Alien(s)!

I made a (semi) special trip to the Mall on Saturday for a few things. I hadn’t been there for a good few weeks so was interested to see what new books had come out – especially as February is a no on-line book buying month (yes, I know it’s technically cheating!). I managed to pick up three books (two of which were on my Amazon Wish List) and impulse bought some vitamins from the Health Food shop as they had a sale on. Then for the other reason to hit the Mall…. A visit to the Multiplex.

For a while now my local multiplex has been showing classic movies normally on their particular anniversaries. I’ve seen 2001, Bladerunner and, most recently, Die Hard. This time – in about 2 weeks – it’s the original Alien which is an incredible 40 years old! (which makes me feel VERY old I can tell you!). I’m going along with a few of my younger geeky friends who amazed me recently by BOTH admitting that neither of them have seen the whole film beginning to end in a single sitting. They both said that they’d seen the beginning, middle and end but not necessarily in that order. So it’s going to be fun to be part of their education as a ‘guide’ to one of THE classic SF-Horror movies from the 20th century. It’s going to be even more fun as one of my friends is rather squeamish so I’m fully expecting him to be bouncing out of his seat at least once or twice.

Of course I got talking to the guy on the till as I bought the tickets. He was probably one of the older staff members – late 20’s/early 30’s I’d guess – and the foyer was reasonably quiet so we had the opportunity to discuss the relative merits of Alien Vs Aliens. After some disagreements we decided that, as they were essentially in different genres (Sf/Horror Vs Combat SF) that they were both exemplars of their respective fields. I still think Aliens (probably the Special Edition/Directors Cut) is the better movie but then I’ve always been a sucker for SF style combat movies.

Naturally with the 40th birthday of Alien we’re about to enter into the anniversary space of my favourite style of movie – Eighties films. From 2020 onwards I expect to be seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Risky Business (1983), Gremlins (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller (1986), Top Gun (1986), Aliens (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), Heathers (1988), Say Anything (1989)……. It’s going to be SO much fun seeing them at the movies again (or for the first time as I saw a number of 80’s movies on VHS the first time around).