Aliens: O Recontro Final

[Aliens] is a spectacular example of state-of-the-art science fiction simply because it never tries to be overtly spectacular.

Count me out of the fan club for this one.

Scene to scene, encounter to encounter, its tension builds unrelentingly. So, fasten your seat belts. It`s a blast.

The Director's Cut of the film hauntingly amplifies Ripley's disconnect from her dead daughter and her relationship to the young Newt.

The whole finale is white-knuckled, some of the best aciton and suspense film-making I've ever seen.

Sigourney Weaver is merely terrific... When she straps on her armament to do battle with the aliens, she makes Sylvester Stallone look like a pipsqueak.

Beyond dispute, however, is the film's timeless worth as a cathartic work, especially in terms of its accidentally commentary on the sexism of the corporate structure.

It's blaster action, not Gothic future-horror. Fortunately, director-screenwriter James Cameron has shaped his film around the defiant intelligence and sensual athleticism of Weaver, and that's where Aliens works best.

This film is also the best monster movie of the year and the best picture of any kind to open so far this summer. Put it another way: Aliens is the Jaws of the '80s.

So much for the theory that sequels never equal the original.

Action thrillers assail but rarely test us; this is the tautest, most provoking, and altogether most draining example ever made.

The trouble Ripley has found this time is exponentially bigger and scarier than anything she encountered in Ridley Scott's memorably minimalist, eerily elegant 1979 film.

One sequel that surpasses the original.

Aliens ends up as a wild and woolly roller-coaster ride of a movie which should attract anxious crowds of thrill fans as it cuts a swath through theaters from here to Alpha Centauri.

A flaming, flashing, crashing, crackling blow-'em-up show that keeps you popping from your seat despite your better instincts and the basically conventional scare tactics.

A non-stop action fest.

Makes up for lack of surprise with sheer volume of thrills and chills.

When it comes to the logical marriage of action, adventure, and science fiction, few films are as effective or accomplished as Aliens.

"Absolutely smashing!"

The ads for Aliens claim that this movie will frighten you as few movies have, and, for once, the ads don't lie.