Director(s): Ridley Scott

Writer(s): Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett

Cast: Tom Skerrit, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt and Ian Holm

Synopsis: When the crew of the ship Nostromo is awakened from hyper sleep to investigate a distress call on a nearby planet, the crew unknowingly takes a hostile live form back to the ship.  Once the Alien has been given birth, the crew must battle it and themselves before everything they know now is destroyed.

My Review: The film is very much a Sci-Fi Horror classic in every sense of the word. 

Though, roughly the first hour, is slow moving, it develops into a battle of life and death.  In 1979 when the film first premiered, nothing had been seen like this film before.  From the startling horror to the visual efforts, Scott’s picture of a crew in peril is an inviting movie that gave birth to one of the best movie series in the history of cinema. 

With over two decades separating it from it’s premiere, there are portions of the film that seem dated, such as the computer equipment that is being used in the film to the almost “Battlestar Galactica” controls.  But the execution of everyone involved is first rate, and those little problems of technology soon become mute to the horror that awaits each crewmember. 

Though the DVD contains some deleted scenes from the film, the film really doesn’t need these extra scenes to make it a good film.  It is simply marvelous without them.  In fact, most of the scenes would almost tend to take it down.  

Overall: Thanks to this movie, we got what many would consider to be the first female action hero, and one that kick’s ass, that being Ellen Ripley.  The movie is very solid, but honestly, it did take me a long time to be able to give the film the proper respect.  Now that I have that respect, it is a movie that I dearly adore.