicidal rage. Rockwell is just compellingly watchable as some one who may not be operating the same wavelength as everyone else but genuinely wants to help his best friend. And Christopher Walken just about steals the show with his quite dignified performance. 

In Bruges was so well regarded and such an alternative hit that it was a hard act to follow. However McDonagh more than pulls it out of the bag with Seven Psychopaths. The film manages to be violent, funny, sentimental, well crafted and entertaining. It may not be to everyone’s taste. There are some graphic and very inventive deaths and language, which is colourful to say the least. Yet unlike films of a lesser quality this is all used to enhance the story rather than compensate for the lack of it.

Some critics have complained that plot lines peater out and the film does not break any ground. They have accused the film of trying too hard and stated that it feels like a bad Tarantino pastiche. Others have praised it as a future cult classic and tipped it for Oscar nods. The more highbrow newspapers put the former view forward, in particular the Guardian, however I tend to feel that they were trying to read something into the film that was never intended to be there in the first place. From viewing Seven Psychopaths I would tend to agree that it has cult classic written all over it but any Oscar nominations will be in the writing and technical categories.

As my final credit to this film I will point out that Harry Dean Stanton is one of the psychopaths. The Robert Ebert Stanton/Walsh rule states that any film that features either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh can not be bad - the exception that proves this rule being of course Wild Wild West. Therefore this must prove that Seven Psychopaths is good!

I'd would definitely recommend seeing it at the cinema while it is still out, and if not then be sure to catch it on rental when the DVD is released.

- Lizzy

Prometheus, Alien prequel or cash cow?

After a big gap from the original time line of the reviews Geeks Retreat finally presents Lizzy's take on Prometheus, sorry it's been delayed so long, but I certainly think it was worth the wait. As with the other alien recap reviews, beware here be spoilers!

Prometheus (2012)

Director: Sir Ridley Scott

Rotten Tomatoes rating 73%

They went looking for our beginning. What they found could be our end.

Firstly apologies are in order. In the introduction to this sequence it was promised that there would be thoughts on the alternative beginnings and endings. Sadly in a move that seems calculated to extract extra money from fans these are only available on the blu-ray and then only if you buy it.

In 2002, 5 years after Alien Resurrection, Ridley Scott and James Cameron were involved in a project to make a fifth Alien film. This time it was to be a prequel. However when the crossover Alien vs. Predator series was being made this project was shelved and Cameron washed his hands of it. Scott however revisited the idea in 2009. Although a script for a direct Alien prequel is supposed to exist Sir Ridley (who was knighted in 2003) decided not to make it. He has since stated that he felt that the sequels had washed out the xenomorph and that there was another more interesting story to tell.

However, and this may be slightly cynical, the hype generated for an Alien prequel does seem to have been exploited for the marketing campaign. The trailer begins with the ship travelling through a storm to a landscape that looks pretty close to LV-426. It also features a darkened chamber of egg like pods, shots of a crewman having his face melted away, a space jockey and glimpses of a crashed vessel exactly like the one the Nostromo crew found. Sir Ridley Scott did not help clear up the confusion. In at least one interview prior to the release of the film he was asked if Prometheus was a prequel. He replied that it took place in the same universe before the events of Alien, which is a suitably vague answer allowing for any number of conclusions.

Prometheus begins on a grey waterfall. As a spaceship flies overhead a large muscular man disrobes and opens up a sphere. Inside is a dark substance that infects him. Darkness spreads through his veins, he falls into the water and shatters. The impression is that the humanoid, which will later be known as the Engineer, has sacrificed himself for reasons that are not clear at this point.

In Scotland Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) discovers a five thousand year old tomb. Inside there is a cave painting, which she shares with her lover Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green). This is the same picture that has been seen at other ancient sites. It shows a large man pointing at a sequence of stars. The difference is that this one is much older than all the others.

We then skip to the scientific vessel Prometheus. The only member of the crew not in hypersleep is David 8 (Michael Fassbender) an android. Davis spends his time monitoring the dreams of the crew and hoping for an emotional response. David seems to be trying to emulate the humans and as if he is trying to evolve into something other than an emotionless machine. In a pleasing little touch he is also seen watching Lawrence of Arabia and dying his hair to match Peter O’Toole.

David was featured in a viral campaign. This was an advertisement from Weyland Industries in which he points out that he will carry out directives that humans might find distressing and unethical, a clear nod to Ash. He also points out that he understands human emotions though he does not feel them himself, a idea more in line with Bishop. The fact that he is crying could be seen as a link with Call. This suggests that David is the father of all androids and his character will spilt off into each of them. David’s name also follows the alphabetical pattern that the androids in the alien films follow.

The first member of the crew to awaken is the company representative Meredith Vickers (Charlise Theron). Even before she is dressed she is attempting press-ups. Meredith is a cold character who has her own lifeboat, a self-sustaining part of the ship that can be separated if needed. It is also much more comfortable than the utilitarian quarters that the others use.

Over breakfast, a nod to Alien, it is revealed that the ship has been travelling for two years. It is also Christmas. Captain Janeck (Idris Elba) decorates a tree, showing him in stark contrast with Miss Vickers who does not approve. However it will later be revealed that there is sexual tension between the two of them.

Over the debriefing we are introduced via hologram to the head of Weyland Industries Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) who we are told will have died by the time that they arrive at their destination. Weyland recounts the legend of Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods. However he leaves out the bit where Prometheus is punished by constantly having his liver ripped out by an eagle.

Weyland goes on to describe David as the closest thing to a son that he has which makes Miss Vickers visibly prickle. He goes onto say that he had funded the mission and then introduces Shaw and Holloway who explain about the cave paintings and that they are here looking for the origins of mankind.

There is a little bit of a problem with the idea of these paintings. The Engineers are supposed to have created life on Earth and for some reason left. However several thousand years later paintings are created of the Engineers and the star map that they are following. This suggests that the Engineers kept coming back and wanted men who lived in caves to follow them across the stars.

Before they land on LV-223 Miss Vickers warns Shaw and Holloway that they are not to engage in any dialogue with the Engineers if they find them. They are to report any findings to her and if they find nothing they are to return home. Holloway asks if the company has another agenda. Of course the Weyland Company always has another agenda.

The ship lands near a large pyramid. There are several nazca type lines on the ground and Janeck points out that nature does not create straight lines.

The search team goes down to investigate the structure. David is asked why he is wearing a spacesuit when he does not need one. He replies that it makes the others feel more comfortable around him. This is also another suggestion that he is trying to be like the humans.

Inside the pyramid they find a head decapitated by a door. A projection shows several space jockeys running from something. However as this is a film they investigate the other side of the door and find a chamber with a huge carved head on the middle of it. On the floor there are several cylinders that begin to leak a dark fluid. Shaw investigates the murals on the walls and we see glimpses of alien like creature. The murals then start to change. A storm approaches making the structure unstable. As they race back to the ship Fifield (Sean Harris) and Millburn (Rafe Spall) get left behind.

Back on Prometheus medical officer Ford (Kate Dickie) and Shaw examine the head that they brought back. They discover that the elephantine looking outer layer is in fact a helmet not an exoskeleton. Inside is a large human looking head who’s DNA is identical to that of human beings. Unfortunately the head becomes unstable as they try to wake it up and it explodes.

David meanwhile has also brought something back. He has one of the cylinders and when he opens it he finds the curious black fluid seen at the beginning. David then pours Holloway a glass of champagne into which he adds a drop of the black fluid. Interestingly in this scene David asks Holloway why they created him and Holloway answers without much consideration for David's feeling that it was simply because they could, a foreshadowing of things to come.

Holloway goes back to the quarters he shares with Shaw. He takes her a rose that he had frozen to give to her when they found the Engineers but that she might as well have it now. She excitedly tells him about the DNA result and they have sex. Afterwards Holloway goes to the mirror and sees something strange in his eye.

Back in the pyramid Fifield and Milburn are attacked. A snake like creature that burrows down his throat kills Milburn. Fifield’s protective helmet is burned away by corrosive blood and he is exposed to the black fluid.

The following day the team goes back to the pyramid. David steals away and finds a living Engineer in stasis and a hologram of the stars to Earth. At the same time the humans find Milburn and Holloway begins show signs of infection. They rush him back to the ship but Miss Vickers refuses to let him on board. She not only has more authority than Ripley did in the same situation she also has a flamethrower. While Shaw tries to argue Holloway goes bravely to his death for the sake of the others and is burnt by Vickers

During the quarantine process Shaw gives David the cross from around her neck and he asks if she and Holloway had sex. She asks why and he tells her that she is about three months pregnant. She informs him that this cannot be the case as she is unable to have children. David replies chillingly that this is not a normal pregnancy. He then sedates her ready to put her into hypersleep.

When Ford arrives to put Shaw into the cryo-pod Shaw jumps up and attacks the medics. While giving herself painkilling injections, which wouldn’t have time to work, she gets to the surgical pod in Miss Vickers lifeboat. Climbing in she finds that it is set up only for male patients and so programs in abdominal surgery. The machine removes a strange eyeless, mouthless tentacled alien.

As she escapes from this she runs through the wrong door and finds Peter Weyland being attended to by nurses. This is lucky because at this point she collapses.

It is revealed that the reason that Weyland funded the mission was so that that he could find the Engineers at that they could give him more life. It is also revealed that Miss Vickers in Weyland’s daughter making his comment about David particularly barbed and explaining why David and Miss Vickers are so similar in appearance.

Interestingly the first choice to play Weyland was Max Von Sydow who seems a better fit than 45-year-old Guy Pearce. However the original script called for a shot of Weyland as a younger man and it is easier to make an actor appear older than younger.

Meanwhile a zombie Fifield attacks the crewmembers in the hanger with incredible strength. Janek manages to kill Fifield but several others are killed. Janek then theorises that the structure was a lab creating biological weapons and that some of these must have turned on their creators. He also discovers that inside the pyramid is a ship shaped like the one in Alien.

Weyland, David, Ford and Shaw head down to meet the Engineer. David tries to communicate with the Engineer and smiles as he does so. The look on David’s face suggests that his allegiance may have changed at this point, feeling he may have found some kind of approval from the Engineer that he never could from his own creators. The Engineer however does not feel the same. He decapitates David and then kills Ford and Weyland. Weyland realises there is nothing more after death and as he dies David, who seems to have know this all along, wishes him a safe journey.

Shaw escapes as the Engineer climbs into his control chair, completing the space jockey look, and tries to take off. Miss Vickers tells Janek to go back to Earth but Shaw tells him that if the Engineer leaves there won't be an Earth to go back to. Janek takes a poll with his remaining crew and they decided to make the ultimate sacrifice by ramming the Engineer’s ship.

As it crashes it threatens to crush Shaw and Miss Vickers. The ship is falling in a straight line. Both women run in a straight line for no apparent reason. Then Shaw falls over and is left behind by Vickers, but she rolls to the side and is saved where as Miss Vickers is squished.

Shaw goes back to the lifeboat and finds that the tiny alien has grown into a giant monster. David’s head contacts her and warns her that the Engineer is coming for her. When he attacks she sets the alien on him and a tentacle is seen going down the Engineer’s throat.

Shaw goes back to David. Her first concern is for her cross. Once she has found it she agrees to take David with her. She puts his head in a bag, lowers his body out on a rope and sets off in what is presumably a second functional engineer ship. Her last report informs us that she is going to find the Engineer’s world and discover why they wanted to destroy humans.

Meanwhile the Engineer’s body begins to twitch. Instead of what people were expecting a fully formed and completely different alien emerges from his chest. It does however appear to have an inner jaw although this is not as well formed as that of the xenomorph.

Prometheus is a well-written, well-structured piece of science fiction. It is an interesting and philosophical film. It attempts to explore the origins of mankind and our relationship with our creators. The fact that Shaw is both a scientist and religious makes her an interesting character; scientists in films tend to be atheist and fuelled by a desire to find reason to replace the idea of a god. Shaw is more developed in that she believes that there is something more than the human.

The relationship between David and Weyland is also interesting as is its contrast with Miss Vickers. It seems as though Weyland created David to replace his less than perfect offspring, perhaps as many powerful men in history he wanted a son and was disappointed by Vickers from birth by merit of her gender, however he does not embrace David as an equal. This is a small example of a much bigger idea.

Prometheus seems to suggest that in the same way that parents do not always like their offspring Gods can grow tired of their creations. As the Engineer is then killed by one of the creatures it engineered it would also suggested that creations can also grow tired of their Gods.

Prometheus is a deeply layered and well thought out film. However it is not a direct prequel to Alien and this is where it falls down. If Sir Ridley Scott had come out and said this is not a prequel that would have been fine. He could have said that it is film about the space jockey and that it doesn’t feature the xenomorph but it does explain that the company had come into contact with creatures that were transporting the aliens before. He could have made it clear that it was a stand-alone film that filled in some of the background detail. Then it would have been easy for fans to say fair enough and go to the film knowing that it would not fit nicely with Alien. Instead Scott was vague about the whole thing. It was not until the day that the film came out, presumably followed by blogs and tweets about the true nature of the film, that he admitted in an interview that the planet it was set on was not LV-426.

Later Sir Ridley would say that the film was about ancestor of the xenomorph. Unfortunately the film is set about 75 years before Alien so doesn't really give the time for the creature to evolve. Indeed as an explanation it seems a little trying to have your cake and eat it.

The uncomfortable assumption is that the makers of Prometheus wanted to tap into an already strong fan base. It appears as if they were just trying to cash in on the connection and did not want to reveal too much about the film in case they put people off paying money to see it. The evidence is pretty strong for this, not only was the film in 3D but there was an IMAX edition, which this reviewer travelled all the way to Manchester to see. Now there is DVD but it doesn’t have all the extras on so fans are encouraged to pay the extra fiver for the blu-ray. Added to this a new box set has been released with Prometheus and all 4 Alien film. This costs about £70 which is rip off because as soon as the second one comes out which was announced as far back as 2009 it will be incomplete.

This is not to detract from the quality of this film. If you watched Prometheus on its own and had never seen an Alien film it is brilliant. If you watched it and had no strong feelings toward the Alien films it is brilliant. If however if what you really wanted was Alien 5 then you were always going to be disappointed.

The Alien quadrilogy recap, Part 4 (Alien Resurrection)

Over the next few days my friend and expert on the horror genre Lizzy will be recapping the Alien quadrilogy, reminding us what happened in the previous films and giving us some analysis, trivia and background about this classic series, then she'll be taking on prometheus, including thoughts on the alternative start and endings. Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have! Beware though, ahead are quite a few spoilers.

Alien Resurrection (1997)

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Rotten Tomatoes rating 52%

Witness the resurrection 

When it opened Alien Resurrection was met with mixed reviews. Some critics praised the film as an enjoyable ride while others were rather scathing. Those who disliked the film tended to blame writer Joss Whedon stating that despite the best efforts of the actors and directors the scripting of the action sequences let the film down. Whedon himself dislikes the finished film when he was asked what he thought the problem was he blamed the actors, complaining that they did and said everything wrong. 

The director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was generally praised for revisiting old ideas and adapting them in his own quirky style. Interestingly Jeunet was the second choice of director. The studio originally wanted Danny Boyle but he was busy with A Life Less Ordinary. At the time of filming Jeunet was unable to speak English and had to communicate with the crew via a translator, apart from Dominique Pinon who as well as being a francophone had been in three previous Jeunet efforts.

At the end of Alien³ Ripley commits suicide by jumping into a vat of hot lead in order to prevent the company from getting its hands on the alien queen growing inside her. Resurrection begins two hundred years later with a shot of a young girl growing inside a tube. This shot was mocked up using photographs of Sigourney Weaver as a child,

The first time that we see Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) she is unconscious on an operating table. Dr Gediman (Brad Dourif) leads a group of surgeons in the extraction of the alien queen. The life of the host is an afterthought but on seeing that her life signs are stable, Gediman tells his team to stitch her up. Before the doctor can do this however the sedated Ripley grabs him around the neck and slams him against the viewing window. 

In the following scene Ripley emerges from a cocoon like shroud. The doctors refer to her as number 8, the number that is tattooed on her arm. The doctors are pleased with her progress but her aggression is off the chart. In a later examination she is seen strapped to a chair. 

Watching Ripley’s progress is General Perez (Dan Hedya). Unlike the doctors he is not pleased with Ripley’s progress. He is particularly unhappy with the fact that Ripley has memories as the previous Ripley sabotaged the plan they are currently undertaking. He states that he is willing to terminate Ripley at anytime. The real prize is the fully grow alien queen they have locked away.

Over another breakfast Ripley (who is in handcuffs) asks Gediman how she was created. He tells her that they searched Fiorina for her remains and through hard work she was cloned, of course this is impossible but in horror films it is often necessary to suspend disbelief.

Ripley asks if the alien is growing and Gediman answers in the affirmative. Ripley then tells him that once the queen breeds he will die, everyone in the company will die. Dr Wren (J.E. Freeman) comes in and informs Ripley that they company folded long ago and that they are on a military station. He goes on to tell Ripley that the species has potential for urban control once it has been tamed. Ripley laughs and replies that the aliens cannot be taught tricks. He retorts that they are already teaching tricks to Ripley.

Meanwhile the Betty arrives. Down in the bowels of the ship we are introduced to the crippled engineer Vriess (Dominique Pinon, Jeunet’s answer to Johnny Depp) and his patient assistant Call (Winona Ryder). Watching them work is Johner (Ron Perlman) who throws a knife into Vriess’s leg. When Vriess complains Johner points out that he can't feel the wound anyway. This enrages Call who breaks the knife rather than give it back to its owner.

The Betty is a mercenary ship and its officers Elgyn (Michael Wincott) and Christie (Gary Dourdan) are unhappy at having to surrender to military authority.

As Elgyn receives the cash payment for his services he asks Perez why a military lab is operating outside regulated space. Perez makes it clear that the Betty’s crew is not to go wandering around the ship.  Consequently there is a heavy guard as they transfer the cargo to the medi-lab.

The Betty has been transporting cryopods complete with human occupants. In the following scene the colonists are show held in front alien eggs. As one opens the unfortunate host awakes and screams while the doctors watch.

The eggs in Resurrection are different from those in Alien. Jeunet apparently felt that the static eggs from the original film were unrealistic and so had them redesigned. As well as pulsing the new ones also have a wetter looking texture.

Elsewhere the crew meets Ripley as she is playing basketball. Chauvinistic predator Johner challenges her to a game. As he invades her personal space she teases him with the ball. She then attacks knocking out both Johner and Christie who hits her in the face with a barbell cause her nose to bleed. The scientists come and call Ripley off but as she leaves she wipes away the blood and a drop falls to the floor, where it burns a hole.

At the end of this scene Ripley throws a basketball behind her without looking and it goes through the hoop. Prior to filming Sigourney Weaver took six weeks of basketball lessons and practiced this shot. Due to the difficulty in getting it right and the cost of retakes Jean-Pierre Jeunet wanted to edit in the ball being dropped into the basket. Weaver persuaded him to let her try to do it for real and miraculously managed to make the shot first time. Jeunet however was still unhappy. He thought that viewers would assume the throw was faked and wanted to edit it out completely. Sigourney Weaver, who has a production credit, persuaded him not to by telling him that making the basket first time was her third best moment ever- the first two were her wedding and the birth of her daughter. 

Night falls. In a nice little touch Perez is shown setting fire to black polish before shining his boots.

Gediman studies the captive queen. As he watches her he mimics her expression and then kisses the observation window. This suggests that he has disturbing affection. He admires it in a way that can be a little uncomfortable to watch. The queen however does not share his feelings She responds by attacking the glass with her inner jaw. Gediman blasts her and she squeals. When he goes to press the button again the queen backs away showing that she is learning. 

Johner, Christie and Call are drinking and watching a shopping channel. Call appears drunk and when she spills their liquor Johner tells her to take a walk. Once she leaves them she is shown sober and breaks into Ripley’s cell. She goes to attack Ripley but stops when she sees the scar on Ripley’s chest.

Call asks Ripley where the alien is. She then asks who Ripley is. When Ripley recites her name Call points out that Ripley died two hundred years ago and that she is a construct grown in a lab. Call states that she will die to kill the alien. Ripley states that it can't be killed.

Call is caught and the soldiers corner the Betty’s crew. They are charged with terrorism but attack and kill their captors. Elgyn interrogates Call who tries to explain about the aliens. Like all the male authority figures in these films he doesn't listen.

Meanwhile the aliens realise that they are unguarded and sacrifice one of their own to escape.  Gediman goes on to investigate and is taken out by a leathery hand. 

The alerts sound and the soldiers begin the evacuation. Vriess is separated from the others and as he sits isolated in his wheelchair an alien crawls above him. He shoots and acid drips onto his legs. Unfortunately he only feels it when a drop hits his ear and he begins to scream.

The Ripley clone uses her strength and blood to escape, the same way that the aliens have.

The soldiers evacuate in an escape pod but do not get very far as Perez blows them up to kill the alien that has managed to get inside the pod. As he salutes the explosion an alien attacks from behind.  His last action is to pull part of his brain from the back of his own head.

The mercenaries are trying to get back to the Betty. Elgyn gets separated and falls through and unstable floor. When the others try to pull him out only his torso remains. An alien rises up and the other run. As the alien investigates the corpse a gun pokes out from the hole in Elgyn’s chest and blow’s its head away. Pushing aside the body Ripley climbs out of the hole in the floor.

The mercenaries find Wren and Distephano (Raymond Cruz) who is one of the soldiers. Wren tells them there are another twelve aliens. Ripley tries to take charge but Call argues that she is not to be trusted. Christie argues that they need to work together in order to escape.

As they travel down the corridor one of the lifts beeps. They raise their guns and prepare for an attack but when the doors open it is only Vriess. His line here is Who were you expecting? Santa Claus. In the original script the line ended with Easter Bunny but Dominique Pinon couldn’t say Easter and it kept coming out eastern so it had to be re-written. As a joke the entire crew had t-shirts printed with the misspoken line. 

It is then revealed that if there is a problem the ship returns to the Earth. The survivors decide that they have to blow up the ship. No surprises there then.

As they attempt to escape Johner asks Ripley what happened the last time that she ran into the aliens. She replies I died.

In the following scene Ripley finds a door marked 1-7. Inside the previous seven attempts to clone Ripley and her offspring. Ripley enters and views tubes what look like freak show exhibits. The worst however is a living hybrid with a human face that begs for death. Call hands Ripley a flamethrower and in a reference to the death of Ash she torches the room.

Next the escapees come across the dead colonists with the holes in their chests. One, Larry Purvis (Leland Orser), is still alive hiding behind the pods. He freaks out when Ripley approaches and asks what is happening. Ripley tells him that the mercenaries kidnapped him and put a monster in his chest, which will burst through his rib cage, and he will die. He then asks who she is. Ripley tells him that she is the monster’s mother.

After an argument they take the victim with them. As they enter the cooling tanks they have to leave Vriess’s chair behind so Christie straps him to his back.

The cooling tanks are flooded. These underwater scenes took three weeks to film and like Singing in the Rain milk had to be added to the water to make it show up on film.

As they swim through the flooded rooms the aliens follow, gliding effortlessly through the water. In the ensuing flight one of the crew is lost. Ripley watches her die with an expression of curiosity.

A membrane covers the surface of the water. A ring of eggs surrounds it and another crewmember is attacked by a facehugger. As he falls Christie blasts at the eggs. Allowing the swimmers to escape before the pursuing alien attacks.

Wren leads the team up the ladder. At the top he pretends that they door won’t open and asks Call for her gun. She foolishly hands it to him and he shoots her in the chest. While they are trying to deal with Wren the alien climbs the ladder. In killing it Christie is burned with acid. Viress is left clinging to the ladder supporting himself, Christie and the alien. Christie commits the supreme sacrifice to destroy the alien by unclipping himself from Viress.

While the others are recovering from this the door opens and there stand Call dripping wet. When they demand to know how she survived she is found to be an android. Not just any android either, Call is an android built by androids. There is suggestion that Call is a mistake. She was built to be too human.

Call is forced to access the main computer by hard wiring herself to it. As already stated Call has feelings in the way that the previous androids do not. Ripley describes her as being too human to be human. Accessing the computer makes it clear that she is a piece of machinery and this upsets her.

Having the computer she discovers that the ship has lost too much power to detonate. So Ripley tells her to crash it. She changes the destination of the ship to an uninhabited area and resets the ground level. Wren meanwhile is trying to override the system but Call stops him and alerts the aliens to his presence.

Ripley and Call bond as Ripley tries to patch the android up. Glimmers of Ripley’s maternal side emerge. Call tells her that before she was recalled she accessed the government’s computer and tried to save the crew of the Betty from themselves. Ripley tells Call that she once tried to save people. She tells her about Newt but says that she can no longer remember the girl’s name.

As they near the docks the Ripley clone senses that they are near the nest and that they alien queen is in pain. She climbs into the nest and is caressed by her offspring. The studio wanted to cut this scene as they thought it could be interpreted as a love scene. Sigourney Weaver insisted that it stay in.

The crew make it back to the Betty but are ambushed by Wren who shoots Purvis. As he tries to blackmail the crew into taking the aliens back to Earth. Purvis, whose chest is beginning to pulsate, drags himself off his deathbed and attacks Wren. He holds Wren to his chest so that the baby alien burst through them both.

In the nest the cocooned Gediman explains that the queen developed a second reproductive chamber. This one was a womb with a single baby. This is a part human part alien hybrid and was Ripley’s true offspring.

The queen gives birth to an albino hybrid with a human face. This new alien kills its mother as it emerges and then attempts to bond with Ripley. It makes an almost human cry as it licks her face.

Ripley flees the nest as the hybrid kills Gediman. As always she has only moments to spare to get away making a death-defying leap onto the Betty. Distephano quips I thought you were dead, to which Ripley replies I get that alot.

As always an alien tries to hitch a ride. The hybrid surprises Call in the cargo hold. It seems either curious or scared as the Betty takes off. It then kills the final soldier and attempts to hurt Call. Ripley enters and like a mother scalding a child tells the alien to put her down. The alien complies and then Ripley sucks it out into space.

In the director’s cut Ripley and Call arrive back on Earth. Their final conversation takes place above the ruins of Paris with the Eiffel Tower broken in the background.

Alien Resurrection is one of those films that a lot of people did not see the point of. On paper it is actually one of the strongest films having a well-regarded director, writer and cast. In previous instalments the actors had been up and coming stars, most of the secondary characters in Aliens got the job because they had just done Terminator. In Resurrection however they were already established names. Brad Dourif had been some of the most critically acclaimed films of all time and would go onto be Grima Wormtongue.  He was also a legend in the horror genre for providing the voice of Chucky in the Child’s Play films.

Winona Ryder got second billing for Resurrection. By the time she made the film she had already crossed over from being a child start and had been nominated for two Oscars. Yet she apparently agreed to the film without even reading a script. Apparently she was a big Alien fan and wanted to show off to her younger brothers.

Despite being set in space several centuries in the future it is very much a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. There are the same functional sets as the previous films but lit and stylised in a way that makes ugly things pretty. The colours in this film are vivid and sumptuous. Even the lighting has been carefully crafted. As the film goes on it gets dark.

The final reference is in the final scene of the director’s cut. Here is a ruined Paris engulfed by a rising dust line, the same as the one that covers the outside world in Jeunet’s previous film Delicatessen.

Alien Resurrection is a film that does not appear to take itself too seriously.  When he agreed to make the film Jean-Pierre Jeunet was encouraged to make it more violent in keeping with horror films of the late 90’s. He opted to make it a black comedy with lots of knowing little references to original Alien. This is always a risk however not taking itself seriously is one of Resurrection’s strengths. A third sequel is never going to be able to break new ground but being fun may make it memorable.

The Alien quadrilogy recap, Part 3 (Alien³)

Over the next few days my friend and expert on the horror genre Lizzy will be recapping the Alien quadrilogy, reminding us what happened in the previous films and giving us some analysis, trivia and background about this classic series, then she'll be taking on prometheus, including thoughts on the alternative start and endings. Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have! Beware though, ahead are quite a few spoilers.

Alien³ (1992)

Director: David Fincher

Rotten Tomatoes rating 42%

Start running…again

Alien³ had a troubled birth. When shooting began there was no finished script. The proposed director was cut before the shooting started and David Fincher, who had never made a feature film, was brought in at the last minute. Fincher was never given complete control of the script and the film was hacked to pieces without the director’s knowledge. Fincher went on to direct several Oscar winning films and has completely disowned Alien³. Unlike the Scott, Cameron and Jeunet, Fincher did not record an introduction for the box set.

As the opening credits of Alien³ , the assembly cut, unfold a facehugger crawls across the cryo-tubes and a pod jettisons from the ship Ripley and the others were escaping on. The pod crashes on Fiorina 161, a planet housing a maximum-security penal colony.

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the only survivor and her arrival courses ructions with all male population. Some seem overjoyed at her arrival while others are angry pointing out that they have all taken the pledge. Super Andrews (Brian Glover) mindful of the fact that most of his charges have been convinced of sexual offences decrees that Ripley will stay in the infirmary until the authorities come to pick her up.

In the infirmary Ripley awakens as she receiving an injection from the doctor Clemens (Charles Dance). He tells her what happened to the others and she demands to see the wreckage. Newt is reported to have drowned in the cryo-tube. Her body was intact and was taken to the morgue. The body that is shown of Newt is in fact one of the dummies of Carrie Henn for the escape sequence in Aliens.

Ripley demands an autopsy citing a contagion. Clemens performs this and finds nothing he did not expect to see but before he can confront Ripley Andrews arrives. Clemens lies to Andrews telling that he was making sure that there was no outbreak of cholera. Andrews responds by informing Ripley of the scum that populate his prison and warning her to stay away until the rescue ship arrives.

As Andrews precedes over the cremation of Newt and Hick the carcass of an ox –in the cinema release this is a dog- begins to break apart. The religious text delivered by preacher Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) is intercut with scenes of the unobserved baby alien breaking out and running away. At the same time Ripley has a nosebleed.

Ripley, who is now shaven headed and in prison fatigues, causes heads to turn as she enters the canteen. She tried to thank Dillon for his words but he tells her that he is a murderer and rapist and she doesn't want to know him. He then informs her that he is waiting for God to return. 

Sitting above the others Clemens explains the religion that the prisoners have. Those that remain on the planet practice a fundamentalist hybrid of apocalyptical faith. They have also chose to stay on Fiorina. Having explained this Clemens asks Ripley to tell him why she really wanted the autopsy. She does not tell him.

In the pipes far below the alien claims its first prey just before Ripley is seen waking up next to Clemens who is revealed to have a barcode on his back. He tells her that he is not a prisoner but demurs when she asks for an explanation.

Clemens is called to the alien’s victim. The unfortunate man was pulled into a fan. It is assumed that the air carried him in after getting too close but there is a burn in the metal of the fan the same as the one that was on Ripley’s pod.

After seeing this, the doctor goes to find Ripley. He finds her searching the wreckage for the flight recorder. She asks for an audio computer, which the colony does not have. Instead she decides to find Bishop’s remains.

Clemens is called to Andrews. The network is interested in Ripley. They want her closely observed. When Clemens tries to walk out Andrews bullies him into staying. He hints that knows something has been going on between Clemens and Ripley and demands details about her. Clemens gives the bare minimum.

Ripley meanwhile searches the rubbish tip and finds Bishop’s remains. As she carries him back inside she is attacked by a group of prisoners. Before they can gang rape her, an angry Dillon comes to her aid and re-educates them.

In a darken chamber the alien claims its second victim. This time there are witnesses. As these men try to escape, in a rather confused way and while screaming, the alien picks another one off.

Ripley reconnects Bishop’s melted top half. She asks him to access the flight recorder. From this she discovers that there was an alien aboard the ship. She asks if the company knows and Bishop informs her that they know everything. He then asks her to be disconnected stated that he would rather be nothing than not be top of the line.

The alien survivor Gollic (Paul McGann) is found burned and raving. He states that a dragon killed the others. Andrews prefers to belief that the man was responsible for the deaths but Ripley tells another tale. When she informs him of the alien threat she is horrified to learn that the colony has no weapons and the only link to the outside is a monthly supply ship.

Gollic continues to rant as Ripley receives treatment for a number of minor symptoms. He tells Ripley that she is going to die. Clemens curtains him away and then reveals the reason he is on Fiorina. He was a morphine addict and accidently killed a patient. When his sentence was up he chose to stay.

Across the room Gollic struggles against his restrains. Feet appear underneath the curtain and a shadow fills the space. The alien reaches out grabs Clemens and kills him. The alien, who appears anatomically different from those in previous instalments, presses its head to Ripley’s but it does not kill her.

Andrews has called the prisoners together to quash the rumours. As he is doing so Ripley runs in to tell him about Clemens. Andrews doesn’t have time to take this in as the alien grabs him and pulls him into the airshaft.

The men appear disorganised without Andrews and ask Ripley to be their leader as she is the closest thing to an officer they have. Bizarrely her rank in this film seems to her increase to Lieutenant. Ripley agrees and with the help of Mr Aaron (Ralph Brown) formulates a plan. They will burn the alien out and then trap it in the foundry.

As Ripley helps cover the walls with pitch she doubles over in pain. The fire starts prematurely burning out another couple of prisoners. Ripley, Aaron and Dillon try to lead the men to safety but the alien drags one away.

With the alien again on the loose and Ripley’s symptoms worsening. She gets herself to a medi scanner and with the help of Aaron runs the test. She is looking for haemorrhage but Aaron sees something different. Inside Ripley’s chest these is the embryo of an alien queen. 

Ripley tells Aaron to get the rescue team to turn back. He refuses because he is due to go home on the next rotation. Ripley tries to make him understand that the company will not kill the alien but Aaron is desperate to get back to his wife and kid. When Ripley goes to confront the alien knowing that it will not kill her while the queen is gestating the company makes contact and ordering Ripley to be quarantined.

Ripley goes to confront the alien. Despite having already seen that the alien will not attack her she tries to goad it into doing so. Ripley knows that she is under a death sentence and that they company will want the queen inside her. Yet feels unable to commit suicide. She explains this to Dillon who is sceptical about the alien. Ripley asks him to kill her but he refuses on the grounds that he needs Ripley to kill the alien. He promises that once it is dead he will euthanize her afterwards. 

Dillon tries to rally the prisoners for a suicide mission. Aaron refuses to belief that the company won't help them and thinks that they should wait for the rescue team. Ripley repeats the crew expendable order and after some stirring words from Dillon they decide it is better to go out fighting.

The plan is to trap the alien in the foundry and burn it in the molten lead. Once the alien is trapped men in white suits arrive. The first thing that they ask is if Ripley is still alive. While she is luring the alien through the lead works they storm through the canteen.

Meanwhile Dillon sacrifices himself to pin the alien down. Unfortunately the agile creature is able to jump out of the lead and though burning it's still alive. Ripley turns the sprinklers on it causing it to cool and shatter.

Before she can relax she comes face to face with Bishop. Only this Bishop is not an android. He is the designer for the company. He tells Ripley that they are not interested in the creature and that they are going to cut the queen out of her and destroy it. The human Bishop tells Ripley to trust him. For moment she appears to do so but then escapes to the walkway below.  Aaron at this point realises that Ripley was right and hits the company man over the head, which results in Aaron being shot. Bishop then tries to reason with Ripley but she takes a swan dive into the lead and escapes the company forever. 

Many people will say that they do not like Alien³. What many people are unable to explain is why. So far the most honest that I’ve heard was from my dad who said he didn’t like it because of Newt dying.

There is a theory that a flawed production creates a vibe that follows the film. This does not mean that the film is bad just that it will always be viewed as less than perfect. It may not be fair to view the film as tainted but there were definitely problems on set.

There are two stories about what went wrong with the editing of Alien³. The first is that David Fincher got so pissed off with the lack of control in the project that he walked out before it was finished. The other is that the film was edited without his knowledge.

Another completely apocryphal suggested that there was a completely different version of the film, as happened with the Exorcist prequels a few years ago. This is not true. There is no director’s cut of Alien³ instead there is the assembly cut release in 2003. This is 31 minutes longer than the theatre release and is basically the unedited version. Incidentally this edition contains more unreleased scenes than the director’s cuts of the other three films put together.

The original teaser trailer suggested that the film was set on Earth. Apparently it used the tagline On Earth Everyone Can Hear you Scream.

This idea was based on the graphic novels that had been released after Aliens. When the studio decided to change the official timeline of what happened to the survivors these had to be reissued with the character’s names altered. The little girl went from being Newt to Billy.

Then a draft of the script was started with the action set in a monastery. They actually started building sets for this and then altering them to fit the prison.

This was also the reason for the chastity pledge and the religion that the prisoners follow. There were many changes to the script but this was one of the ones that work best. Monks would not have been as interesting as characters. As it is Ripley is forced to band together with men who are deeply flawed and disturbed human beings. It explains the motivation that they have for sacrificing themselves. They are all searching for some sort of redemption. 

According to David Fincher’s account the studio was so desperate to repeat the success of Aliens that they did not want to lose control of the picture. What they ended up though with was a film that got lowest Rotten Tomatoes rating out of all the Alien films.

- Lizzy