Alien

Alien (1979) starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright. Directed by Ridley Scott. Commercial spacecraft responds to a beacon and the crew end up being hunted down by a scary and very lethal alien creature. The only survivor is the forceful, resourceful Ripley (Weaver).This movie is a kind of cultural touchstone, and has some really neat ideas and some well earned scares. But after the creature is aboard the space ship, it amounts to little more than a haunted-house horror show. And an anti-corporate tirade (not such a bad thing). The version I watched was the Director's Cut, which added some footage not shown in theaters and trimmed a few scenes here and there. I didn't find it to be an improvement over the theatrical version. I remember this movie being a really big deal when it came out in 1979, but it is now mostly a disappointment (though a necessary prelude to the superior sequel, Aliens.) (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B-