Regardless of which order you watch the films, Alien remains the best of the series. Aliens is very very close second tho. I think you went into the movies with the idea that they would all be similar to Aliens, high octane action flick. The orginal Alien tho is a suspense driven, horror flick. It was about atmosphere and sounds, mystery. It came down to what you didn't see, more than what you did see.

The best way to experience a film like that is, as mentioned above, dark room, by yourself with surround sound cranked up. I really suggest you take another look at the original and see that even by todays standards a marvolous movie.

As ar as watching Resurretion 6 times, I can't help but think you must be dead inside by now. No matter if you're a fan or the series or not, that was just a bad movie. Predictable plot, poor and unrealistic special effects, emmensily annoying characters, and on and on, just bad. 

I love it how this thread always ends up being about Alien.

but I'd at least expect that the director respect Ridley Scott's legacy

But Aliens didn't respect Scott's legacy, at all. Neither did Alien 3, it didn't even respect Cameron's legacy.

Having a queen was Cameron's idea, Ridley Scott had the eggs made from humans. Scott didn't like this.

Moving on a few years, and Cameron didn't really like how Newt and Hicks were killed so abruptly.

Three quality films (oh shut up, I really like Alien 3), each with a different director with his own, different ideas, which also means that the sequels aren't quite what the previous director(s) wanted. This is quite true if you watch the special editions. In each movie, the creature itself behaves differently, and looks different. Of course, I'm not saying this is entirely a bad thing. I'm having real problems getting my point across, aren't I? It's just that the ethos itself, if one only counts the movies, isn't that consistent within itself.

I can't understand how could anyone consider the first Alien movie to be the best of them all, it was B-grade trash.

First of all, I agree with nitin. Second of all, you should remember the year this movie was made, and think about the scifi movies made before it. Alien came out in 1979. All of a sudden, space wasn't a happy place to be, it was eerie, claustrophobic, plausible, and, most of all, fucking scary.

This creature wasn't just some guy wearing a rubber suit in a movie, it was simply... alien (mind the pun), horrifying. So fucking frightening that Veronic Cartwright's character freezes when she sees it. It has acid for blood, it seems terrifyingly smart, and it's extremely fast and deadly.

Then consider the budget, which wasn't much. Yet Nostromo's insides look absolutely fabulous, very compact, very empty and desolate. Octagonal hallways? Yup, got plenty of them here. Seen them elsewhere? Guess where they're from. (Somebody point out if this is horribly wrong.)

And then there's the chest burster scene... 

One more thing thought. The Quadrilogy set is very much worth buying. Thank you.

Now, Fox should simply send me that check... 

I plan on buying it when I get a spare 60 euro. Too bad there are many things I have to buy which are somewhat higher on my priority list (like new monitor, new cpu heatsink/cooler and possibly a new CPU). But eventually, I'll get it. 

Relating to the comics from Dark Horse, of which I am a big fan, Aliens themselves are explained very clearly in how they act as a hive species. Not all Aliens are of the same hive, thus sometimes you get hive wars - hence the comic Alien: Hive War which IMO was one of the best.

As far as the movies go, this is my order:
Aliens
Alien (It's classic, so that's why it rates this high.)
AvP
Alien Resurrection
Alien 3

Alien 3 is abysmal. (sp?) Why they brought Ripley back in Resurrection makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Yeah, geeks like that 'familiar' feeling, but seriously, the whole Alien mythos is too big to be concentrated on one character again and again.

The Alien series is also very diverse as far as movie genres go; You have horror, action, suspense, thriller, etc etc. Yes, you also have some comedy and maybe some romance - but I won't get into that.

As for Alien 6, I'm looking forward to it. I would love to see AvP 2 as well, I'm a diehard fan of both, and AvP made me very, very happy. I mean it's so early that you can't say "GOD DAMN THEY GOT THAT ONE GUY TO PEN THE SCRIPT TO THE 6th ALIEN MOVIE??? FUCK !!! THOSE SCAMPIE-WORSHIPPERS!!!" It could turn out really, really well.

I would like to see other Alien species though, instead of the normal Human-alien, Dog-alien, Queen, facehugger etc. That's one of the great things about the comics - they explore so many different aspects of the Alien mythos, including diverse Alien species. 

a script is very important, and Mr Anderson has repeatedly shown an inability to even produce a script, let alone a good one. 

Tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a script when you are unable to write?

I just saw Team America World Police. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. If you like South Park or hate Jerry Bruckheimer then you absolutely have to see it. 

i love ALL the aliens equally, they ALL rock!

/me gonna watch avp soonish tho 

Yeah I saw that on Monday. It was pretty damn funny, and like you said I pretty much expected it to be that way. In one way thats good, but in the other way it was very similar to watching an episode of South Park. Which makes sense, but I was hoping it would be a little more different. Either way, it was funny as hell so people should see it. 

SAW
Fairly average movie, I thought. I wasn't particularly shocked by the SHOCKER element, and I wasn't kept in much suspense by the plot either, partly because I didn't give a shit about the characters. Not terrible by any means though, and it's a very un-holywood concept of a film, which can only be a good thing. Just don't expect to "work out what's going to happen" or who the "bad guy" is, as they made it up with 5 minutes to spare, after downing tequilas for a few hours.

Layer Cake
A British Gangster flick currently doing the rounds. I have two problems with this film.
1) Every review I read of this movie told me that Jude Law's missus would be prancing around in her underwear for about 1/2 of the movie. Was she fuck. Five seconds at best.
2)No cakes. Not even a speed-eating tournament. No lessons on baking OR decorating sweet dough-based desserts.
Apart from these shortcomings this is a quality film, and rare in that it doesn't copy the Lock-Stock style, instead preferring a classier, understated feel. Daniel Craig was great as the lead, reminded me of Michael Caine in the original Get Carter. All in all, pretty good, bit of a disappointing ending though.

Anchorman / Dodgeball
I put these two together because they're so similar. These are two of the stupidest movies i've ever seen in my life. Also, some of the funniest. You have to be in the right mood, maybe partly drunk and in a large group, but this is some hilarious shit. Out of the two, i'd probably pick Dodgeball, as i'm more of a Ben Stiller fan, but Will Farrell kicks ass as Ron Burgandy, the man with suits so fine he made Sinatra look like a hobo.

Hero
Barely passable arty shite. Firstly, it fails to be a good kung-fu movie. How? By not actually having any fights. Do you like it in Crouching Tiger, Wanking Dragon when people fly away like pussies? Then rejoice, because in this film you don't get anything else. I don't think anybody gets hit in the whole film. A few people get stabbed, but you dont get to see it. In fact you don't get to see any blood at all. But you do get to see some flimsy wire-work and some laughable characters, wrapped around a story unsuitable for an episode of the 'jackie chan adventures' cartoon.

Seriously, it might seem I was being harsh, but for the price of a ticket or two to see Hero, you could go see a good Jet Li film, like Twin Warriors. Basically in that film jet li and his friend are badass shaolin monks that get into lots of other fights with other monks, then they start a massive fight and kick awesome amounts of ass but then get kicked out of the shaolin temple for being too badass. So basically they go around beating LOADS of people up, the police, the army, rebels, villagers, drunkards, women, FOR AGES. It's awesome, trust me... watch that, and Hero, then tell me which is better. 

The Virgin Suicides
Do you know what it's like when its the start of the weekend, and there's so much you've got planned; so much stuff you could do, and you're so excited.... then in what seems like seconds you've wasted your time and you better sleep because you've got work tomorrow?
Now, translate that into a movie and you've got The Virgin Suicides. It's about this family, where there's a strict devout mother, and slightly less-so father. They have lots of daughters, including the definitely-not-virgin Kirsten Dunst. The girls arent allowed out so they start killing themselves (note: not a spoiler). Most of the film surrounds the local loser kids who obsess over these kids, and some dork who ends up shagging Kirstin (you dont get to see, no). They build up this whole mystery around the girls, repeatedly saying that no one understood them, asking why they might have possibly killed themselves, while you're there shouting "IT'S FUCKING OBVIOUS WHY THEY DID IT!! THEY'RE CRAZY, AND TRAPPED IN A HOUSE WITH A CRAZY WOMAN FOR YEARS, YOU DICKHEADS!". Well I was anyway. It annoyed me, as this film had potential, and used up all its screentime on pointless crap. It's interesting and it tries to be mysterious, but it's as shallow as kirstin's cleavage.

Office Space
Great comedy. I'm glad I don't work in a cubicle, but if I did, i'd probably quit my job. It's all about how an office worker goes from completely stressed out, to completely mellow after his hypnotist dies mid-session. He gets promoted, gets Jennifer Aniston, and a fat load of money by de-frauding the company.

On the subject of office-comedy, if you haven't already seen the Terry Tate adverts, go watch them NOW!! It's highly unlikely you'll have seen them if you aren't from the U.S.

http://www.milkandcookies.com/keywords/terrytate/

I would recommend watching the Ad called Terry's World first. 

Starbuck, you must've been totally on acid if you really think Twin Warriors was better than Hero. 

"You know you need a cover sheet on your TPS reports, Richard! That ain't new, baby!"

Terry Tate, Office Linebacker is funny. 

I felt pretty much the samething about The Virgin Suicides, Starbuck. 

maybe you could give a little more insight into why you preferred Hero?

My reasons for preferring Twin Dragons are simple. I watch martial arts films to watch fights. Good fights, showing lots of ability, speed, power and originality in the proponents. I like the simple joy of watching kung-fu nutcases kicking ass with explosive speed and style. Other things that worked against Hero, by my own ratings system were "too bloody pretentious", "too big a budget", and "thinks it's clever (isn't)". Just because a film is slow and arty, doesn't mean its deep. Seriously, grow some balls, next you're gonna be telling me you don't like Army of Darkness ;) 

that line had me in hysterics when I heard it in Terry Tate... by coincidence it was about a day after i watched office space. For the record, i think the director of Virgin Suicides needs some of Terry's extra special Pain Cake, and you won't want seconds of that! 

get to see SAW? its not in theatres until the 28th here..

all the versions ive seen online were of decent calibre :| 

Hero is definitely pretentious, but it does look stunning IMHO. The use of color and space is very well done. The looks held my attention.

And it's not really a kung fu movie either. Personally I think both this and crouching tiger are overrated (except the michelle yeoh/zhang ziyi fight at the end which is brilliant), but still well worth watching.

And no, I dont like Army of Darkness :) 

Dawn of the Dead remake - pretty good solid action movie with standard ludicrous plot points and character relations. I never really liked the original that much but it did have more humour.

Arsenic and old lace - Surprisingly good comedy even though some of the slapstick towards the end is silly. What it does right, IMHO, is play the outlandish plot so straight that it seems normal.

Cowboy Bebop Movie - Easily the best feature length anime I've seen because it actually has a proper plot that wasnt written by drunk monkeys with a heroin problem. And as usual, it looks nice with some killer animation during the fights.

Delicatassen - Not bad quirky french comedy from Jeunet and Caro. Better than City of Lost Children but not as good as the overrated Amelie.

Sanjuro - good followup to Yojimbo, much better paced but lacks some of the mood.

Schindler's List - I had never seen this before but it is every bit as good as it was made out to be. It looks phenomenal and Spielberg does not sentimentalise the story at all which is rare. Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson are terrific.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre - Very good film, let down by a lame ending. Bogart probably puts in his best performance. 

My Personal Award for Least Pretentious and Reasonably Informative Movie Review goes too . . . (break the seal, open the razor sharp fold, ruffle the silky gold paper inserts) Starbuck! (Applause! Applause! Applause!) 

Badges? We Dont Need No Stinkin' Badges! 

One of my favourite films. "Not bad" eh. 

IMHO the script wasnt as clever as the filmakers thought. Like a few Coen Brother movies, it mistook just being quirky and stylish as being clever. 

i agree with Nitin pretty much; I do like the film, nice visual style, good idea, great cast. Felt a little insubstantial to my tastes though, couldn't really see where it was going. Maybe reading the book would help flesh it out a little, it's on my desk but I haven't got round to starting it yet.

Blackpope: I saw it in Scotland, but I know it's out in England too. That's surprising that we got it first, has that ever happened before?

Headthump: cheers, dude... glad someone appreciates me raising my blood pressure like this ;) 

is it at all like the BBC series The Office? That has to be one of the funniest shows ever made.