Aliens (1986)

The survivor (Sigourney Weaver) of a cargo ship is discovered by a salvage crew after drifting for 57 years in hibernation in space. The authorities disbelieve her story of an alien creature who killed her crew and necessitating her blowing up the multi million dollar spaceship. But when contact is suddenly lost with a colony of settlers now living on the moon where the alien eggs were first discovered, she is asked to accompany a crew of Marines to investigate. Written and directed by James Cameron, this was the first sequel to the classic 1979 Ridley Scott film. I know a lot of people who love it as much (if not more) as the first entry but while I greatly enjoy it, it's my least favorite of the four ALIEN films. On the plus side, there's a wonderful central Oscar nominated performance by Sigourney Weaver who brings a gravitas and emotional core to the film. Unfortunately, none of the other actors are her equal. Indeed, Cameron's dialogue is pretty bad. He gets a few comic zingers in but most of it is flat. Whereas the 1979 ALIEN was an intense piece of horror that grabbed you and twisted you into knots (when I first saw it theatrically it literally took 5 minutes before I was calm enough to start my car), ALIENS is essentially a WWII movie in outer space with a bunch of Marine grunts spouting cliched dialogue. Some of the action pieces are spectacular and the final battle between Weaver and the alien queen is a dilly and you won't be bored. With Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton (who's awful), Carrie Henn, Lance Henricksen and Jenette Goldstein.