When Aliens Attack ....Or At Least, Go Bad

In this sequel to the non-plural installment of the series, Ripley, believe it or not, is back. And this time, she arms herself with some big guns and with an even bigger attitude of instead of squaring off against just one xenomorph, she's taking on a whole hive full of them. And their momma too.
This movie has everything that I look forward to in a sci-fi adventure. Suspenseful action, solid story, distinct characters (with great chemistry), great visuals, kick-@ss aliens, a turning plot-twist (we all thought for sure, that Bishop couldn't be trusted), and of course, a catch-phrase that made the entire theatre that I saw this movie in to roar ("Get away from her, you b#tch!").

Ridley Scott directs a tale of "in-your-face" first contact, followed by a fatal game of hide and seek between a interstellar search party crew and a xenomorph, just one of what will turn out in following sequels to be a hive-race of double-mouthed acid-blooded slick black visitors who take the role of their hosts quite literally.
Never have the film genres of horror & science fiction been so perfectly blended as in this stylish, dark and damp first entry into the franchise which first introduced what is, IMO, one of the most unique & simply bad-@ss alien life-forms ever produced for film.

The scary thing about this movie is that it's a movie about a scary thing.

Which is basically just what this plot entails.
Some kind of alien thing is going around & merging with whatever lifeform it can get it's tentacle on,
& transforming it into this... uhh... thing.

This film is an excellent example of what can happen when all of the effort of special effects is replaced with maximum effort into the script.
Definitely a thinking man's science fiction film whose intellect sacrifice none of the science nor none of the fiction.
The plot utilizes the fantasy element of the genre to delve intricately into themes of the psyche such as regret, love, pity, self-inflection and even the most monumental of these concepts, the justification of life and death. It does so with enough room to allow the viewer with no other answer other than the store of reflection which he or she carries with them into the film, before and after.
Despite an incrementally moving pace that many of today movie-watchers may at first be uncomfortable with, once you settle into it's richly layered rhythm, Solaris is a great film whose provocation of thought is as richly satisfying as is the grandest world-demolishing visuals of any other more explosive sci-fi extravaganzas.

In the so-called "War Of The Worlds", the aliens in question are not only winning, they are displaying the power to totally wipe us out. I mean, they are completely ripping the planet Earth a new @ss.
But just when it seems like all hope is lost for our defeated species, a savior is revealed. In the form of our bacteria. Looks like these giant tripod riding raiders have an immune system that would make a bubble boy's seem like an iron-clad defense system. Yep. The aliens literally catch their death of a cold.
Turns out that, all the while they were cutting us down with their sophisticated disintegration rays, all we had to do was to sneeze on 'em.
"... aah....
... aah....
... aAH-CHOOO..!!!!!!

Take that, ya blasted Martians!!"
Germ warfare in it's purest form.
"Oh, and if you greenblooded bastards want some more of this,
bring it!
Cuz I feel a fart coming on with all yo' names on it!"

A great classic science fiction horror combo that thrills by channeling it's chills through the use of the fears that we tend to hold most as a general populace. The fear that we and our brethren are not we seem to be.
And rarely does the black and white look of the time capture this cultural sub-genre fear of the unknown and magnify it so that even today, Invasion makes the viewer feel the sparseness of trust that was running amok during this era of red scares and McCarthyisms.
At the time, this movie made you look at your neighbor with a questioning look of " Are you my friend, a Pinko or a pod?"

Cloverfield may not depict any fields of clover in it but it is a movie that gets an extra point just for the surprise factor of how much I ended up enjoying it. I really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I saw this flick with my brother-in-law, and remember that when the lights in the theater came on, we both looked at each with an expression of "Whoa" on our faces.
As an adult, one of my absolute favorite things about going to the movies is when I see a film that brings back those feelings that I used to experience as a kid whenever I saw something that was too fantastic that it was beyond the realm of our realty and yet here I was watching it come to life on the big screen in front of me.
Watching a giant alien monster ragin' through the streets of the Big Apple in a manner of disbelief that at the same time is believable is a pretty good f'rinstance of that experience.

Here's a movie whose tagline is "If they hear you, they'll hunt you". And as anybody who has seen this film knows, it's about a species of hungry aliens that can detect their victims by even the slightest of sounds.
Which means that this scenario would never work in "real" life. The whole of humanity would be extinct within a day of the invasion.
Because from my experiences on this planet, particularly on the internet and social media, a vast majority of you out there really don't know how or when to shut the f#ck up.

Monsters vs. Aliens is a tribute to all those 50's black & white sci-fi horrors flicks, but now in cool 3-D-like computer graphics. And in full color.
The graphics are absolutely top-notch, but some of the sheen has been lost due to the fact that they're also something that I'm sure viewers are pretty much starting to become accustomed to by now. And teen-agers today, let alone the more targeted little kid audience, will barely, if at all, get any of the references made to the Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman, the Creature Of The Black Lagoon and the like.
Now don't get me wrong. I think that MvA comes off with enough of the high quality wit and quips that we expect from this type of picture, but for some movie-goers who didn't grow up with double feature drive-ins and late night creature feature TV shows, it may feel like this science radiated farce, may have come out a fews years too late.

Superman isn't the only Kryptonian to have escaped the destruction of his home planet.
Three equally super-powered criminals of ruthless intent have escaped their prison of the Phantom Zone and have made their way towards the star, Sol, and her third orbiting planet (us).
And unless the Man Of Steel can stop them,
the entire planet may find itself kneeling before Zod.

During the height of McCarthyism and the Red Scare,
comes yet another science fiction film taking advantage of the fear inducing attitude scoring across the country at this time.
A big red mass that keeps getting bigger and bigger, terrorizes a small American town, swallowing up innocent denizens of democracy.....
get the symbolism?
Or is that stretching a metaphor farther than what an extended slimy flesh-disintegrating tentacle can reach?

 After A Quiet Place made a lot of noise back in 2018, studio execs quickly commissioned John Krasinki , who wrote, directed and starred in the first one, to write, direct and star in a sequel.
  And he did (although, because of the fate his character suffered in the first one, the "starring" part was limited to a short prequel scene at the beginning). However, as a result of the CoVid Pandemic, the movie theater market ended up being the only quiet place of 2020, forcing the film company to delay the release of the sequel for over a year. Finally released in the summer season of 2021, Part 2 reignited the socially distanced cinema scene and put asses in the seats again (although, preferably with two or three spaces in between 'em).

Loki, the God of Mischief, arranges the worldwide conquest of the Earth. Because he's a cosmically powered supervillain, & that's basically the goal of most cosmically powered supervillains. His latest scheme of global domination involves the use the Cosmic Cube and, luckily for the purposes of this list, a vast army of extra-dimensional aliens.
And the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
As usual.
"Avengers Assemble!!"

A group of English gang-bangers find themselves trying to protect their turf against a buncha hairy ape-like aliens who seem to be brushing their teeth with the uber-maximum whitening power of Gleem.

While this movie started out with the name "Edge Of Tomorrow', since its release both in DVD and streaming forms, it's been advertised more as "Live. Die. Repeat".
That's because the story for this time-loop epic is basically just same thing as Groundhog Day.
Except, instead of Bill Murray, it stars Tom Cruise as the lead.
And instead of Andie McDowell as the romantic interest, it's Emily Blunt.
And instead of Chris Elliot as the supporting role, it's Bill Paxton.
And instead of taking place on Groundhog Day, it takes place on "Judgment Day".
And instead of a romantic comedy, the movie is an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller.
But other than that, it's just basically the same thing.

How does one gain the World Championship title belt of Total Badassery? Come from another planet, in full tilt sophisticated battle-gear & then proceed to kick the combined @sses of ""the Terminator", Apollo Creed", Jesse "The Body" Ventura & that one guy who played one of the corrupt cops in Payback. (Not to mention, in following sequels, take on another alien franchise).

Love knows no bounds.
Even in the midst of an intergalactic war with a buncha Martians (in this case, they are particular type of Martian known as "Tarsians"),
this movie shows that as long as you've got a cell phone, a good distance carrier & a hell of alot patience,
long distance relationships can work.

And as most of us who've been stuck in a short distance relationship for awhile know,
sometimes, the idea of flyin' around in space in cool manga tech-gear and battling a buncha aliens, light years away from Earth, sounds alot like heaven.

The story of this 2005 remake is one that doesn't seem to come off as intriguing as the original, it has a few plot-points that don't make too much sense (especially in the world of modern world of science fiction) and it has a weird scene with Tim Robbins that just seems totally out of place with the entire feel of the film.
However, it is still a Steven Spielberg production starring Tom Cruise. Therefore, despite certain shortcomings, the plot was written with a few interesting updates on certain elements of the H.G. Wells' classic, and of course, the high production values that usually come attached with Spielberg's name do provide for some really cool special effects and over-all visuals that make this war between worlds one worth watching.

   Take a classic cartoon about a bunch a large robots from outer space that change into a bunch a cool vehicles that raised the testosterone level to the point that little boys became little "guys",
mix in a healthy batch of modern day hard driving live action peppered in with a few swear words and gritty gun play,
and top it all off with the absolutely and ridiculously hot Megan Fox,
and there you have it.
  A big ol' dumb summer super-mega-blockbuster incorporating all the things that can easily make the males of our species grunt with ultimate ball-quivering delight.

Okay,
so at first,
in District 9, the aliens aren't so bad.
A bit messy, a bit dumb, but not so bad.
But as always, we humans have to push it.
And even to a bunch of generally benevolent giant cockroaches,
we find out that every one, no matter what galaxy they may have spawned from, has their limits.

  Late in the future 2300's, some super-powerful alien force is looking for the now extinct whales, and it's approach towards Earth is likely to destroy the entire planet.
Therefore, the time-traveling Trekkers must save the whales in order to save the whole future of the galaxy.
On top of that, Chekov gets saved from the barbaric medical system of our time, Scotty "invents" a plexiglass, and, as always, Kirk gets the girl.
  Now, I confess, I've never been much of a Trekky, but I gotta admit this is a pretty great story that is brimming with a lot of fun energy, and, for my money, the best of the entire ST franchise series. I found the interaction between the crew members in this film as the most integrated of all the "old" generation series. You can really get a sense of family that this group of people (whom we've come to know after so many years) have grown into.

We Earthlings did it to the American Natives, we did it to the Australian Aborigines & in the not-so-distant future, we tried to do it to the alien populace of Pandora.
Only to find out that, despite not having any weapons, what these blue-skinned giants do have on their side is Mother Nature.
And as dictated by that one universal law that applies everywhere,
no matter what planet you're on,
you don't mess with Mother Nature.

A movie about a big giant glob of pink snot that only gets bigger and bigger as the storyline progresses.
Could somebody hand me over a city-sized piece of tissue, please?

After watching this reboot of the original crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, it becomes obvious that space is no final frontier,
time travel is.
And "reboot" is a loose use of the term in that Kirk, Spock and all the rest of the gang are not so much back, as much as they are introduced. And yet, this storyline is still a continuation of the "current continuity" of the Star Trek franchise, just that, in this episode, it has branched off into.... well...
to try & explain it any further would require spoilers.
Anyways, this newest manifestation of the "old" crew comes off as fresh and invigorated, with sets that look detailed yet stylish, the special effects are typically awesome (as is it is always expected in this genre), the starship battles kick ass and the plot's purpose doesn't stray too far off from what made this film series popular to begin with.

So, while fans of Star Wars grumble all over the internet and at sci-fi cons of how low their beloved franchise has fallen,
with this latest chapter, Trek fans, old and new, have been given A New Hope for a future filled with the possibilty that, as Trekkies, they will truly be able to live long and prosper*.



* Oh, come on...! You knew that phrase had to come along eventually.

  Here's a sci-fi horror movie that purposely strays away from the formula but still makes the effort to delve deeply into the kinds of themes that the science fiction genre prided itself on in it's inception.  A mysterious meteorite that crashed to Earth several years ago has created an area around it's impact site know as "The Shimmer" zone.   A group of female scientists are recruited to go in and investigate after the first military expedition failed to return.  
Once within, they discover a mutated form of wildlife and fauna, and that the entire  environment itself is slowing changing and expanding as such. 
  Annihilation takes a few risks in it's presentation of it underlying meaning and while it sometimes feels like it may have needed to marinate in it's own brand of mutation in order to leave it' own mark on the genre, it's still manages to come off a beacon of light for future depictions of sci-fi stories that are told in the dark.

As the old adage paraphrasingly goes,
talking to strangers is never a good thing.
And even worse,
letting 'em take over the planet & trying to control over all reality is even worse.
Particularly when they're a buncha endangered parasitical pyrokinetic extraterrestrials, whose only hope for survival are the souls of their human hosts.

  Once again, science fiction meets horror in this tale of other-worldly bug-eyed beasties and beastly bugs entering our world via a mysterious mist that, as the lead characters soon find out, is probably not the result of any natural weather pattern known on this planet.

Not as good as the 1972 version (but let's be honest here, despite Steven Soderbergh being at the helm, this version stood almost no chance of replicating the masterpiece status that is Tarkovsky's) but still a solid & more streamlined remake that effectively modernizes the theme of it's original.

Multiple stories all connected by the Loc-Nar.
You guys know what a Loc-Nar is, right?
It's a green glowing orb from outer space.
And it's basically an alien life-force that is made up of "The sum of all evils."
So y'know.... that kinda pretty much explains why this movie is being included on this list.

Michelle is just a typical gal who tends to runs away from relationships whenever they hit a bumpy road. And during one of these runaways, the bumpy road ends up being the one she's driving on as it leads to a car accident serious enough to knock her out. When she wakes, Michelle finds herself trapped in a bunker, with it's maker and another bunkee. According to her host, while she was out, the world has gone apocalyptic and her only chance for survival is an extended stay underground.
But is it the outside world that has come to an end, or is it her host's sanity?

The aliens have landed!
And in L.A., it's gonna take more than Proposition 187 to keep 'em from taking over the City Of Angels.

An alien that's smart enough to realize that if it wants to infiltrate into the society of this big blue marble that we call Earth, that it must remain hidden.
A la the title of this semi-classic 80's sci-fi flick

      Back in the mid 70’s, Jaws splashed into the record books of box office returns and started the craze of summer blockbusters. Since then, many of Hollywood’s creative force have dipped their toe into the pool of fathom fraught fear and released several films that delved deep into the uncharted depths of this particular sub genre of horror. 

As a fan of the first Godzilla flicks, I used to watch those old Kaiju movies as a kid with the anticipation that one day the technology of special effects would catch up to grandness of giant monsters & robots duking it out in the midst of ill-fated Tokyo downtown districts.
And even though, because of modern movie audience's shrinking ability to suspend their belief for this kind of stretched out subject matter, it took longer than I would have liked, Pacific Rim finally came along and sated that almost life-long anticipation.

After "donning" the features and identity of an Earth woman, s female human looking alien stalks the night in a van, picking up male prey in order to seduce them back her apartment/black void of ebonic liquid. How this benefits her or her race is left to the viewer. Because, as you might have guessed, this is a surrealist sci-fi horror movie whose primary purpose is not to tell the traditional linear tale of high tech terror, but to induce a foggy feeling of dark creepiness, who's vague narractive will leave you with the kind of lasting, ebonic etheral effect that tends to lurk under the skin.
Not for general consupmtion, this is one of those rare cinematic abstractions that comes along every couple of years to remind the more finicky of film fans that there is more out there in the world of horror and sci-fi flix than the typical big budgeted so-and so.

How do you get a former priest whose lost his faith to "open his eyes" & believe again?
Try sending down an alien or two to start forming big ol' circles in his crops.
I really liked the theme of a man-of-faith who has lost his faith that provided the personality conflict of the main character.
And, IMO, the first part of this flick almost matched The Sixth Sense in terms of building up the creep factor.
However, once the guilt-ridden veterinarian (played by M. Knight) announced that he had an alien in his kitchen, & then just drove off (...uhmnnn...whut....?),
it kinda began showing "signs" of the kind of rushed, crumbling logic that we could expect to dominate Shyamalan's future films.
Still, in the end, for me, the majority of this movie make for an over-all solid down-to-Earth alien thriller.
Not to mention, that it's always cool to see Joaquin Phoenix in a role that depicts him as a normal person, as opposed to the alien life-form that he has since become. Nowadays, he's seems more frightening than the extra-terrestrials of this or any other sci-fi-horror film.

The closing chapter to the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (although, to be quite honest, at first I thought that the 2011 sci-fi flick Paul was the final story since it also features the Pegg & Frost coupling and also because Paul fits perfectly with the theme comedic homage to various movie genres that seems to be the whole purpose of the trilogy).
And to be quite honest,
when I first heard that this was the name given to this three film set, my first thought was "What the hell is a 'cornetto?'".
So, utilizing the power at my fingertips, I googled it.
Turns out that cornetto is either a 16th century woodwind instrument or a brand of ice cream.
To which, with the bullet quick speed of my wit, I instantly realized that it was probably being used in reference to the ice cream in this particular instance.
So as a result, because of these movies,
if the world were to end right now, not only would I die a little bit smarter,
but also, I'd die with a cravenous desire for a frozen treat.

They say what you don't know can't hurt you.
And in this movie, this applies to idea of aliens as well.
Extra-terrestrials have not only touched down to Earth, they are living amongst us and have been doing so for quite some time. So, how did we get by for so long without knowing?
The MIB, a secret organization that makes sure that unidentified flying objects remain unidentified and that extra-terrestrials remain "extra" (I hope that mkaes sense...).
And it's not a conspiracy, it's for you're own good.
These black suited, dark sunglassed agents know that if any of us average joes were aware of the fact that we had been being visited for years now, it would be too much information for us to handle.
In short, to save from us being taken away by the men in white, we need the Men In Black.
We just don't know it.



Heck, a being from another planet could be writing these very words that you are reading right now.

For the purposes of this list, we might as well include the 1993 remake Body Snatchers with this 1976 version.
Along with 2007's Invasion starring Nicole Kidman.
And any other future sub-standard remakes from the idea-deprived Hollywood machine decides to crank out.

  When the first V/H/S came out, I SO wanted to like it. Since horror is one of my favorite movie genres, it always saddens me that there is so much more crap than quality. On top of that, I LOVE the anthology format, particulary when it comes to this genre, since I think horror fits better with it than any other genre. And finally, as much criticism as the found footage got back during the early 2000's, I was a big supporter of it. Anything style of filmshooting that comes along and provides another option to making movies is always a plus in my eyes. 

  As anyone reading can probably tell by now, the first V/H/S was a disappointment for me.  As a result, I didn't really pay much attention when the sequel was released. However, as word of mouth spread on the internet that it was better than it's predecessor, I eventually decided to it a looksee.



  And after watching it, I can say yes, V/H/s 2 does comes much closer from what I wanted from the original. 

  What can you consider a Vegan to be a vegan and a carnivore at the same time?
  When it's a giant flesh-craving Venus Flytrap from another planet.



  A little shop that demonstrates that in order to properly take care of a house plant from outer space,
one need simply add water, potting soil and lots of sunshine.
  Not to mention, a carcass or two.

For the first time ever, Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Kumonga, Manda, Baragon, and Varan, all together in one movie, kicking all sorts of ass with their big, floppy rubber feet (or any other appendages of like-minded floppy purposes).
And it's all because of those stupid aliens!
This is the original Monsters Versus Aliens epic,
not to mention, the battle royale of all battle royales! With cheese!
Run for your lives!!!!

A dark film with a plot that literally isn't all sunshine.
A group of space-farers find their intergalactic journey interrupted when they are marooned on a planet of almost perpetual daylight, with the exception of the periodical cycles of ecliptical darkness.
And during these few shifts of nightfall,
the major form of alien life are hordes of flying meat-eating whatchamacallits.
And to these nocturnal beasties, humans make a pretty tasty midnight snack.

Despite what seems like a direct movie title,
this is actually more of a love story with a backdrop of giant alien monsters, of which we probably don't see enough of.
I gotta give credit to this movie for trying to do something different by intermingling a romance "road trip" plot within the setting of a War of the Worlds type premise, without getting too many of the tentacles all tangled up.
A journey through a world in the process of alien invasion, it's a tuetonic tale that borders on far reaching aspirations of using it's "monsters" as a metaphoric device to help two people from different worlds find love. For my tastes though, I think I would've preferred seeing the makers of this movie make the matters of the heart material go more major in it's proportions. Still, in the end, it was worth seeing such a serious effort by all involved, including the actors, putting in the effort required to push a "little love story" to go a bit bigger.

Here's a movie that is also known as the "The McPherson Tape" but was originally planned to be called "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner", until they found out that that title had already been taken.
A Thanksgiving family get-together gets interrupted by big-eyed visitors from, well... I'm sure most of you know by now where this is going.



Upon deeper reflection of this film's holiday theme, I think that the story here might be an allegory of what happened to the Native Americans after they had the Pilgrims (i.e. White man) over for a turkey dinner. The McPherson family is supposed to represent the Natives and the aliens, the white man.
But I'm not sure.
I may have just made that up to sound allegorically astute for this post.

Anyone familiar with the history of space exploration knows that Sputnik was the very first man made object that was placed in Earth's orbit. Built and set off to space by the Russians, and , it was symbol of mankind's lofty aspirations to fly outside of the planet's atmosphere and beyond, despite the Cold War rivalry of the great space race. Sputnik's only function was to circle the globe and send continual beeping transmissions down to Earth. It was a harmless piece of machinery that in the end, demonstrated that when it came to ingenuity of humankind, the sky was truly the limit.
Sputnik the movie, was also created by the Russians, in 2020, long after the thaw of the Cold War. But in this film, the "Sputnik" in question is an alien with parasitic tendencies and a taste for human flesh. And with it's ability to control it's host to meet it's appetital demands in a rather macbre version of "how to serve mankind", this Anti-Sputnik shows that it when it comes to human race acting as an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, this orbital nasty is much more of a symbolpc statemants that says that what's down here on the ground is what truly is the limit.

Over at the SETI Institute, they've been scouring the skies for years, in search of any signs of communique from extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI by the way stands for search for extraterrestial intelligence). However, what they don't realize is that the extraterrestrials have already arrived. Not only do they walk among us, but they've have already begun the process which will terraform our planet into a more suitable environment for their kind of physiology.
And the only person who knows of their plan is Charlie Sheen.
But does he have the right amount of tiger's blood in him that's required in order to stop them?
Watch this movie and find out.

  Even when they're dead, aliens can still become a marauding, world conquering nuisance by hanging around as hordes of a massive spirited phantom plague that can kill you by by sucking out the Mother Nature inside of you (and how's that for a theme for a sci-fi horror flick disguised as a video game film?).



    I’ll be honest here, I really don’t play that many video games. And out of the very few that I do, none of ‘em are Final Fantasy. So I’m one of the few people on this planet that doesn’t know what it’s about. The only thing that I do know is that whatever the premise of the video game is, it’s nothing like what the ploy of this movie is about. 

 Despite the fact that Independece Day is a holiday that is most often associated with the U.S. of A. celebrating its freedom on the Fourth of July, it is an event that becomes global when almost the entire planet of Earth gets blown up.
  That is the moment when the entire populace of this Big Blue Marble decides to come together as a species, roll up our sleeves,and then go off to, in the immortal words of the Fresh Prince, "kick E.T.'s ass".

If I can be honest, despite its status as a cult favorite, I didn't find Starship Troopers  to be all that great, in it's story or just as a movie over-all.
But what it does have going for it are a kick-ass looking alien race of giant insectoids and some pretty decent CGI enhanced battle scenes (not to mention the dramatic debut of the ultra-fine Denise Richards).
This is definitely what you'd call a beer and popcorn movie.
Preferably more beer than popcorn.