"Aliens" wins 8 Saturn Awards 1987

Bill Paxton got a great birthday present as he was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Private Hudson in Aliens on his 32nd birthday, at the annual ceremony held May 17, 1987.  Aliens was nominated for 11 Saturn Awards, tied with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  Aliens walked away with 8 awards, and Star Trek only one.  Which is a shame because I like Star Trek IV.  It's one of my favorite Star Trek movies.

Besides Paxton's win, Aliens also won Best Science Fiction Film, Best Director for James Cameron, Best Actress for Sigourney Weaver, Best Supporting Actress for Jenette Goldstein, Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Carrie Henn, Best Writing for James Cameron, and Best Special Effects for Stan Winston, Robert Skotak, and Dennis Skotak.

Michael Biehn was nominated for Best Actor (totally deserved it).  Aliens also was nominated for Best Costumes, and Best Make-up.

"Alien 3" released 1992

Alien 3, released May 22, 1992, is the third installment of the Alien franchise, and just might be the worst of them, IMHO.  It was featured on a youtube.com channel as one of the top 10 movies that pissed off their audiences in the first scene.

Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, and the movie takes place only days or weeks after the events Aliens.  A malfunction aboard the military ship causes the life pods containing Ripley, Hicks and Newt, to be ejected.  They crash-land on a prison colony planet.  And the aliens arrive on the same escape pod and begin to wreak havoc.

Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks) found of that his character was written out of the third movie and so he refused to have anything to do with the film, even not allowing them to use his image. Carrie Henn (Newt) probably could not have recreated her role, since there were six years between movies, but only weeks between the events in the movies.

Alien 3 was nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Visual Effects.

"DeepStar Six" released 1989

Although it received the dubious distinction of receiving a 0% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, DeepStar Six, released January 13, 1989, is a fun movie to watch.  Granted, it isn't a milestone in movie-making and it strongly resembles Aliens, but how can you completely dismiss a movie with Greg Evigan, Miguel Ferrer and Cindy Pickett (she's an Okie!).

It was the first of several movies with an underwater horror theme released in 1989, but only The Abyss was a box office success.  Oh, well.

"Jurassic Park III" released 2001

The third installment of Steven Spielberg's awesome dinosaur movies, Jurassic Park III opened in theaters July 18, 2001.  It seems to be universally considered to be the worst of all the Jurassic Park movies, but it still did well at the box office, being the eighth-highest-grossing movie of 2001.

I find it interesting that it was released on the anniversary of Aliens (1986) because to me JPIII had a  similar plot.  People going into a hostile environment to save a child. 

Sam Neill reprised his role as Dr. Alan Grant and Laura Dern as Ellie, even though she had little more than a cameo.  William H. Macy and Tea Leoni starred as the Kirbys (from Enid, Oklahoma!), whose son has gone missing on Isla Sorna.  Despite the lame story line, the dinosaurs are cool!  The Spinosaurus and the Pteranodon get their time in the limelight.

My favorite movies 1980-1995

1980: The Empire Strikes Back



1980 (Runner-up): Airplane!



1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark



1982: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn



1982 (Runner-up): E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial



1983: Return of the Jedi



1984 (Tie): Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom



1984 (Tie): Amadeus



1984 (Honorable Mention): Star Trek III: The Search for Spock



1985: Real Genius



1986 (Tie): Aliens



1986 (Tie): Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home



1987: Predator



1988: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?



1988 (Guilty Pleasure): Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood



1989 (Tie): Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade



1989 (Tie): Steel Magnolias



1990: Home Alone



1990 (Guilty Pleasure): Tremors



1991 (Tie): Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country



19991 (Tie):  Beauty and the Beast



1992: Aladdin



1993: Jurassic Park



1994 (Tie): Star Trek VII: Generations



1994 (Tie): Ed Wood



1995 (Tie): Toy Story



1995 (Tie): Apollo 13



1995 (Guilty Pleasure): Cutthroat Island

Remembering Bill Paxton (1955-2017)

Handsome action actor Bill Paxton passed away yesterday from complications from surgery, a family representative reported.  I got to know Mr. Paxton from his work in Weird Science and one of my favorites, Aliens.  Born in Fort Worth, Texas May 17, 1955, he moved to Hollywood at 18, and appeared in other blockbusters such as Predator, Titanic and Apollo 13.  He will be sorely missed.

"Aliens" released 1986

One of the best movies of all times and one of my all-time favorites, "Aliens" was released July 18, 1986.  This is one of the few times the sequel surpassed the original movie.  Reading the trivia notes on imdb.com, it's amazing this movie got made at all.  The crew in London apparently didn't like James Cameron and was openly hostile.  It took quite a lot to get Sigourney Weaver to agree to make the film.  Various crew members were fired.  Wow!

However, the result is fantastic!  Just don't watch it on Blu-Ray, because it is so hi-def, it loses the other-worldly effect and looks like actors on a sound stage.  Stick with the plain ol' DVD version.

This time, it's war!

Happy birthday, Sigourney Weaver!

Sigourney Weaver, one of the most beautiful and talented actresses ever, celebrates her birthday today, October 8.  She is one of the few actresses to receive an Oscar nomination for her performance in a horror movie (Aliens, 1986), one of my favorites of all time.

My other favorites: Alien, Ghostbusters, Galaxy Quest, Wall-E, Dave, Heartbreakers and Snow White: A Tale of Terror.