Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

12 July 2008

Alien Resurrection, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (1997)

STEVE says:
Couple weeks ago, Claudius and I watched Alien. He was impressed enough to borrow the box set, but only got to watch Aliens and Alien 3 before heading back to Melbourne. (Not one of those who'll borrow something and hang on to it for six years, Claude returned the set before going back.)

So tonight, searching for something to watch, we decided to finish up the Quadrilogy (having now officially replaced tetralogy as the word for a series of four).

I like Alien Resurrection. Sure, it's nowhere near as awesome as the original, but what is? And maybe it's not as good as Alien 3, but it sure beats the pants off Aliens, in my opinion. In truth, it's probably somewhere between those two in its action-to-creepiness ratio, but has the distinction of being a Jeunet film, which in this case makes all the difference. I'm talking, here, about the weird eroticism inherent in Act Three, specifically in the scene where Ripley is taken to the Alien hive, and later when she confronts the Alien-Baby. Jeunet, you wacky Frenchman!

(Note: Five years later, this same plot would be used, almost beat-for-beat, in Jason X. Like they just took the script and replaced all "Alien" references with "Jason". It takes balls for the tenth movie in a ridiculously popular horror franchise to rip off the fourth movie in another, and I salute them for it.)

3/5

Nikki did not view.

Panic in the Streets, dir. Elia Kazan (1950)

NIKKI says:
After this and The Sweet Smell of Success, I think I only want to watch movies from the 1950s. This one is about a man trying to stop the spreading of the plague. Richard Widmark is a health services officer who has 48 hours to find the people responsible for the death of a grifter in New Orleans. The grifter was discovered with gunshot wounds to the chest, but he died from plague-like symptoms. Widmark wants the press left out of it lest a national scare is caused and the men he must track down disappear to Africa or somewhere and take their diseases with them.

Ooh, it's a tense one. Another before-its-time picture with rapid-fire, super-smart dialogue, and intensity to burn. Widmark is just great, and so is scary-tall Jack Palance as the heavy who'll do anything -- including tossing a dying man over a second floor banister -- to get away from the cops.

It's shot on location in New Orleans, too, with a great old-timey inside look at the city that no longer exists. I loved this one, and must watch more like it.

3.5/5