Never Ask an Alien Queen Her Age: Aliens 27 Years Later
July 18 is the 27th anniversary of Aliens, and it has aged well. Mark Blankenship, editor of TheCriticalCondition.com, tells Snakkle that this sequel is right up there with The Godfather II. Jason Zinoman, author of Shock Value, a new book about scary movies, agrees, telling us that James Cameron "took a brilliant horror film [and] transformed it into a brilliant action film." (He also added an "s" on the end instead of the number 2.) Let's look at why Aliens still scares us—in a good way. By Brett SingerAlthough she returned to the franchise two more times after Aliens, Weaver has taken on roles quite different from Ripley, in films ranging from dramas like The Ice Storm (1997) to comedies like Baby Mama (2008). Blankenship says that she avoided being “typecast as a Ripley-style butt-kicker” because “there just aren’t that many female-driven action movies.” It also helps that she’s, well, talented, bringing “something distinct to each one of her wry and often world-weary characters. She always seems cool, but she never seems cool in the exactly the same way.” Plus she’s a class act all the way: Here she is praising Ridley Scott, the director of Alien, the flick that started it all.