ALIEN (1979) **1/2 It turns out that in the future, problems with defense contractors only get worse and computers still won't compute anything of consequence when you need them to. Out of a host of actors who will go on to be respected and recognized (Sigourney Weaver, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt), if not matinee idols, only Tom Skerritt (evidently as a poor man's Kris Kristofferson, boy did he show us!) stands out as particularly dramatically inclined. No one's bad though, and perhaps there aren't many character-developing activities to be done when the goal is to lull the audience and show off the spaceship. Ridley Scott boils his eggs slowly and the incredible sets help maintain an admirable but not oppressive (instead, alien!) level of suspense. The space creatures may strike us as humorous now, almost more akin to '50s B-movies than The Matrix, but they were realistic and terrifying all those years ago. Most intense when nothing much is going on, because you know it will; suffers a bit down the stretch when Sigourney starts wandering around in military-issue underwear and making strange faces.
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