4/4  A Sequel that out shines the original!!
The first film was impressive, scary, and had my heart racing with adrenaline. This film carries the same intensity as its prequel, but this film broadens with not only its spookiness, but also with its amazing grandeur of of a new leap in... (read full)

4/4  Aliens
Yes this is one of the best sequels around but is it better than the first movie? It is, and it isn't. Frankly its not fair to compare. Alien was a horror film, this one is an action film. But what glorious action. Its loud, its butch, its... (read full)

4/4  Better than Alien.
This is a spellbinding, jaw-dropping epic of a movie masterpiece that pulls off the rarest of feats -- it actually tops its predecessor, the inimitable "Alien", even going so far as to make it look the slightest bit campy and predictable b... (read full)

4/4  95%
Action: 3/3 + Comedy: 1.5/2 + Good vs Evil: 1/1 + Love/Sex: 1/1 + Special Effects: 1/1 + Plot: 1/1 + Music: 1/1 = 9.5/10 or 95%.

Alien held the deck of cards for archetypical fears embodied in a mysterious, brooding enemy. Add to that t... (read full)

4/4  A Perfect Sequel
Aliens, the 1986 sequel to Alien, is one of the greatest science fiction and action movies of all time. It is thought by many that Aliens is one of those rare films that surpasses it’s brilliant original in quality. While I certainly agree... (read full)

3/4  Riply's Boomstick is Bigger than Yours
Riply takes control of the big guns, protecting her marine boyfriend from the Alien Menace, and becoming one of the first genuine female action heroes. Meanwhile, the series continues its exploration of the politcs of pregnacy and motherh... (read full)

4/4  Aliens Quick Review
What a breathtaking sequel to such a science-fiction classic. Sigourney Weaver delivers such a riveting and powerful performance as Ellen Ripley and James Cameron...well he is in one word; awesome.

4/4  Aliens Quick Review
Maybe the most exciting movie ever made. And all Call of Duty 4 fans (including myself) need to thank James Cameron. Without this movie, that game doesn't exist.

3/4  Aliens Quick Review
Ah, much better than Alien.

4/4  Aliens Quick Review
It's a rare occurance when a sequel is as good as the original, even more rare when the sequel is better. Aliens bucks the trend by not only being as scary good as the original, it raises the bar a notch. Watch and be amazed.

4/4  Aliens Quick Review
The best of all the Alien movies! This one has great plot, great scenes and all the right makings for a sequel....err..wait...

5/5 Every Bit As Good As The Original
  by D. Mikels (Skunk Holler)
Let's just get it out in the open: Sequels, generally speaking, suck. They're contrived, redundant, unimaginative, and pitiful--mere superficial shells of the films that spawned them. However, there are exceptions to this incontrovertible, and ALIENS is one of them. This James Cameron (and who is more fitting to follow Ridley Scott in this sci-fi/horror series?) techno thriller is every bit as gruesome good as its predecessor; and because we have aliens (as in plural) almost jumping out of the hulls and hatches Cameron has more super gore to work with. Yeah, this is one fun flick.

We are re-introduced to Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who, at fiftsomething years later (she's been sleeping in a vagabond spacecraft), finds herself quite alone and much disturbed from her own unique close encounter. (Weaver is, once again, fantastic.) She teams up with a hearty band of space marines (Hoo-raww!) and returns to the planet where all the fun first began--a planet now being colonized, only the settlers have all disappeared. Of course we know why they've disappeared, and once the marines realize what kind of a mess they're in the fun really begins. The supporting cast is great, including Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and a young Bill Paxton as a wide-eyed, expletive-spitting marine. Cameron delivers suspense, special effects, and heart-pounding action by the boatload, including an ingenious battle between Ripley (inside a hydraulic lift) and the queen alien that's every bit of sensational. ALIENS is a true exception to the rule; yeah, sequels suck, but not this one.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning



5/5 A near perfect movie
  by F. Jury (usa)
Aliens is one of James Cameron's finest, and one of the best movies ever made. This film is a wonderful blend of sci fi, horror, action, comedy and drama, seamlessly combined to make one near perfect movie. It's one you can watch over and over again and not get bored.
The film is also unique in that it is far superior to its original, Alien, which itself was a good sci fi horror movie. It's rarity for a sequel to surpass the original.
The film is perfectly cast, well acted, with great set design and special effects, a perfectly fitting musical score and an excellent plot.
The special edition has some dvd extras and adds 17 minutes of deleted scenes back into the film. My favorite extra on dvd's is the deleted scenes and to have them reedited into the film was a thrill. None of the scenes were bad, though I can see why some were deleted for timing or spacing reasons. Its especially fun on a movie like this to see the extra scenes, cause its a little more of the story you were never told. I personally thought the automatic gun scene should have been left in the original.


5/5 A respectable follow-up to an acknowledged classic
  by Matthew Farrell (Tempe, Arizona)
This review is for the 2-disc collector's edition (I mention this because Amazon seems to be lumping all the reviews of various editions together...)

The plot of this film is covered in other reviews, so I shall skip that, except to say that even if you somehow don't know anything about the first film, the movie does a decent job of filling in the backstory, so it is possible for first-time viewers to pick up the story with little discomfort or confusion.

This is a respectable, well-done sequel. Where-as the first film is a tense horror film, this one attempts to up the ante by adding more aliens and more fodder for them to snack on; essentially this is an action film, though it does have some scary moments. It wears its influences from the original film on its sleeve, though, with everything from the moody film-noirish lighting to the automated countdown before a devastating explosion at the end.

This edition of the film offers the theatrical release as well as a director's cut, which is essentially 20 minutes of deleted scenes. Personally, I think they were deleted with wisdom by the execs, as they actually add very little but do take away from the pacing. Others may disagree, of course.

Disc two is an exhaustive documentary on the 'making of' that covers pretty much any and every aspect of the film that fans could possibly want to know.

5/5 A must
  by Ali Rodriguez (Panama, LA)
Any fan of Alien should have this dvd it even has parts that were not seen on the The big screen.

2/5 not scary like the first one
  by J. Aguilar (austin,texas)
they were shooting and destroying the aliens like flies in this movie and thats not scary.what made the first one so scary was you couldnt kill it it almost seemed invinsible.in this sequel they are killing aliens left and right with simple guns whats scary about that?i'm one of the few who found this movie a huge disappointment.i also dont understand why they waited so long to make a sequel since the first one was such a huge hit.it probably had to do with the person in charge of 20 century fox quiting.the new person in charge didnt like alien i heard and didnt want to do a sequel.i havent seen one james cameron film that is good that includes terminator 2,first one was way better.wish they could have kept ridley scott for the sequel as well.