Thoughts on Alien: Covenant

Alien: Covenant has amazing camera work and is a beautiful movie. The visuals are stunning. It still suffers a bit from a plot we are all to familiar with and tropes that make the movie difficult to fully immerse the audience. For example the ship is perpetually in "mood lighting" mode. The crew of colonists are incredibly stupid. Their ship encounters a problem on the way to a planet that they intend to colonize. So they abandon the idea of goin got that planet in favor for a planet that is nearby and seems habitable. They take no precautions and walk into the danger like fools. In a lot of ways the movie hits the same beats as the original Alien film and it becomes predictable. The CGI alien is not as cool looking as the practical effects of the past films. Michael Fassbender at least makes this movie interesting with his dual roles. As a fan of the franchise it is worth checking out but will be forgotten pretty quick.

Thoughts on Life

Life is like if you mixed Alien, the Thing, and Gravity in blender. It is okay at best and forgettable at worst. 

The Top Ten Most Memorable Movie Meals

Movies can be incredibly memorable experiences.  Even things as simple as meal times can often be memorable. Some are funny, some are terrifying, and others are simply visually appealing. When it comes to the most extraordinary meal scenes, often it is not even a matter of eating.

10. The Dark Crystal – Skeksis Dinner: The bizarre and evil looking Skeksis are in control of the Dark Crystal. As they gather, they eat a bizarre meal with utensils that would otherwise be alien to a human. Still, the fantastic creatures, developed by Henson studios, have their own mannerisms that are fascinating to watch. At times they move with deliberate ease and others with animalistic ferocity chasing little creatures across the table. 

9. Pulp Fiction – Five-dollar shake: Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace go to Jack Rabbit Slim’s for dinner. While ordering their 50s themed food from a Buddy Holly impersonator, Mia orders a five-dollar shake. This leads to a humorous back and forth about the shake and how good it must be to be worth five-dollars. It is a great sample of Tarantino dialogue.

8. Inglorious Basterds – Wait for cream: Yet another Tarantino film, this meal doesn’t build on humor but rather on tension. Jewish French cinema owner, Shosanna is seated next to Nazi Jew hunter, Col. Hans Landa. Shosanna knows that Col. Landa is the Nazi that killed her family the whole time we watch them eat their meal the audience must wonder if Col. Landa recognizes Shosanna.  The tension is high and it is seen on the actor’s face the entire scene.

7. Animal House – Food fight: John Belushi as Bluto comes into the dining hall of Faber college. He sits next to some rival fraternity members. After putting some mashed potatoes in his mouth he does his impression of a zit. This causes chaos to ensue ending with a massive food fight in the dining hall. It is spirited and fun in a way that only Belushi can bring to the table.

6. Oldboy – Live octopus: After being released from a cell, Dae-su Oh goes into a sushi restaurant. Looking for hints as to why he was imprisoned for 15 years. He orders a live octopus. As the sushi chef watches, he violently tears into the octopus and devours it.  It is a brutal scene that is memorable and disturbing.

5. Hannibal – Brains tartare: This movie is silly and this scene is no less funny. Hannibal Lecter has knocked out F.B.I. agents Paul Krendler and Clarice Starling. Hannibal numbs Paul with a mass of painkillers and then he cuts his skull off and proceeds to cook, eat, and feed Paul his own brains. It is made funnier by the acting of Ray Liotta as Paul, who acts like he is an obnoxious drunk.

4. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – Cultural differences: While investigating a Thuggee cult at a young Maharajah’s palace, Indiana Jones, Short Round and Willie Scott take part in a banquet. The food is filled with things like, snake surprise, giant beetles, and chilled monkey brains. It is a disgusting but memorable moment that probably set back Indian culture quite a bit.

3. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom – Coprophagia: Salo is not a movie for the faint of heart. A group of Italian Fascists kidnap several young men and women and subject them to rape, torture, and depraved sex acts that would not even be allowed in Nevada. What makes this memorable is when the Fascists serve their victims plates of human feces to eat. The whole movie is a depressing movie that is unsettling to a unique degree.

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Sadistic family dinner: While traveling in rural Texas, Sally is captured by an insane, cannibalistic family. She is tied to a chair and forced to watch as the crazed family eats around her. Her screams are met with mocking laughter and her pleas are met with apathy.  It is a scene that has be imitated many times but still holds up for how distressing the dinner feels.

1. Alien – Breakfast surprise: After an alien creature attaches to crewmember Kane’s face it is a mystery what will happen. The alien seems to die and fall off him leaving Kane able to wake up and start taking to his fellow crewmates. They all partake of a meal when suddenly Kane begins to suffer seizures. Suddenly, a young alien bursts out of Kane’s chest. It screeches then runs away leaving a trail of gore. This scene has permanently become the scene that has tattooed itself as the most memorable meal moment.

Alien: Isolation – review

Alien: Isolation is a first person shooter that takes place in the Alien universe and set 15 years after the first Alien film.  The look of the game is fantastic. The game play is brutally hard at times. Still, it is a great game with a few flaws.

You play as Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley from the first film. She is attempting to find out what became of her mother and the crew of the Nostromo. After a space station finds the recording logs of Ellen, Amanda heads to the space station for closure. Once at the station she is greeted by chaos and finds that robots have gone rogue and there is a deadly xenomorph alien onboard.

The attention to detail is superb. The game keeps the same retro-futuristic look of the Ridley Scott film.  For all the great look of the game, there are a few things they could have improved. For example, the people look like dummies. There are also small glitches where you sometimes fall through the floors and into space, or times when the walls won’t show completely upon loading. Those rare moments aside, it is nothing short of a fan boy’s dream.

Alien: Isolation is not like most first person shooters. In this game you cannot go into situations guns blazing. Instead, you must rely on wits and stealth to get through the game and avoid the alien.  This aspect makes it particularly nerve-wracking as you creep and crawl through tunnels in an attempt to escape. The humans will shoot you without warning, robots are incredibly difficult to defeat in combat, and the xenomorph can kill you in one hit.

If you are a fan of the films, this game is a must play. It is really impressive and feels immersive in the entire world that has been created.  Alien: Isolation is very challenging and you will almost certainly die many times before completing the story. If you can slow down and be patient, it is a great game. If you get frustrated easily, it will be a nightmare. Either way, it is one of the best movie tie-in games I’ve played since Ghostbusters.

Prometheus-review

The 1979 movie “Alien,” directed by Ridley Scott, was a smart horror movie.  After several other movies in the franchise, he returned to the helm to produce and direct the prequel to a movie loved by so many people.  The movie was good but not without a lot of things that weighed it down.  I am not sure why it needed to even consider itself part of the Alien franchise.  Maybe Scott should have moved away from it entirely and tried something new.  Then at least it would have been heralded as something new and original. On its own merits the movie has great acting, good effects and an interesting narrative.

In 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth, played by Noomi Rapace, and Charlie, discover a star map among several unconnected ancient cultures. They believe this as an invitation from humanity’s "Engineers". They board the space vessel Prometheus (funded by the Weyland Corporation as an IN joke to the fans) to follow the map to a distant moon. The ship's crew travels in stasis pods while the android David, played by Michael Fassbender, monitors their voyage. They arrive and they are informed of their mission to find the Engineers. The Prometheus lands near an artificial structure and a team is sent to explore.

The acting is damn good in this movie.  Charlize Theron as Mission Director Vickers is played as aloof and cold, but begins to thaw as the movie progresses. Noomi Rapace is great as Elizabeth and she seems to be able to capture the fear that is in the heat of the moment on screen.  Michael Fassbender is the android David, is who steals the show.  He is intelligent and cold and models himself on Peter O'Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia”. He also manages to walk the line between good and bad where you are not quite sure his intentions at any given moment.

The sets and the special effects are really cool.  Watching it in 3-D impressed me a lot with this movie.  There were amazing landscape shows on Earth as well as on the alien planet and both were so stunning that at times, it felt it belonged on a documentary.  The creatures are stylized and very alien. The designs of H.R.Giger are looking great on screen using modern CGI.

The problems of this movie stem a lot from multiple plot threads branching off the main one and becoming a convoluted mess.  There are a lot of unanswered questions as well as problems of continuity between this and the first “Alien” film. Many of the minor characters are really forgettable with a few exceptions.  When I see this in a movie you may as well just write “Dead Man Walking” on their chest. The movie is also really big on religious overtones to the point that it beats that theme over your head with its not-too-subtle-symbolism. 

For the most part, “Prometheus” is a good movie.  If it didn’t have the baggage of being attached to the “Aliens” franchise, it could have had a lot more going for it too.  Still, it’s a good movie with decent acting and good effects- not scary at all though.  I’d recommend it as a matinee or rental if you want to catch some new science fiction.