July 20, 2021
As kids, my brother and I had a penchant for wrapping our plastic weapons together with duct tape and tip toeing through our home in search of extra-terrestrial life. “Check those corners,” I would say while clasping my Nerf gun turned pulse rifle, which was attached to a yellow and green Super Soaker turned grenade launcher. At some point, one of us would yell, “Contact!” before leaping about the floor and blasting imaginary Xenomorphs to smithereens. Inevitably, one of us would always get sprayed by acid and (oddly enough) morph into the Alien
King.
Yeah, it didn’t make much sense then, either, but when your 11-year old life revolves around James Cameron’s 1986 masterpiece
In space, no one has time for sentimentality.
Twentieth Century Fox
Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema’s best roles. In this entry, we examine Sigourney Weaver’s Academy Award-nominated performance as Ellen Ripley in Aliens.
The blockbuster action movies of the 1980s were built on excess, best personified in a moment in the Arnold Schwarzenegger hit
Commando (1985). When his character, John Matrix, prepares to storm the island compound of an ex-South American dictator, there is a prolonged suit-up scene where he slings gun after gun over his shoulders, loading up his chest with enough grenades and ammo to take down the small army he’s about to face. It plays more like visual hype-up music, getting the audience stoked for the ensuing battle, rather than a moment for the audience to see Arnie’s commando mentally and emotio