#49: Alien

When considering the science fiction genre or movies about outer space in general, you have to consider a few classics- 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Alien. All three of these films had an impact on the way in which we viewed outer space. In 2001 took a more realistic approach and concerned itself with technology going haywire, Star Wars is more fun, fantasy, and imaginative than realistic, and Alien is just plain horrifying.

The now-legendary Ridley Scott, who at the time only had one major motion picture and a few TV episodes under his belt, directed this space adventure about the crew of a mining ship that investigates an SOS coming from a nearby planet. Once on the surface of the planet, the crew soon discovers a mysterious species. Some of the crew is interested in the study of this new creature, but others sense danger surrounding this new-found alien. Basically, Alien takes the “what-if” question that science fiction is based on and uses it to tell a terrifying story that, if one day we do find life on another planet, could very well come true. The heroine of the crew, Ripley, is played wonderfully by Sigourney Weaver. I doubt that anyone could play her character any better. She is a hard-nosed woman that means business and isn’t interested in studying the alien and its unique physical characteristics while the crew is in potentially mortal danger. Ian Holm, of Lord of the Rings (Bilbo) fame, also turns in a great performance as the scientist on-board the ship that goes by the name of Ash. He and Ripley don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on what to do with the alien.

What I really enjoyed about the movie is that it creates tension from different directions; that of the alien versus the crew and that of Ash versus Ripley, and does both so well. The scenes between the alien and the crew are suspenseful and frightening despite the film being 30 years old, and unlike The Terminator (1984), climactic scenes are not spoiled by dated special effects. As far as style goes, I loved the fact that the crew of this spaceship is not some over-stylized, ultra-futuristic crew that knows everything and can do anything. All of them are just blue-collar types doing the jobs they were hired to do when this crisis came to them. This adds a different dimension to the film that wouldn’t be there had this been a spacecraft armed to the teeth with space-age weaponry and high tech gadgets. It brings the terror the film delivers to a different level since the crew doesn’t know what is going on and is relatively un-armed and completely out-matched against an advanced alien race. There is a certain feeling of doom surrounding the crew after their first encounter, which only escalates as the movie progresses.

Overall, I have to say that Alien has to be one of the best sci-fi and horror movies of all time. The acting is good, the story compelling, effects are top notch, suspense extreme, the execution is nearly flawless, and that tagline is infamous.
In Space No One Can Hear You Scream – 8/10

#81: Rebecca

Let me just start off by saying that I am a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock. I love his classic films like Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, Rear Window, and some of his lesser-known films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much and Strangers on a Train. As far as the Top 250 goes, he is the most decorated director and yet he never won an Oscar for his efforts. I hope to one day own all of his films, but for now I’ll just settle for watching them. One of his movies I hadn’t watched in a very long time is Rebecca, which I fortunately recorded via DVR when it came on TCM a few weeks ago.

Unlike some of Hitch’s other films, Rebecca is much more dramatic, relationship- oriented, and dialog-based. It’s more of a psychological thriller than it is a “wrong man” thriller as so many of Hitchcock’s movies are. This doesn’t mean it isn’t excellent, however. Hitchcock injects his trademark suspense into this story based on Daphne Du Maurier’s novel of the same name.

The story follows a woman played by the beautiful Joan Fontaine, who interestingly is not given a name either in the book or the movie, who falls in love with a wealthy upper class widower named Maxim de Winter (played by Laurence Olivier). As their relationship becomes more involved, Joan finds out that Maxim has never truly gotten over his exotic and popular former wife Rebecca, who was very well-received and loved by the upper-class community. As Joan struggles to fit into her new surroundings and the upper class society, Maxim’s behavior becomes more suspicious. Is Maxim hiding something? Will the absurd expectations surrounding Maxim’s new love drive her to insanity? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.

One of the highlights of the movie is the head maid of the de Winter manor, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). She was the former personal assistant to Rebecca, who continually compares Maxim’s new love to his old one. Hitchcock uses her character to provide a spooky undertone to all her scenes and quietly become a thorn in Joan’s side throughout the film. This is one of Hitchcock’s better qualities; to create suspense and tension out of conflict between characters. The result is that the audience cares about Joan Fontaine’s character and comes to loathe Mrs. Danvers.
Most of the scenes in the movie are pretty tame by Hitchcock standards. The camera work is typical of the drama genre and there’s nothing too exciting or ground-breaking here, since there isn’t really any action. There’s nothing of Rear Window, Psycho, or North by Northwest caliber anyway.

Overall, I have to say that this film surprised me. I was expecting a lot out of this movie, but I did have some reservations. The plot doesn’t sound all that interesting and the pacing is fairly slow thanks to the fast-paced dialog, it is a drama after all. That having been said, I still found Rebecca to be a good change of pace from other Hitchcock films, such as North by Northwest. Like most of his films, he manages to wrap it up in his typical fashion. It is a little slow at times and there is lot of dialog, so you need to pay attention, but it is the entertaining and witty dialog that carries the characters and makes this film enjoyable. If you’re not expecting an action-packed movie and you enjoy older films, especially of the drama variety, there is a whole lot to like here. Rebecca is deserving of a spot in the Top 250. 8/10

Idiocracy

I wasn't expecting anything brilliant when I watched Idiocracy, but I was hoping for something at least a little clever and interesting. The plot gave me some hope; a story about the future, time travel, and the decay of society sounds like a promising sci-fi premise, which I almost always enjoy. Add on top of it that an average Joe of present-day is, in the future, the most intelligent man on earth and there are comedic opportunities aplenty. Not to mention, it’s directed by Mike Judge, a man who brought King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead, and Office Space into the world. The man knows his comedy.
Unfortunately, Idiocracy never lives up to its potential. There is so much that goes wrong here that it is hard to put it into words. The word “disappointing” fits, so I'll use that.

Where Idiocracy really disappoints is in the style of comedy. Fart jokes and stupid sexual innuendo abound in this movie, along with plenty of dirty words and dumb situations. I think I understand what Mike Judge was shooting for here; that the future is stupid. The tricky part is the message he’s trying to convey; that this is where we are headed as a society and if you laugh at this stuff you are no better than the stupid people of the future. Now, I realize that this is looking really deep into this seemingly simple movie, but I do think this is what Judge was doing. So, in the “smart” people’s minds there will be two kinds of viewers of this movie; those who get it (and love the social statement) and those who don’t and are stupid for enjoying it for the fart jokes.
Well, the smart people would be wrong. I’ve got a third opinion; that the movie stinks. I understand the social statement, but it doesn’t matter. The plot is simple and too drawn out just to show how stupid people are in the future. As the viewer, you see society is dumbed-down immediately after Joe’s time-travel. We don’t need to see how stupid they are for an hour, we know. The problem is that if the situations were funnier, it would be enjoyable. For example, there is one scene at a hospital where Joe goes to find out if he has any side effects from the time-travel. This segment is hilarious and easily the best part of the movie, it has awkward situations with the stupid people, but it still manages to be funny.

The movie isn’t all bad. Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph are fine as comedic actors (although Dax Shepard is not) and some of the visuals in the movie are good, such as the Costco and Carl’s Jr. scenes.
In the end, this movie can’t live up to a TV series with a similar premise: Futurama. That may not be a fair comparison, but I’m making it. Both have the frozen time-travel going for them, the simple-minded hero, the love interest, and trying to understand the future. It’s just that one of them does it a whole lot better.
5/10

#42: Slumdog Millionaire

My first foray into IMDb’s Top 250 is (drum roll, please): #42 on the list, Slumdog Millionaire. It is one of the newest additions to the list, having been released in 2008, and is the latest winner of the Best Picture Oscar. This was a surprise to me, since the typical award winners and nominees over the past few years all seem to have agendas; Brokeback Mountain, that movie about the transsexual, and Crash to name a few, which are all kind of preachy, politically correct dribble to put it bluntly.

Slumdog Millionaire is none of those unkind words, however. It is a stylistic, dramatic, tragic, happy, and very likable love story about a couple of poor young boys and a girl in the slums of India trying to get by. The storytelling and pacing of this film make it enjoyable to watch. The story begins with our heroes and heroine as young kids, which is told in a series of flashbacks in the mind of the main character, Jamal. After a while the picture becomes clearer as to where our hero is in the present time. He is being questioned by the chief of police after being accused of cheating on the TV show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I won’t give away any more of the story so as not to spoil anything, but the paths that the three characters take in their respective lives is a great part of the story. You really do get to care about the characters, which I feel is one of the most important parts of making a truly enjoyable motion picture.

Slumdog’s presentation caught me a little off-guard. It is very stylish and slick, with interesting filters and other camera effects that really help to bring out some of the colors in some scenes and set the mood for the shot, which brings me to particular point of interest about this film. The beginning of the film is cute and funny, with little Indian children running around causing mischief. As the film progresses, however, the mood swings to a kind of gritty, sometimes violent, and real-world approach. I really liked this about the movie. As in real life, there are good times and bad; sometimes the good comes out of the bad, sometimes vice versa. Having the story progress along this path is an interesting choice and I feel as if it succeeds in both tickling the funny bone and tugging at the heart stings.

That’s why I think audiences enjoyed this movie so much, because it delivers the whole package. You get the rags to (possibly) riches story of our heroes, the love story between a couple of characters, the cute kids story, and the real world drama story. There is something here for everyone and it is all done so well. If I had to choice one word to describe it I would have to choose “enjoyable”, because that’s what it is. Well done Hollywood, you finally picked a good Best Picture. 8/10