Horror Toy Tuesday: 'ALIENS' Ultra Deluxe Alien Queen

The following is an article I originally wrote for MoviePilot. It has (barely) been edited:

10 Favorite Death Scenes

With all the 5's and 10's lists I've been doing lately, I figured it only to be natural that I mention my favorite death scenes. This list, however, was tremendously difficult. Because I've simply seen too many horror films to narrow it down. But, after tedious thinking, I was able to compose a list of the scenes that have impacted me in some way or another.

There's such an abundance of films that I've viewed that I could easily make this a top 20 list. There's too many honorable mentions to even begin naming. The scenes below are the ones that made the list, and the ones that have burned their way into my mind.

Having watched horror films since I was a small child, I had to dig my way through all the great and terrible films I've seen in order to assemble this list. I give credit where credit is due, and everyone has a few scenes that they think of when they think of certain horror films that make them cringe or look away. Well, here's mine.

1. Halloween (1978)

2. Suspiria (1977)

3. Final Destination 2 (2003)

4. High Tension (2003)

5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

6. The Lost Boys (1987)

7. Alien (1979)

8. Sleepaway Camp (1983)

9. The Blob (1988)

10. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

Men In Black 3 (2012)

"This summer, he'll have to find the answers...in time"

RATED- PG-13

RUN TIME- 106 MINS

WRITER(S)- ETAN COHEN, LOWELL CUNNINGHAM

STARRING- WILL SMITH, TOMMY LEE JONES AND JOSH BROLIN

DIRECTOR- BARRY SONNENFELD

 Synopsis taken from IMDb

Agent J travels in time to M.I.B.'s early days in 1969 to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.  

STORY: Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement), an alien known as a Boglodite, is the last of his kind and in 1969, a younger Agent K (Josh Brolin) arrested him. In doing this, Agent K stopped the alien takeover that Boris was trying to mastermind, and in doing so all the Boglodite's were faced with extinction. Boris is missing and arm that Agent K is also responsible for.

 Now Boris has come up with a new plan to escape imprisonment and go back in time to 1969 and kill Agent K, as well as follow through his maniacal plan to have his kind invade Earth and dodge extinction. Agent J (Will Smith) wakes up and realizes something sketchy is going on when he's the only one who knows who Agent K is, he then finds out that his partner doesn't exist because Boris succeeded in his plan to kill Agent K in 1969. So Agent J must travel back in time and stop Boris and warn his future partner.

However, Agent J finds that convincing his younger partner that his story is true isn't as easy as he was hoping. Agent K is weary of Agent J and suspects him to be up to no good. Agent J must find a way to convince his partner of the truth before time runs out.

Agent K (left) and Agent J (right) find that they make a great team after all

ACTING: The acting in this movie is really well done and humorous. Will Smith is hysterical at several parts and Josh Brolin even has his moments. Josh Brolin steals the show with his acting, he does a perfect job impersonating Tommy Lee Jones. The acting is well done all around.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: The CG and creature effects are on par with today's standard of technology and it's nothing short of what you'd expect from this movie. The creatures are all goofy looking and have quirky personalities, like they always have. They effects are well played.

OVERALL: This film isn't anything more or less than you'd expect from this series. It fits right in with the other 2 films. It's got it's funny and serious moments and overall it's entertaining and fun, but that's as far as it goes. It's not a great film, or one of the best of 2012, it's just a blast to watch and is enjoyable on all fronts.

THIS FILM GETS 3 REAPER SKULLS OUT OF 5

THE THING (2011)

First Thoughts
This film is actually a prequel based on the 1982 John Carpenter film with the same title. It doesn't really make too much sense to me why they didn't title it different like The Thing: The beginning. It's kind of stupid if you ask me, to title the prequel the same. But seeing as I'm a huge fan of the John Carpenter film I was stoked to see this movie. And I could only hope that it lived up to the 1982 masterpiece...

Now this film was directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., I don't know too much this guy has done so my initial thought was that I didn't know what to expect. It was either going to work or not, using a director who's not well known is always a gamble. However, the producers of the Dawn Of The Dead remake did this film so that gave me some hope. I thought the remake of Dawn Of The Dead was great, big fan.

Story Plot
This film is the origins of The Thing, it's the backstory of how it was found and how it escaped to wreak havoc in the 1982 film. This takes place with the team of Norwegian scientists finding a hot spot on their radar coming from under the ice of the cold Antactica.

After digging The Thing up from underground and seeing it in basically a huge icecube it's hard to really get a look at it through the thickness of the ice it's frozen in. I liked the fact that they didn't just show you the creature, you had to wait for it and just hope it was as good as your imagination envisioned. However, I didn't envision it to look like the way it did but I was pleased with it.

After showing you what The Thing looks like as it breaks free from its icy chamber caos ensues. We find ourselves in a guessing game of who is who when the team discovers that this alien can transform into any living creature, including them. This was alot like the Carpenter film to a certain degree but they go with a teeth test instead of a blood test like in the 1982 film. They start sorting out who's The Thing and who isn't by checking for teeth fillings, which back then were shiny silver and not white by today's standards to match your teeth. They do this because they discover that when immitatting things The Thing rejects any and all metal objects, therefore, anyone without fillings are suspects. I think that's the one time in your life where you'd be happy you drank alot of soda.

The film from here goes into everyone against everyone, because the people without fillings are raving that the others are crazy and are going to get them killed if they don't let them in their group. Here is where the conflict lies because that's a crappy situation you been in and you don't want to be the person accusing someone of being an alien and cause them to get killed by an alien (laugh).

After that the few members who are left of the team hunt down and search out the alien and put it out of it's mysery...or do they?

Special Effects/ Creature effects and design
I thought that the way The Thing itself looked when it broke out of the ice was pretty cool. Like I stated before, it wasn't what I was expecting but it was still a cool design. It looked alot like a menacing bug. A big black insect with sharp legs.

I also liked the way some of the other effects look but I feel that they dulled it down with bad CG, so that was disapointing. I also think they showed too much of The Thing and it's transforming ways. I would have liked it more if they showed it less to keep it scary. The more you see it the more used to seeing it you become. So the more you see it the less scary it is. Do glimpses or momentary shots to keep the suspense and mystery going. Not long drawn out shots like they did in this film.

I liked the two-headed Thing, it looked very close to the one they showed in the 1982 film. But they ruined it with the long scenes they did showing it. After awhile it just kind of showcased how bad the CG was and made is disapointing.

Final rating for the movie is
CG/Creature effects get a 2/4 rating from me.

Actors And Characters
This film has a pretty good cast although I think that for this movie, if they even wanted to try and live up to the Carpenter film, could have been better. There was definately room for improvement.

I think that Mary Elizabeth Winstead did a good job as the lead role but they should've gone for a stronger leading role.

I also wasn't a fan of  Eric Christian Olsen. I usually never am though.

Casting/Characters gets a 2/4  rating from me.

Gore/Violence
The gore in this film was pretty decent, they definitely didn't go over board with it like most movies tend to do today.

The violence was pretty good as well but nothing memorable from either the gore or violence.

Gore/Violence gets a 2/4 from me.

Most memorable quote
"So, I'm gonna die before I floss?"

Final Thoughts
I started off really liking this film but as it went on it got progressively worse. I didn't like how much they showed the alien and I didn't like the ending at all. The spaceship scene ruined the whole movie for me. I thought it was utterly ridiculous. They showed too much ruining most of the mysery and making the movie a failure in comparison to the Carpenter film. This film had potential but I guess this is what happens when you get a weak cast and a unfamilliar director.

The movie overall gets a 2/4 from me.

Super 8

It's hard to describe how I felt in the moments after watching this film. I had mixed emotions and I wasn't sure if I did or didn't like it. You gotta understand that I hardly ever have that reaction when finishing a movie. I either like it or I don't.

The train wreck in this film was incredible, a little over exaggerated, but still very very cool. I've never seen anything like this before. Well done.

The acting in this movie was surprisingly good and I found it more of a character study instead of a monster movie, like Cloverfield. And that wasn't what I was expecting.

The build up was well done, nice and spread out. But it got very serious very sudden and I enjoyed that. However, for some reason I don't feel that this film delievered or lived up to what it could have been. I felt like it was a waste. I just didn't get it although I admit I liked several parts. It just didn't work well for me. I didn't particularly like the Alien's look either.

Synopsis taken from IMDb

In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth - something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.

I would rate this movie a solid 2 stars.

Paul

 I got to see this film opening weekend and loved it. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are back and at 'em again in this feel-good movie about friendship when they drive to Area 51 and find an alien, Paul, and take him in and hide him from the goverment officials after him lead by Jason Bateman. The trio really hit it off and it kind of has an E.T. feel to it, only directed at mature audiences by having drug use and foul language and even some gore.

Very fun and enjoyable movie. Got me wanting to watch Shaun Of The Dead for the ten millionth time.

3 stars is the verdict. Check out the trailer.