Alien
Published 2012-03-20
Film info
- Title Alien
- Director Ridley Scott
- Year 1979
- Run time 1hr 57m
- Genres Science Fiction, Horror
- Tagline In space no one can hear you scream
- Cast Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt
Directed by Ridley Scott, the original sci-fi classic follows Ripley investigating a suspected SOS on a remote planet and makes a terrifying discovery.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:26 | I said: "What's that?" Mr C: "The I from Alien." Took me ages to realise what he meant, and I'm sure we had this conversation last time we watched too. |
| 3:23 | Upscaling old films to HD really does make a heck of a lot of difference. |
| 4:28 | Computer screens, though, they are always an issue. |
| 5:44 | That's a pretty bright light to wake up to. |
| 8:32 | They seem very at ease on the ship. It's very believable that this is all normal to them. |
| 9:28 | His computer is not voice activated! No Siri for them. |
| 16:44 | There's an awful lot of counting down in space. |
| 21:27 | Scariest environment imaginable. |
| 24:17 | They have a cat! |
| 31:09 | They don't seem bothered to have uncovered an alien, so it's not their first ET, I guess. |
| 35:13 | Sigourney has such a deep voice, it's fab. |
| 45:13 | "And you let it in." |
| 49:26 | It's like an out of space version of Casualty. |
| 52:03 | Off they go, taking alien lifeform with them. |
| 54:21 | I don't trust that science guy either. |
| 56:47 | Mini alien not upscaled so well. Still an iconic scene though. |
| 1:02:22 | It's a big old ship for them to play hide and seek in. |
| 1:06:30 | Why is it raining inside the ship? |
| 1:08:12 | Not such a mini alien anymore. |
| 1:10:50 | Actually, as it isn't very helpful, I'd say the computer is just like Siri. |
| 1:16:07 | Oh. I liked Dallas. |
| 1:25:03 | Awesome robot head! |
| 1:27:07 | The transition between fake and real head is not great, but I applaud the attempt anyway. |
| 1:29:50 | She's not actually going after the cat, is she? |
| 1:34:29 | That sudden quiet and solitude must be terrifying. |
| 1:36:36 | Self destructs are never subtle, are they? |
| 1:39:53 | Really not comfortable with calling the computer Mother. |
| 1:41:00 | This strobe is a bit hard on the old eyes. |
| 1:47:33 | More strobe for no apparent reason. This ship isn't even self destructing. |
| 1:53:23 | The frontier and the network, I want to know more. |
Thoughts
Mr C and I have watched this before, together, although he has no recollection of that event. I remember bits of the film, but I can remember more about the second one where there is gratuitous use of a child for emotional blackmail. Nevertheless, I remember it being good, and when it turned up in HD in the iStore, we were all for it.
Interestingly, for a film that I've seen before, this still made me nervous and jumpy. That is a plus point all in itself.
I was so impressed with how not-dated the film looked, in every capacity but the computers. Oh, they were dire. They only managed to take away the tiniest bit of realism for me, though. That, and the weird bit where they are all sitting around chatting and smoking. You wouldn't smoke on a space ship these days.
In the end, it's hard to find what to say about it, because it's just good. Good, straight up suspense, with interesting characters. And a cat.
Rating: 5 / 5