As you know, gentle reader, I have spent some time this spring reading movie and television tie-in paperbacks (and a hardback). Which has led me to watch a couple of movies last week.
I watched Alien because I read the book, and I watched Young Guns because Heroes and Outlaws of the Old West featured a lot of participants in the Lincoln County War in New Mexico, which Young Guns dramatizes.
So, what did I think?
I had not seen Alien before. As I noted in the book report, I had read that some scenes in the book were missing. Which was true. The ship seemed bigger in the film than in the book, which made for creepy empty rooms for filming, but I have to wonder about how much metal and stuff would really go into the Nostromo, a tug pulling a large industrial complex. Or does the movie take place on the whole refinery? Perhaps I am asking too many questions. But these slasher movies in space are not my bag, so although I will keep my eye out for Aliens since I somehow missed picking it up when I bought the other three of the first four entries in this series, it might well take me years to get to them.
I had seen Young Guns before, but much closer to its release than today (thirty-three years later, old man). It’s rated R, but it’s an eighties R for violence and swearing, but the violence is not especially gory. Although it’s probably not indicative of how one would fare against gunshot wounds, as some people get shot a bunch and die cinematically whilst others, like Billy the Kid, get shot three times and ride away without any distress. I do like the way that Emilio Estevez (
“Aliens” does have a completely different vibe than the first movie.
And I have to make a minor quibble; I also liked “Young Guns” well enough, but I will defend the 2003-released “Open Range” as its better, in spite of the latter’s XXI handicap.
Yeah, Aliens was a bit more of a straight ahead action movie, but I am pretty sure I’m not going to get onto a space ship with Sigourney Weaver. Not even the NSEA Protector.
As to Open Range, I have not seen it. To be honest, I get it confused with Secondhand Lions which I have not seen, either, but both of which star Robert Duvall and came out the same year. Back when I had a local video store, I went looking for one or the other and could not find it.
As I might have mentioned, I’m starting to pay closer attention to VHS and DVDs at garage sales and book sales from here on out because the market is shifting to streaming, so in a couple of years, all the physical media in the cheap secondhand wilds will dry up, and I don’t want to get caught not owning a film that I might want to watch someday.