Personal Thoughts on the "Alien: Resurrection" Review

[John]

>Whedon made a song and dance in interviews about how he was the only writer
>to work on the script during the production

I can't swear to this, but I have a vague memory of this being discussed on the Buffy forum and Whedon saying that the studio rewrote his script.

[Abby]

One quickie word search on google revealed this link:

http://members.tripod.com/~Skiles/alienfaq2.txt

It basically says the first script was totally different (no Ripley); had a different proposed director; different story; the studio nipped and tucked; Weaver was allowed a say; directors were lined up; the script was tweaked more; stuff was cut; endings were changed. It does look like the writer was in charge of most of it, but it doesn't seem as if he was completely in control of where it was going. At least, according to that one link.

[Ash]

I used to slice ham at my local grocery store deli........... "What can I get for you sir?"  
"I'll take a pound of the Virginia baked ham."..............No kidding...I really did work there.  ASH

[Dano]

Look, the review hit me in the wrong place at the wrong time. If I was out of line on any of my responses, I apologize. I was mad. I tried to be reasonable (and in good humor!) If this didn't come across (and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't) it was due to extreme tiredness on my part.

*****  Not at all, Cullen!  I thought most of your criticisms were on the nose and well-presented, and will keep them in mind the next time I write something.  I have no illusions about being a perfect writer (or of knowing anywhere NEAR as much about bad movies as some of the folks on this board), so I took it as constructive criticism.  I just had a few points about what you said that I thought I'd raise, that's all.  I assumed your exasperated tone was mostly in fun.

It was probably ME who came across wrong.  The pitfalls of communicating in writing I guess.

On a final note:  Maybe Whedon's real gift is as a producer, not a writer.  Just a thought.

[Dano]

THE MAN DIDN'T SPEAK A SINGLE WORD OF ENGLISH WHEN HE MADE THIS ALIEN MOVIE!!

*****  That's the funniest thing I have heard all week!  That poor man must have thought someone slipped him a hit of acid or something!

I bet if Peter Sellers were alive to play the lead, you could make a pretty hysterical movie based on Jeunet's involvement with this film.  The interactions with Ron Perlman alone must have been priceless.

[Dano]

...the first two movies, and even the third one sort of, had a sense of humor.  This isn't to say they were comedies or tried at times to be deliberately funny (although Aliens did with some success I thought).  But there was just a sense of fun to the horror and the satire - the baby alien in Alien especially.

The one time I laughed with (not at) Alien 4 was when Johnner chucked his knife into Vriess's leg and started laughing like a goon.  Bam!  Right there Winona steps in with her 90's style PC indignation and scolds Johnner (and by extension the audience) for this insensitive digression into dark humor.  No fun.

[Abby]

Jeunet worked with Ron Perlman on City of Lost Children, which was shot in France. Perlman had only an elementary understanding of the language at best, so the situation was reversed. Of anyone, Perlman would have been comfortable with Jeunet during the Aliens movie, and would have been sensitive to the language barrier.

[Drezzy]

Cullen, I take it you never had a cat, because trust me, pal, if there was some big monster that would kill my cat, I'd go back to save it.

[Fearless Freep]

Cullen, I take it you never had a cat, because trust me, pal, if there was some big monster that would kill my cat, I'd go back to save it.

I've had cats.   In the decision were up to me, the cat's a goner.

[Funk, E.]

Seems kind of pointless to write a review for a b-movie and then lambast it for being a b-movie. The review read something like what I would expect to see at "And you call yourself a scientist!" but she tends to have more tact in her writting style.