Five Kick Ass Final Girls Of The 1970s

So far so good, in this series I have outlined the women of horror, that have kicked some major big bad evil killer butt from the 1980s to the 2000's and since it has been a while i thought that it might be kind of fun to do the 1970s!

Now the truth is, is over the decades there have been a ton of amazingly talented women that have taken on some of horror movies worse villains, and so it was hard to cull it down to 5, but here is what I believe them to be:

At number 5: Kyle Richards (Eaten Alive).

Kyle Richards as seen in, 'Halloween' (1978). 

Kyle Richards... Now you might not think it... I mean last I heard, Kyle Richards has mostly been doing reality tv these days, but when she was a kid, she did a lot of horror movies, and in each one... (At least the ones that I have seen,) she has last to the end of each one of them... And thus I think she definitely deserves a place!

For more information on Kyle Richards, please check out these scene from: Eaten Alive (1977):

At number 4: Linda Bliar (The Exorcist).

Linda Blair in, 'The Exorcist' (1973)!

Now let's be honest here, The Exorcist is one of the most famous horror movies of all time, and with Linda Blair having starred in the first two, she definitely deserves her place in this listing of 5 kick ass final girls of the 1970s!

For more information on her work, please check out these trailers for: The Exorcist (1973) & Exorcist 2: The Heretic (1977):

With number 3 we have: Marilyn Burns (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre).

Marilyn Burns as, 'Sally Hardesty' in one of the most famous scenes in horror movie history in, 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'!

Marilyn Burns... Now I am sad to say that this amazing talent, who really did a majorly awesome job of being a final girl in the 7os, as well as having maintained a role in horror movies ever since, has past away earlier this year, but if you haven't seen her work, you should, she totally rocks in just about everything she did!

For more information on Marilyn Burns, please check out this trailer for: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974):

Next up on the block, at number 2: Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters).

Sigourney Weaver in, 'Alien' (1979)!

Sigourney Weaver, her role in the Alien movie series has been truly prolific, and after having been in 2 prolific Science Fiction series (the Alien movie series, and the Ghostbuster movie series,) she is definitely one that is worth mentioning for her role in helping bring the Alien movie series to the world in 1979!

For more information on Sigourney Weaver, please enjoy this trailer for: Alien (1979):

And finally, at number 1: Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween).

Jamie Lee Curtis as: 'Laurie Strode' in, 'Halloween' (1978)! 

For Jamie Lee Curtis, I am mentioning her here, because besides the fact that she helped create a series that to the day is still beloved by fans all over the world, her work in the horror movie world in both the 70s and 80s was truly remarkable!

For more information on Jamie Lee Curtis, please enjoy this trailer for: Halloween (1978):

The truth is, is there are a ton more, but I would personally say that these girls truly kicked some bad boy butt (or some monster butt)!

Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Movie Review

Official Score = 1 Devil 

Alright, I hate to say it, but some times movies need a new fresh look (or in some case the final nail in the coffin,) before that franchise destroy's itself with shitty campy movies that just destroy itself!

A couple of examples of this are:

1. Halloween 2 (2009). Now the truth is, is I liked this movie, but this movie showed that the remake series of John Carpenter's classic movie series was already beginning to head down the wrong path...

2. The, 'Sleepaway Camp' movie series... Now here is a great example of a classic slasher movie franchise that just did not listen to itself... What I mean by this, is that the first 2 movies were true B-Movie exploitation genius... But the sad truth is that the third in the series, where as it was good, was starting to head in that direction of over done campyness, and the 4th one... Well to say the least was there...

And that is just a couple of examples, another one being, Alien: Resurrection (1998):

You see, this movie, which brought back Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters) for her final performance as, 'Ellen Ripley', was over exaggerated... The guns were ridiculously oversized, the story concept, (a story of how Ellen Ripley is brought back to life through cloning centuries in to the future in an effort to bring the, 'Alien' species back to life, (to use as weapons...) A great story concept right?) Well the truth is, is the story was poorly written and unbelievable...

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) with her, 'Xenomorph' off spring... The birth of a mistake...

The truth is, is that the only 3 things that I liked about this movie was the fact that Sigourney Weaver came back to series, and some classic 90s talent like, Winonna Ryder (Edward Scissarhands) and, Brad Dourif (Child's Play) came in to the film...

And the last thing that I liked was that this piece of garbage got the studio's to take the series in a different direction and brought Ridley Scott (Alien) back to direct, Prometheus (2012)... A prequel to the first one... (For those of you who don't know, Ridley Scott was the maestro that helped bring this prolific series to life!)

In the end, if you haven't seen this movie yet, but are a fan of the series, but haven't seen this movie yet... I would say, 'do so'... It is one of the series (but if you are going to expecting the same type of epic that made the first 3 so good... The you maybe disappointed... If you go in to it expecting nothing... Well you never know!)

The Prequel... It's Importance In Movies

Don't get me wrong I mean the original series of movies are always fantastic, and even after decades and (well this is true in horror movies...) But after the first one starts to loose it's relevance to the overall series... But the truth is, is there is an element of both Science Fiction and Horror movies that are great that uptil recently seems to have been ignored in favor of a remake... That is the Prequel!

Now you might be wondering why the prequel is so important... Well in the case of horror movies, the prequel kind of it seems takes the place of remakes real nicely... And well let's be honest, a lot of people would say that horror movie remakes for the most part pretty well suck... Well I would agree with them that there is an inordinate amount of crap out there, but where as not all remakes have the capacity to stand on their own, a lot of prequels (as long as they are done right,) tend to be able to stand on their own!

A great example of this I have recently discovered is, Prometheus (2012)!

Prometheus... A great prequel to an amazing movie series!

Now I will be honest with you guys and say that, Prometheus is not as good as the original Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) vehicle, (The truth is, is they just don't make movies at that caliber anymore...) Never the less, this movie is an absolutely fun time, and helps bring in to focus certain plot hole elements that have periodically surfaced through out the run of the first four movies.

Now let me ask you guys this, if Ridley Scott had decided to remake his classic original movie instead of turning the movie in to an awesome prequel, would, Prometheus have been as good as it turned out to be?

The answer is most definitive no! I can't predict the future, but the truth is, is that there is no actress or actor on the planet right now that could have brought to the character of, 'Ellen Ripley', that Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters), brought to the world (I am not saying this because I am a fan of her work... I am saying this for the same reason that Jackie Earle-Haley just couldn't bring to, 'Freddy Krueger' what Robert Englund (Urban Legends) did!)

Jackie Earle Haley may be a great actor... But when it comes to, 'Freddy Krueger'... Robert Englund will always be the master!

Before I continue on, let me explain what I mean...

If you are a fan of the, 'Nightmare movies' then you have seen all of the original series in which, 'Robert Englund' dominated the role of, 'Freddy Krueger'! A few years ago, instead of doing another sequel, it was decided to do a remake of the first movie, and to bring in, Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) to replace Robert Englund as, 'Freddy Krueger'!

Ultimately that decision proved to be a pretty awful one, considering the fact that the movie was a box office flop, and there not only has not been another Nightmare movie that has come out, but it looks like there is not going to be another to come out any time in the near future!

Ultimately I guess what I am trying to say is this... Prequels in the whole (as long as they are done right), keep to the continuity of the original story line real nicely, and even if they end up loosing the main talent for that movie, over all, story wise it should be a fun experience!

Alien 3 (1992) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"] Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

When I was a kid one of the movie series (at this time there was only 2), that I used to watch with my Dad and sister alot was the Alien movie series... Why you might ask... Well simply, besides the fact that both the first and the sequel were both action packed scare fests, they also both had some truly awesome casts that did an amazing job!

Unfortunately though, as time moved on, we have gotten together less and less to see these movies, and the truth is, is that most of these movies (especially since Sigourney Weaver has left the series), have kind of grown to be pretty bad... I have kind of strayed away from the series... But when all is said and done, this movie that I am about to review, I find to be the first of the movie series to really begin the slow descent in to cheesydom that most franchises seem to go... That movie being, Alien 3 (1992).

Written by: Walter Hill (The Warriors) & David Giler (Fun With Dick And Jane) & Directed by: David Fincher (Fight Club). Starring: Sigourney Weaver (Avatar), Charles S. Dutton (Gothika), Charles Dance (Last Action Hero), Paul McGann (Doctor Who), Brian Glover (An American Werewolf In London), Ralph Brown (Wayne's World 2), Danny Webb (Henry V), Christopher John Fields (Jurassic Park) & Lance Henriksen (The Terminator).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Hopefully Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and this batch of convicts are up to the task of destroying this new Alien threat![/caption]

This movie tells the story of how after the events that happened in, Aliens (1986), The Queen Alien had managed to produce one more offspring that had managed to attach itself to the pods that housed, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Hicks (Michael Biehn), Bishop (Lance Henriksen), & Newt (Carrie Henn).

Well the ship ends up evacuating the crew in an escape vehicle, that ends up crash landing on a Prison planet... Well, Hicks ends up dying from the impact, Newt ends up dying because of becoming an incubator for a new Alien, Bishop becomes un-serviceable, and the only survivor really is, Ripley!

Well in the end, with a new Alien brought to this new planet, it looks like it will be up to Ripley and the Prisoners on this planet, to stop the Alien before the Alien can use them to start a new Alien race!

In the end, this may not be the best of the series, but it certainly is not the worse... And really is the last of the better movies in the series before the slow decent... Well up till Prometheus anyway...

http://youtu.be/9vnjQPcrcZI

Aliens (1986) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_415" align="alignright" width="350"] Official Score = 4 Devils[/caption]

Written by: James Cameron (The Terminator), David Giler (The Money Pit), Walter Hill (The Warriors) & Directed by: James Cameron. Starring: Sigourney Weaver (Avatar), Carrie Henn (Alien Evolution), Paul Reiser (Mad About You), Lance Henriksen (Millennium), Bill Paxton (Twister), Michael Biehn (The Abyss), Jeanette Goldstein (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), William Hope (Captain America: The First Avenger), and Al Matthews (Tomorrow Never Dies).

This movie is an interesting one to me, you see usually sequels tend to not to be as good as the original movie… They usually have overblown special effects, a bigger cast, and an over the top story that seldom is ever as good as the original… This movie to me is not one of those!

You see this movie had a great cast which brought back Sigourney Weaver (who played Ellen Ripley in the first movie) and told the story of how after the hell that she went through on board the Nostromo fighting the first Xenomorph attack, she ends up drifting through space for centuries in the Nostromo’s escape craft’s Hypersleep chamber!

Now when she gets back, she ends up losing her status within, ‘The Company’ when they learn that she is the only one that has survived the attack on the, ‘Nostromo’ and all of her crew is killed by the Xenomorph…

After she loses her status in the company and is relegated to loading freight on to ships that are coming in and out of the company’s space station near Earth, she also ends up finding out what happened to her daughter centuries ago, and ends up falling in to a deep depression… That is of course until Carter Burke (Reiser) pays her a visit…

[caption id="attachment_896" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Carter Bruke (Paul Reiser) and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) not longer after Ripley is rescued from the, 'Nostromo' escape vehicle![/caption]

You see Burke got it arranged to have a colony installed on to LV426 (the planet where Ripley and the Nostromo had originally picked up their Alien passenger that ultimately ended up destroying the Nostromo, it’s crew, and ruining Ripley’s life!)

Now the Colony has stopped communicating with the company back at home and Burke is putting together a team of Colonial Marines (an elite military unit that works with the company) to head to the planet to check on the colony, and since Ripley had been their centuries ago, Burke decided to bring Ripley along as an advisor on the mission… (and despite her better judgment decides to head off with Burke and the Marines…)

In the end, Burke, Ripley and the rest of the Marines will get more then they bargained for when they make it to the planet and Ripley comes face to face again with the Aliens that ruined her life!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Ripley is about to go head to head one more time in, 'Aliens (1986)![/caption]

Now you wouldn't think it, but this movie in my opinion maybe one of the few sequels that are as good (if not better than the original), and I think that is in large part due to the fact that the first two Alien movies were directed by Directors who would later become Science Fiction Masters! (Ridley Scott for Alien (1979), and James Cameron for Aliens (1986)!)

Another thing that I really liked about this movie is the special effects… I mean like most sequels, the special effects are bigger and more splashier… (these are, but they are done really tastefully.)

The cast of course was utterly phenomenal in this (as they are in most of the other movies that I have seen them in…)

And in all truth, the story was awesome! I mean I always love Sci-Fi, but I also love how they put an element of drama and deceit that was all believable and very well done!

In the end, this movie is an amazing good time and if you haven’t seen it yet, then you might give it a try… I think you might really like it!

http://youtu.be/XKSQmYUaIyE

Prometheus (2012) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignright" width="353"] Official Score = 2 Devils[/caption]

In history there has been few confirmed confusingly created movies… A couple of examples of this are as follows:

For many years there had been different attempts to create a great crossover movie between Jason Voorhees (of the, ‘Friday The 13th’ franchise fame) and Freddy Krueger (of the, ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ franchise fame), but it wasn't until New Line released, Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) that we saw the first and only studio sanctioned crossover of two of Hollywood’s greatest villains! (There has been some loose attempts to create Ash from, ‘The Evil Dead’ series as a crossover with both, ‘Jason’ & ‘Michael Myers’, as well as Leatherface mixing it up with some of these guys in print (as a matter of fact I have heard of a script that had been created to have Ash going to war against Jason, but nothing ever came to fruition on that.)

Another great example of this would be Indiana Jones part 4… Before George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws) came out with, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008), there had been many different but unfortunately failed attempts since, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, came out in 1989.

And the next example I have for you is the movie, Prometheus (2012). Now before I go in to this movie let me give you a little background on the series as whole…

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Some of the crew of the, 'Prometheus' as they are investigating the history of humanity on one of the Aliens planets![/caption]

Prometheus is a prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece, ‘Alien’. Now this movie (obviously of course with Ghostbusters as well) helped to catapult Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters) in to legendary status in the horror community (what with having done the first 4 Alien movies (as well as all of the currently released Ghostbuster movies…)

Then oddly enough, the producers or whomever decided to take the series in a whole different direction and had the movie more centralized around the Xenomorphs (the aliens from the, ‘Alien’ movie series) and the Predators from the movie, ‘Predator’ movie series and the war that they seemed to wage against each other in the, ‘Alien Vs. Predator’ movie series!

Fortunately though we were given the opportunity to go back to the classic original series (how the original series connects with the Alien Vs. Predator series… I don’t know, but some times you just have to take the good with the bad and admit that the Alien series is as good now as it was when it was first released over 30 years ago!

As for Prometheus though… This movie (which brought Ridley Scott back to the movie series) and which starred Noomi Rapace (The Girl With Dragon Tattoo), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), Logan Marshall-Green (Devil), Charlize Theron (Monster), Idris Elba (Janek), Guy Pierce (L.A. Confidential), does bring us back to the classic original series… But instead of starting where the original left off, Prometheus, attempts to explain how the story of how the, ‘Xenomorphs’ and humanity actually got in to contact initially with each other…

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The expedition team as they investigate the Alien outpost![/caption]

You see this movie posits the idea that mankind had been genetically engineered by a significantly more advanced race, and when evidence of where these Aliens might be, the Scientists who make the discovery ultimately decide to utilize the aide of Peter Weyland (Pierce) the ailing founder of the eventually dreaded, ‘Company’, ‘Weyland-Yutani Corporation’ (this company would play a major role in some ways for bringing Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) and the Xenomorphs together in the first 2 Alien movies)

Anyway, ultimately once the mission is under way and the crew have made it to the planet that may help to explain humanities origins, they discover a threat that is significantly worse than they could have ever imagined when they discover not only the origins of mankind, but the origins of the Alien species that would go on to make Ripley’s life a living hell centuries later!

Now I really enjoyed this movie (this is one of my favorite movie series), but the reality, is that chronologically you would have to do away with the Alien Vs. Predator movie series for this movie to make sense. Also… This movie does give insight in to where the Xenomorphs came from (just not why the face huggers are so big, and what happened to those little worm Aliens that were so popular in the original Alien series… Also there appears to be little to no correlation as to the Companies knowledge of the first mission (You would think with how the first mission turned out that they would have instructed the, ‘Nostromo’ crew a little better in how to capture the, ‘Xenomorph’ in Ripley’s time.

But I will admit that despite the plot holes in this movie, it is a fun one and if you are a fan of the series, then it is definitely worth owning, and if you are looking for a fun exciting Sci-fi movie to really sink your teeth in to, then this is certainly one of them!

http://youtu.be/sftuxbvGwiU

Alien (1979) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_415" align="alignright" width="300"] Official Score = 4 Devils[/caption]

The Alien series... What can I say about this series? I mean one for one just about every major player in this series' careers have been helped by this series, including Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters), Ridley Scott (Prometheus), Dan O'Bannon (Total Recall), and even Walter Hill (The Warriors) to name a few!

Now as for Alien.... I personally think this movie is fantastic because I found the special effects to be so realistic that the various Aliens that were created for this movie could be what at least some of the Alien life that is out there could be like in real life!

I also found that the writing was fantastic, and the story was great!

I also found that the acting was so realistic that one could almost say... (A look at the future of space travel maybe?)

And that is just a small fraction of what makes, Alien great!

Written by: Dan O'Bannon and Directed by: Ridley Scott. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt (The Rookie), Veronica Cartwright (Invasion Of the Body Snatchers), Harry Dean Stanton (Repo Man), John Hurt (1984), Ian Holm (The Fifth Element), Yaphet Kotto (Freddy's Dead), Bolaji Badejo, Helen Horton (Phase IV), and Eddie Powell (The Oblong Box).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="485"] Some of the crew of the, 'Nostromo' as they are prepping to investigate the, 'Moon' that, 'Mother' sent them to![/caption]

Alien tells the story of how during their ride home, 'Mother' (the name for the computer on the freighter, 'Nostromo'), wakes up the crew from being in hypersleep to investigate a distress signal that she has detected!

So they take their Drop Ship down to investigate this call.

When they arrive on the planet, Captain Dallas (Skerritt) takes a team that includes, Lambert (Cartwright), and Kane (Hurt) to investigate the location of the signal... Now while they are there, Kane is attacked by an Alien that latches itself on to Kane's face!

Now in a hurry, Dallas and Lambert take Kane back to the ship, but Ripley (Weaver), won't let them in until they have gone through quarantine, (at this point both Lambert and Dallas are in a panic to get their shipmate in to the sickbay.)

So their carryon android, 'Ash' (Holm) decides to break quarantine and let Dallas and their team on to the ship!

Now after Dallas and the crew get Kane to the sickbay onboard the mother ship and discover that they can't get the alien off of his face without killing Kane, the Alien comes off by itself!

So Kane and the crew of the ship decide to sit down to a meal before heading back to hypersleep. While they're eating their meal, a new Alien bursts out of Kane's body (killing him). Now the crew of the ship are going to have to capture this Alien, before the Alien begins to feed off the rest of the crew!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="460"] Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) as he is about to meet his end![/caption]

If you guys haven't had a chance to see this movie yet, or if you haven't seen this movie in a while, then this one is more than worth it!

http://youtu.be/LjLamj-b0I8