Ghostbusters 2016 (Ghostbusters: Answer the Call)

 Released Year: 2016

Directed by Paul Feig

Casted by:

Melissa McCarthy as Dr. Abigail "Abby" Yates

Kristen Wiig as Dr. Erin Gilbert

Kate McKinnon as Dr. Jillian Holtzmann

Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan

Chris Hemsworth as Kevin Beckman

Andy García as Mayor Bradley

Bill Murray as Martin Heiss

Dan Aykroyd as Taxi Driver

Ernie Hudson as Bill Jenkins

Sigourney Weaver as Rebecca Gorin

 Story:

Physicists Abby Yates and Erin Gilbert are co-authors of a book which posits the existence of paranormal phenomena such as ghosts. Gilbert has disowned the work and become a professor at Columbia University, while Yates continues to study the paranormal at a technical college with eccentric engineer Jillian Holtzmann. Gilbert learns Yates has republished the book, threatening her bid for tenure at Columbia. She reunites with Yates and, in exchange for Yates removing the book from publication, reluctantly agrees to assist her and Holtzmann in a paranormal investigation.

The group witness a malevolent ghost, renewing Gilbert's belief in the paranormal. However, a video of their investigation is posted online, and Gilbert is denied tenure. She joins Yates and Holtzmann's project, but when a new institute director learns its nature, he fires them. They open an office above a Chinese restaurant and call themselves the "Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination." They build equipment to study and capture ghosts, and hire dimwitted but handsome Kevin Beckman as a receptionist.

MTA worker Patty Tolan witnesses a ghost in a subway line and contacts the group. They document the ghost and successfully test Holtzmann's proton containment laser, but their findings are again dismissed. They continue to develop their technology and advertise their services as what pundits have dubbed the "Ghostbusters". Tolan joins the team, providing historical knowledge of New York City and a repurposed hearse, "Ecto-1".

Unbeknownst to them, the ghosts are being summoned by devices built by Rowan North, an occultist and mad scientist attempting to bring about the apocalypse. When Rowan plants another device at a live music venue, the Ghostbusters are called in and capture the ghost in front of the audience. When supernatural debunker Dr. Martin Heiss challenges the Ghostbusters, the incensed Gilbert releases the ghost as proof; it throws Heiss out a window before escaping. The Ghostbusters are brought to see Mayor Bradley, who reveals that the city and the Department of Homeland Security are aware of New York's ghost problem. While privately supporting the team's work, the mayor's office and DHS publicly denounce them as fraudsters.

The Ghostbusters realize Rowan is planting his devices along ley lines which intersect at the Mercado Hotel in Times Square, a site with a history of paranormal activity, and discover Rowan building a portal to the ghost dimension in the hotel basement. Rowan deliberately electrocutes himself and Holtzmann deactivates the portal. Gilbert discovers a copy of her and Yates's book among Rowan's possessions, and realizes that he planned to become a ghost and command a spirit army. Rowan returns as a powerful ghost, possessing Yates and then Kevin. As Kevin, he opens the portal and releases hundreds of ghosts. The police and DHS are quickly subdued, but the Ghostbusters fight through the army of ghosts to reach the portal.

Rowan takes the form of the ghost in the Ghostbusters' logo, grows to enormous height, and attacks the city. The team devise a plan to use Ecto-1's nuclear reactor to close the portal and return the ghosts to their own dimension. The plan succeeds, but Rowan drags Yates into the portal with him; Gilbert leaps into the portal and rescues her. The mayor's office agrees to secretly fund the Ghostbusters' research while continuing to publicly denounce them as frauds. With new funding, the Ghostbusters move to a better facility, a disused fire house. Despite the mayoral smear campaign, New York lights up with thanks and tributes to the Ghostbusters. Tolan listens to a recording of a ghost encounter and asks the others if they have heard of Zuul. 

L² Scored: 5.5/10 

L² Comment: 

Hmm, i'm not sure how to say about this, but i feel that the trailer of this movie is probably better than the actual movie. Or maybe because that i'm a big fans of the cartoon version and i'm putting too much hope into this movie, but i remember the previous 1984 & 1989 version are nice to watch as well, but this 2016 version is kinda a bit boring on the story wise...

Its a good idea to change the 4 main ghostbusters from guy to girl and the blondie secretary is replaced by the macho Chris Hemsworth, but the draginess of this movie is simply making this movie walks toward a dead zone for me. Why not make more different kind of ghost appear and how they try to catch them instead? I'm quite happy to know that a lot of the previous version actors & actresses are back in this movie for cameo purposes :) But will there be another sequal after this? Seriously not sure but finger cross and hopefully they got another chance to prove us wrong again...

Chappie

 Released Year: 2015

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Casted by:

 Sharlto Copley as CHAPPiE (voice and motion capture)

Dev Patel as Deon Wilson

Ninja as Ninja

Yolandi Visser as Yolandi

Jose Pablo Cantillo as Amerika

Hugh Jackman as Vincent Moore

Sigourney Weaver as Michelle Bradley

 Story: 

In an effort to combat a record high crime rate in the city of Johannesburg, the South African government purchases a squadron of state-of-the-art, armour-plated A.I. attack robots from American weapons manufacturer Tetravaal, developed by British engineer Deon Wilson. A competing project is the remotely controlled MOOSE, developed by Australian soldier-turned-engineer Vincent Moore. The robots are an instant success, wiping out some of the city's most powerful drug and organised crime gangs in a matter of months, and before long, Tetravaal move their main headquarters to Johannesburg. Deon receives plenty of recognition for the company's success, but Vincent grows jealous when the police are unwilling to give his heavy weapons platform equal attention. At home, Deon creates a prototype artificial intelligence that mimics a human mind to the point of feeling emotions and having opinions, but Tetravaal CEO Michelle Bradley refuses to let him test the A.I. on a police robot. Undeterred, Deon steals a recently damaged robot before it is destroyed and puts it in his van, along with the "guard key" needed to update the robot's software. On his way home, he is kidnapped by a group of gangsters, Ninja, Yolandi, and Amerika, who threaten to kill him unless he reprograms a police robot to fight for them. Deon installs the new software into the damaged robot, which responds with childlike terror upon powering up. Deon and Yolandi calm the robot, teaching it words and naming it "Chappie". Despite Deon wanting to stay with the robot, Ninja forces him out of their hideout.

Ninja's gang only has a few days to pay a debt of 20 million rand (approximately $1.6 million USD) to Hippo, a powerful gangster. Yolandi sees Chappie as a child and wants to mother him, but Ninja grows impatient with his development due to both the impending deadline for the debt and Chappie's irreplaceable battery running out, giving him days to live. Ninja tries to train Chappie to be a gangster by leaving him to fend for himself in a dangerous neighborhood. After being wounded by thugs, he is followed by Vincent, who plans to deactivate all Tetravaal weapons except for MOOSE. Vincent successfully extracts the guard key for his own use, but the traumatised Chappie escapes and returns to the hideout. Yolandi scolds Ninja for this mistreatment, but he manages to earn Chappie's forgiveness by training him in martial arts and weapon handling. Ninja and Amerika trick Chappie into stealing cars for them, and lie about needing the money to replace his dying body.

At Tetravaal, Vincent uses the guard key to upload a virus shutting down all police robots including Chappie. Johannesburg's criminals immediately start rioting in the streets, and Deon brings Chappie to the Tetravaal factory to fix him. After being restarted, Chappie notices a helmet used to control MOOSE. At the hideout, he re-engineers it to allow him to transfer his consciousness into a computer, so he can change bodies when his current one dies. Ninja's gang uses Chappie to raid a police van and steal money, which is caught on the news prompting Tetravaal to pursue him. When Chappie learns that Ninja's plan to acquire the body was a lie, he prepares to kill Ninja for betrayal. However, Deon arrives to warn them that Michelle Bradley has ordered that Chappie be destroyed. At that moment, the MOOSE robot (controlled remotely by Vincent) is launched to assassinate Deon and Chappie at the hideout and Hippo also arrives to collect his debt. Amerika and Hippo are killed in the ensuing battle while Deon is mortally wounded. When Ninja is about to be killed, Yolandi sacrifices herself to save him and Chappie destroys MOOSE by detonating a bomb.

Enraged by Yolandi's death, Chappie drives Deon to the factory, storms into an office, and fiercely beats Vincent close to death. He then transfers the dying Deon's consciousness into a spare robot through the modified MOOSE helmet. As Chappie's battery dies, the now-robotic Deon wirelessly transfers Chappie's consciousness into a deactivated police robot nearby. Deon and Chappie go into hiding as the police discontinue their contract with Tetravaal. The grieving Ninja finds a flash drive marked "Mommy's Consciousness Test Backup", which contains a copy of Yolandi's consciousness that Chappie took while testing the device on her. Chappie hacks into Tetravaal's manufacturing facility, builds a robot resembling Yolandi, and uploads the drive's contents.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

Wow, I never know this movie is so cool :) Love Chappie the robot and how it develops the way to have "consciousness" and feeling for himself and human surrounding him. Hugh Jackman as a bad ass is the first for me, i think he needs more work in it~ The one who really surprise me is Dev Patel, this Indian guy is so good in acting, hope to see more of his movie coming soon~

You Again

 Released Year: 2010

Directed by Andy Fickman

Casted by:

Kristen Bell as Marni Olivia Olsen

Jamie Lee Curtis as Gail Byer Olsen

Sigourney Weaver as Ramona "Mona" Clark

Odette Yustman as Joanna "J-J" Clark

James Wolk as Will Olsen

Victor Garber as Mark Olsen

Betty White as Grandma Bunny

Billy Unger as Ben Olsen

Sean Wing as Charlie Mason

Kristin Chenoweth as Georgia King

 Story:

In 2002 Marni is an acne-riddled high school sophomore at Ridgefield High School, with glasses and braces, making a video about how much she hates high school, and reveals how she is tormented and bullied by other children, specifically J-J, who made Marni's high school life miserable. She adds that her protective older brother, Will, was very popular as a handsome basketball player. However, at a very important basketball game, J-J pushes the mascot (Marni), who runs into Will, resulting in a loss of the game.

Years later, in 2010, she is a successful public relations executive, recently promoted to a job in New York. When she flies home to her older brother's wedding, she discovers that Will is about to marry a girl named Joanna, who happens to be J-J. When Marni meets Joanna for the first time in eight years, Joanna seems to not recognize her. Marni is also upset to see that Joanna fits in very well with the family. The plot thickens when Marni's mother Gail meets up with Joanna's aunt Ramona, Gail's former best friend who pushed her into a pool at their senior prom. Ramona is now a successful, wealthy woman who owns several hotels and a private plane.

Although Gail seems willing to put the past behind her, she still feels the need to "outdo" Ramona during their interactions together. On the other hand, Marni is unwilling to forget the things Joanna did to her in high school, unless she apologizes, and decides to try to let her brother know of Joanna's bullying past. Her attempts to get Will alone for a conversation fail. When Marni tells Joanna that she knows who she really is, it is obvious that Joanna remembers Marni. She refuses to give Marni a meaningful apology, and treats her disrespectfully, leaving Marni convinced that Joanna has not changed. Meanwhile, Gail comes to Ramona's hotel room for "closure" about anything bad between them that happened in the past. They appear to make up, but Ramona still seems not to be too fond of Gail.

One day on the street, Will and Marni's grandmother Bunny meets a man named Tim. Joanna reveals that they have dated, and Tim appears devastated when he hears that she's marrying Will. Marni decides to bring Tim to the rehearsal dinner as part of her plan to stop the wedding. When it is time for guests to make a toast to the bride and groom, Tim unexpectedly jumps up to give his toast to Joanna. He reveals to a stunned wedding party that Joanna left him at the altar. Later, a video is presented (recovered by Marni) from their old high school time capsule. The video reveals Joanna as she was in high school: an alpha-female bully, with the footage showing proof of her tormenting Marni and other students. However, Will unplugs the video projector before the video is complete and walks out, furious.

Marni is in trouble when everyone discovers that she was responsible for the video at the rehearsal dinner. Joanna's defense for pretending not to remember Marni is: "I thought we could start over." Marni is now convinced that Joanna hasn't changed, and walks away. Joanna then starts a fight with Marni, who fights back. Will walks in and witnesses the fight. He confronts Joanna, calling her a bully and a liar and then scolds Marni for starting the mess behind his back. Joanna tries to reason with Will but he doesn't care about her past and is furious that she lied to him.

Meanwhile, Ramona and Gail argue after the rehearsal dinner, and Ramona accuses Gail of trying to ruin her life throughout high school. A catfight ensues, with both of them falling into the pool. Ramona reveals that she had a grudge with Gail, even when they were best friends, because she always competed with and outdid her, culminating with Gail taking the boy that Ramona wanted to the prom. Ramona stated that Gail was already a legendary head cheerleader and prom queen, and drama was supposed to be hers, yet Gail also defeated her with the auditions. She sarcastically thanks Gail for what she did, because it motivated her to become successful in life. Gail apologizes for being insensitive, but reveals that she is proud of Ramona, and that her loving family is her accomplishment. Ramona, remorseful of her actions, tells Gail that she was jealous of Gail's happy family especially that her marriages didn't work out, and feared that Gail was trying to take Joanna away from her. The two are hugging in the pool when Gail's husband, Mark, shows up. At home, he says that he is disgusted with the wedding and weekend being a disaster and grounds Marni and Gail.

Later that night, Marni finds Joanna in the kitchen binging on junk food. She finally admits to Marni that she feels truly awful for bullying and tormenting her and feels like a terrible person, and that she loves Will and his entire family. She explained that when she found out that Marni is her fiance's sister, she panicked and therefore decided to pretend not to remember her. Marni forgives her and promises to get them back together. The next day, during a jog, Marni apologizes to Will for her actions, saying she was only trying to protect him.

Joanna and Will reconcile in the family's old tree house, but it collapses and injures both of them when Marni and Will's little brother, Ben, loosened the screws as a part of his plan in hiding the tree house. They are both forced to stay at a hospital, which delays the wedding. However, Marni puts together a makeshift wedding at the hospital, with the bride and groom bandaged, but properly dressed and able to walk down the aisle. Gail has a surprise for Ramona, it's Richie Phillips, the boy from high school that Ramona wanted to go to the prom with. Richie welcomes Ramona home and wants to be her date for the wedding, which makes Ramona very happy and they appear to start a relationship. Marni appears to start a relationship with Charlie (Sean Wing), her brother's best friend who has always been kind to her. Joanna introduces Marni's grandmother Bunny to an elderly woman, Helen Sullivan. It is revealed that Helen and Bunny were rivals in high school when Helen stole a boy from her. However, Bunny gets her revenge when she cuts in on Helen's dance and takes her partner.

During the credits, at the wedding reception, Marni presents her wedding gift to Will and Joanna—Hall & Oates in person performing Will and Joanna's favorite and special song, "Kiss on My List" (as the movie's couples, each share kisses—Will and Joanna, Marni and Charlie, Gail and Mark, Ramona and Richie, and Georgia forces a kiss from Tim). Everyone then joins Hall & Oates on stage.

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment: 

This is a very fun movie to watch. At first I thought the story will go between the 2 young ladies, but who knows their mother and aunty are involved in it as well... Seldom see Sigourney on a comedy... She's not bad, as good as those action movie she is in :)

Alien 3

 Released Year: 1992

Directed by David Fincher

Casted by:

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

Charles S. Dutton as Dillon

Charles Dance as Jonathan Clemens

Brian Glover as Harold Andrews

Ralph Brown as Aaron

Paul McGann as Golic

Danny Webb as Morse

 Story:

The Colonial Marine spaceship Sulaco experiences an onboard fire and launches an escape pod containing Ellen Ripley along with Newt, Hicks and the damaged android Bishop. Two hatched Alien eggs somewhere on the Sulaco can be seen in the opening credits. All four are in cryonic stasis. During the launch, the ship's medical scans of the crew's cryotubes show an Alien facehugger attached to one of the crewmembers. The pod then crashes on Fiorina 'Fury' 161, a foundry facility and penal colony inhabited by all-male inmates with "double-Y" chromosome patterns, and histories of physical and sexual violence. After some inmates recover the pod and its passengers, an Alien facehugger is seen approaching the prison dog. Ripley is taken in and awakened by Clemens, the prison doctor, and is told she is the only survivor of the crash. Many of the ex-inmates, led by Dillon, have embraced an apocalyptic, millenarian version of Christianity. Ripley is warned by the prison warden, Harold Andrews, that her presence among them may have extremely disruptive effects.

Suspicious of what caused the escape pod to jettison and what killed her companions, Ripley requests that Clemens perform an autopsy on Newt. She fears that Newt may be carrying an Alien embryo in her body, though she does not share this information. Despite protests from the warden and his assistant, Aaron, the autopsy is conducted. No embryo is found in Newt's body, and Clemens proclaims she simply died in the crash. Meanwhile, Ripley's unusual behavior begins to frustrate the warden and is agitating the prisoners.

A funeral is performed for Newt and Hicks, during which their bodies are cremated in the facility's enormous furnace. In another section of the facility, the prison dog enters convulsions, and a larger than normal Alien bursts from its body. The Alien soon begins to attack members of the colony, killing several and returning outcast prisoner Golic to his former deranged state. To get answers, Ripley recovers and reactivates the damaged android Bishop, who confirms that there was an Alien on the Sulaco and it came with them to Fiorina in the escape pod. She then informs Andrews of her previous encounters with the Aliens and suggests everyone work together to hunt it down and kill it. Andrews does not believe her story and explains that the facility has no weapons. Their only hope of protection is the rescue ship being sent for Ripley by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

Back in the prison infirmary, while talking to Ripley about the situation, Clemens is killed by the Alien, but when it is about to attack Ripley, it suddenly pauses, then retreats, mysteriously sparing her life. She runs to the mess hall to warn the others, Andrews orders Aaron to take her back to the infirmary, but the alien suddenly ambushes and kills Andrews. Ripley rallies the inmates and proposes they pour highly flammable toxic waste, which is stored at the facility, into the ventilation system and ignite it to flush out the creature. An explosion is caused by the creature's premature intervention, resulting in several deaths. Using the medical equipment aboard the Sulaco escape pod, Ripley scans herself with Aaron's help, and discovers the embryo of an Alien Queen growing inside her. She also finds out that the Corporation truly wants the Queen embryo and the adult Alien, hoping to turn them into biological weapons. Deducing that the mature alien will not kill her because of the embryo she carries, Ripley begs Dillon to kill her; he agrees to do so only if she helps the inmates kill the adult creature first, and he then rallies his men into action. They form a plan to lure it into the foundry's molding facility and drown it in molten lead by trapping it by closing a series of doors. The bait-and-chase style plan results in the death of all the remaining prisoners except Morse and Dillon. Dillon is the last victim; he fearlessly remains in the mold to distract the Alien, allowing it to tear him apart, as Morse pours the molten lead onto both of them. The Alien, covered in molten metal, escapes the mold but is quickly killed by Ripley when she turns on fire sprinklers and sprays the beast with water, causing its exoskeleton to cool rapidly and shatter via thermal shock.

While Ripley battles the Alien, the Weyland-Yutani team arrives, including a man who looks identical to the Bishop android, claiming to be its creator. He tries to persuade Ripley to undergo surgery to remove the Queen embryo, which he claims will be destroyed. Ripley refuses and steps back onto a mobile platform, which Morse positions over the furnace. The company men shoot Morse in the leg, prompting Aaron to pick up a large wrench and strike Bishop II over the head with it. This reveals that Bishop II is human as his blood is red, not white like an androids. Aaron is shot dead, and Bishop II and his men show their true intentions, begging Ripley to let them have the "magnificent specimen". Ripley defies them by throwing herself into the gigantic furnace. Sensing danger the alien Queen erupts from Ripley's chest. Ripley holds on to the alien so it cannot escape the inferno, and they both fall into the fire to their deaths.

The facility is closed down and the last surviving inmate, Morse, is led away. A sound recording of Ripley (her final lines from the original Alien) is heard from the Sulaco escape pod, "This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo...signing off."

 L² Scored: 6/10 

L² Comment:

6 years after the 2nd movie, Sigourney is back in action for another Alien's movie series. This time, i have to admit, it is not as good as the first 2 movie, and kinda disappointed for me. The only part which excited me is when they tried to chase the alien down into a tunnel and try to kill it. The rest is just normal and very predictable...

Aliens

 Released Year: 1986

Directed by James Cameron

Casted by:

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

Michael Biehn as Corporal Dwayne Hicks

Jenette Goldstein as Private Jenette Vasquez

Carrie Henn as Rebecca "Newt" Jorden

Lance Henriksen as Bishop

 Story:

Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the incident aboard Nostromo, is rescued and revived after drifting for 57 years in stasis. At an interview before a panel of executives from her employer, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, her testimony regarding the Alien is met with extreme skepticism as she has no physical evidence. Ripley loses her space-flight license as a result of her "questionable judgment" and learns that LV-426, the planet where her crew first encountered the Alien eggs, is now home to a terraforming colony.

Some time later, Ripley, now working as a cargo-loader, is visited by Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke and Lieutenant Gorman of the Colonial Marines, who inform her that contact has been lost with the colony on LV-426. The company decides to dispatch Burke and a unit of marines to investigate, and offers to restore Ripley's flight status and pick up her contract if she will accompany them as an advisor. Traumatized by her previous encounter with the Alien, Ripley initially refuses, but after recurring nightmares about the Alien and a promise from Burke that the team will not study any aliens they find but destroy them, she accepts. Aboard the warship Sulaco she is introduced to the Colonial Marines, including Sergeant Apone, Corporal Hicks, privates Vasquez and Hudson, and the android Bishop, toward whom Ripley is initially hostile due to her previous experience with the android Ash aboard the Nostromo.

The expedition descends to the surface of LV-426 via dropship, where they find the colony intact, but seemingly abandoned. Inside they find makeshift barricades and signs of a serious fight, but no bodies. Two living facehuggers are found in containment tanks in the medical lab. The only colonist found is a traumatized young girl nicknamed Newt. The marines determine that the colonists are clustered in the fusion powered atmosphere processing station, where they find a large Alien nest filled with the cocooned colonists. The Aliens then attack, capturing Apone and Dietrich and killing Frost, Drake, Crowe, and Wierzbowski. Ripley is able to rescue Hicks, Vasquez, and Hudson. With Gorman knocked unconscious during the rescue, Hicks assumes command and orders the dropship to recover the survivors, intending to return to the Sulaco and destroy the colony from orbit. A stowaway Alien kills the dropship pilots Ferro and Spunkmeyer in flight, causing the vessel to crash into the processing station. The surviving humans barricade themselves inside the colony complex.

Ripley discovers that it was Burke who ordered the colonists to investigate the derelict spaceship where the Nostromo crew first encountered the Alien eggs, and that he hopes to return Alien specimens to the company laboratories where he can profit from their use as biological weapons. She threatens to expose him, but Bishop soon informs the group of a greater danger: the damaged processing station has become volatile and will soon detonate with the force of a forty megaton thermonuclear weapon. He volunteers to crawl through several hundred meters of piping conduits to reach and use the colony's transmitter to pilot the Sulaco's remaining dropship to the surface by remote control so that the group can escape. Ripley and Newt fall asleep in the medical laboratory, awakening to find themselves locked in the room with the two facehuggers, which have been released from their tanks. Ripley then activates a fire alarm to alert the marines, who rescue them and kill the creatures. Ripley accuses Burke of attempting to smuggle implanted Alien embryos past Earth's quarantine inside her and Newt, and of planning to kill the rest of the marines in hypersleep during the return trip so that no one could contradict his version of events. The electricity is suddenly cut off and numerous Aliens attack through the ceiling. Hudson, Burke, Gorman, and Vasquez are killed while Newt is captured by the Aliens.

Ripley and an injured Hicks reach Bishop and the second dropship, but Ripley refuses to leave Newt behind. She rescues Newt from the hive in the processing station, where the two encounter the Alien queen and her egg chamber. Ripley destroys most of the eggs, enraging the queen, who escapes by tearing free from her ovipositor. Closely pursued by the queen, Ripley and Newt rendezvous with Bishop and Hicks on the dropship and escape moments before the colony is consumed by the nuclear blast. Back on the Sulaco, Ripley and Bishop's relief at their escape is interrupted when the Alien queen, stowed away on the dropship's landing gear, impales Bishop and tears him in two. Ripley battles the queen using an exosuit cargo-loader, before expelling it into space through an airlock. Ripley, Newt, Hicks and the still-functioning Bishop then enter hypersleep for the return to Earth.

  L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

 I prefer this squeal if compare to the first movie, it involve more senses and the relationship between Ripley and Newt is way more better than Ripley with the cat in the first movie. And this time they met the Aliens' Queen which was giving birth to the eggs. Of coz the whole storyline and effects are much more better as well...  

Alien

Released Year: 1979

Directed by Ridley Scott

Casted by:

 Sigourney Weaver as Ripley

Veronica Cartwright as Lambert

Ian Holm as Ash

John Hurt as Kane

Yaphet Kotto as Parker

Tom Skerritt as Dallas

Harry Dean Stanton as Brett

 Story:

The commercial towing spacecraft Nostromo, owned and operated by the Earth mega-corporation Weyland-Yutani, is on a return trip to Earth hauling a refinery and twenty million tons of mineral ore, with a seven-member crew in stasis. Detecting a transmission of unknown origin from a nearby planetoid, LV-426, the ship's computer, MU-TH-UR 6000 (or Mother) awakens the crew.

Acting on standing orders from their corporate employers, they set out to investigate the transmission's source, in effort to locate the possible alien life. The Nostromo lands on the planetoid. Upon landing, their ship is damaged. With the damage taking at least 25 hours to repair, Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, and Navigator Lambert set out to investigate the transmission, leaving Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley to decipher the mysterious signal, Science Officer Ash to track the three explorers, and Engineers Brett and Parker behind on the ship to finish the repairs.

Dallas, Kane, and Lambert discover that the signal is coming from a derelict alien spacecraft. Inside they find the remains of a large alien creature whose ribcage appears to have been broken outward from the inside. Meanwhile, Ripley determines that the transmission is actually some type of warning rather than a distress signal. Kane discovers a vast chamber containing numerous eggs, and upon closer inspection, one of them releases a squidlike creature that attaches to his face. Rendered unconscious, Kane is carried back to the Nostromo. As acting senior officer aboard the ship, Ripley refuses to let the exploratory team aboard, citing the strict quarantine regulations. But acting on improper orders from Dallas, Ash violates quarantine protocol not to allow a possible infected crew member on the ship by opening the airlock. After an unsuccessful attempt by Ash to surgically remove the creature from Kane's face, which appears to be glued onto him, the crew discover that the creature's blood contains a highly corrosive acid. Seemingly, it is also feeding Kane 'oxygen' down his throat, which Ash states may be keeping him alive. The creature eventually detaches from Kane's face by itself and is later found dead. Ash insists that the alien corpse be returned to Earth for study. The Nostromo leaves the planetoid and resumes its trip to Earth.

Kane awakens from his ordeal with some memory loss, but no other apparent ill effects. During the crew's final dinner before re-entering stasis, he begins to choke and convulse in extreme pain until a small alien creature bursts from his chest, killing him instantly. The creature then escapes into the depths of ship. Kane's body is 'buried at sea' by ejection into deep space. Since killing it with conventional weapons could result in its acidic blood breaching the ship's hull, the crew attempts to locate and capture the creature by fashioning motion trackers, electric prods, and flamethrowers. However, the Alien has grown at an unprecedented rate and is now seven feet tall with incredible strength and agility. It attacks Brett and disappears with his body into an airshaft. Dallas enters the Nostromo's labyrinthine airshaft network, intending to force the Alien into an airlock, but it ambushes him. When the others find no trace of Dallas, Lambert realises that the alien is purely aggressive and intent on killing the entire crew, imploring the remaining crew members to escape in the ship's shuttle. Ripley, now in command, explains that the shuttle will not support four people, and recommends that they continue with Dallas's plan of cornering and flushing out the Alien.

Accessing the ship's central computer, Ripley discovers that Ash has been ordered to return the Alien to Weyland-Yutani even at the expense of the crew's lives. Ash then appears and when confronted, he attempts to suffocate Ripley, but Parker and Lambert intervene, decapitating and impaling Ash, revealing him to be an android programmed to act on orders from the company itself. Ripley theorizes that the company wants the Alien for its weapons division. Before they destroy his remains, Ash smugly predicts that the others will not survive the indestructible "perfect organism" that they are up against.

The three remaining crew members then agree to arm the Nostromo's self-destruct mechanism and escape in the shuttle. While gathering the required stasis coolant, Parker and Lambert are ambushed and killed by the Alien. Now alone, Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence herself and heads for the shuttle with the crew's cat, but finds the Alien blocking her way. She retreats and unsuccessfully attempts to abort the self-destruct, then returns to find the Alien gone and narrowly escapes in the shuttle as the Nostromo and its enormous cargo is destroyed in a massive explosion.

As she prepares to enter stasis, Ripley discovers that the Alien has hidden aboard the shuttle. She puts on a spacesuit and opens the shuttle's main door, causing explosive decompression which forces the Alien into the shuttle's open doorway. She propels it out into space by shooting it with a grappling hook, but the gun catches in the closing door, tethering the Alien to the shuttle. As it attempts to crawl into one of the engines, Ripley activates them, blasting the Alien with white-hot plasma and sending it tumbling into deep space. She then records a final ship's log entry, places herself and the cat into stasis and resumes the voyage back home.

 L² Scored: 7/10 

L² Comment:

 The legendary Alien movie is not to be missed by anyone who is fancy about this movie franchise, am i right? The movie story is kinda simple and predictable, but at the 1979, its huge and definitely win the applause from everywhere. It also helps to build Sigourney Weaver's courier ~

WALL-E

 Released Year: 2008

Directed by Andrew Stanton

Voiced by:

Ben Burtt as WALL-E

Elissa Knight as EVE

Jeff Garlin as Captain B. McCrea

Sigourney Weaver as the Axiom's computer

 Story:

In 2805, Earth is covered in garbage due to decades of mass consumerism facilitated by the megacorporation, Buy n Large (BnL). In 2105, BnL evacuates Earth's population in fully automated starliners, leaving behind trash compactor WALL-E robots to clean the planet. Through years of neglect, most WALL-E units eventually break down except one, which has developed sentience after 700 years of life-experience and managed to remain active by repairing itself using parts from other broken units. Apart from his regular duties, he inquisitively collects artifacts of human civilization and keeps them in his storage truck home

One day, WALL-E discovers and collects a growing seedling plant. Later, a spaceship lands and deploys EVE, an advanced robot probe sent from the BnL starliner Axiom to search for vegetation on Earth. WALL-E falls in love with the initially cold and hostile EVE, who gradually softens and befriends him. When WALL-E brings EVE to his truck and showcases his collection, she sees the plant and automatically stores it inside herself. She goes into standby mode waiting for retrieval from her ship. WALL-E spends time with EVE and tries to "reactivate" it using multiple methods while she is in standby mode, to no avail. When EVE's ship comes to collect her, WALL-E clings to the hull of the ship as it collects and returns EVE to the Axiom.

On the Axiom, the ship's original human passengers and their descendants have suffered from severe bone loss due to long term effects of microgravity and become morbidly obese after centuries of living in a low-gravity environment and relying on the ship's automated systems for most tasks. The ship's captain, McCrea, mostly leaves control to the robotic autopilot, Auto. WALL-E follows EVE to the bridge of the Axiom, where the Captain learns that by putting the plant in the spaceship holo-detector to verify Earth habitability, the Axiom will make a hyperjump back to Earth so the passengers can recolonize. However, Auto orders McCrea's robotic assistant GO-4 to steal the plant as part of his own no return directive, issued to all BnL autopilots after the corporation incorrectly concluded in 2110 that the planet could not be saved.

With the plant missing, EVE is considered defective and taken to the repair ward along with WALL-E (for cleaning). WALL-E mistakes the process on EVE for torture and tries to save her, accidentally releasing a horde of malfunctioning robots. The on-board security systems then designate both WALL-E and EVE as "rogue robots". Angry with WALL-E's disruptions, EVE brings him to the escape pod bay to send him home. There they witness GO-4 dispose of the missing plant by placing it inside a pod which is set to "self-destruct mode". WALL-E enters the plant's pod, which is then jettisoned into space. WALL-E escapes with the plant before the pod explodes. Reconciling with EVE, they celebrate with a dance in space outside the Axiom.

The plant is brought to the captain, who surveys EVE's recordings of Earth and concludes that mankind must return to restore their ruined home. However, Auto reveals his directive and stages a mutiny. He tasers WALL-E, severely damaging him, when he tries to protect the plant. EVE realizes the only parts for repairing WALL-E are in his truck back on Earth. She helps him bring the plant to the holo-detector to activate the ship's hyperjump. McCrea opens the holo-detector and fights Auto for control of the ship. Auto partially crushes WALL-E by closing the holo-detector on him. Auto is eventually disabled by McCrea, and EVE places the plant in the holo-detector, which frees a crushed WALL-E and sets the Axiom on the instant hyperjump to Earth.

EVE brings WALL-E back to his home where she repairs and reactivates him. After the repair WALL-E no longer recognizes EVE, reverting to his original programming as an unfeeling waste compactor. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a farewell kiss that jolts WALL-E's memory, and his personality returns. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite as the humans and robots of the Axiom begin to restore Earth and its environment. During the end credits, slideshows through a series of artworks WALL-E and EVE are seen holding hands in front of a large tree, which is revealed to have grown from the tiny plant that brought humankind home.

L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

Oh this cartoon is so cute~ I'm not really interested in it back in 2008 when it was released in the big screen that time~ its robots and robots in love ?!? How ridiculous it gonna be? Even though i have got the DVD later from my fren, it was lay at a corner until dust covered it like a tissue paper lol

Ok after watching it, i totally change my mind. Not much conversation on this but the meaning and moral of the movie shows it all~ it is definitely a hit i believe. The movie has basically only receive positive comments and won Best Animated Movie in a few big awards... Later tat, its own video game also has been released.

Paul

Released Year: 2011
Directed by Gred Mottola

Casted by:
Simon Pegg as Graeme Willy
Nick Frost as Clive Gollings
Seth Rogen as Paul (voice)
Jason Bateman as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil
Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs
Bill Hader as Agent Haggard
Blythe Danner as Tara Walton
Story:

Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings are two English comic book enthusiasts and best friends who have traveled to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con International and to take a road trip in their RV to visit sites of major extraterrestrial importance. When stopping for something to eat they meet two strangers and when Graeme laughs with them they start tormenting him. They leave quickly and dent the strangers' car. At night, along the highway, they notice lights following them. Wrongly thinking the lights to be from the strangers' car they speed up, but the car passes them and then crashes. They investigate the damaged car, and discover an alien named Paul, who is in desperate need of help. Although shocked by the appearance of Paul, Graeme agrees to give Paul a ride, but Clive is displeased about the idea. Later, FBI Agent Lorenzo Zoil arrives at the site of the crashed car and informs his mysterious female superior, called the "Big Guy", over the radio that he is closing in on Paul, and she recommends using local law enforcement as back-up. Zoil recruits two inept rookie agents, Haggard and O'Reilly, to aid in his mission, without informing them about the nature of their target.

Graeme, Clive and Paul pull into an RV park run by Ruth Buggs, a Christian fundamentalist, and her over-bearing father, Moses. The trio bond around their camp grill and Paul reveals that since he was captured by the government, he had been advising them in all manner of scientific and sociological achievements. Yet Paul had outlived his usefulness as a receptacle of knowledge, thus his captors intended to surgically remove Paul's brain and harvest his stem cells, in an attempt to harness his physical abilities (Paul had previously demonstrated both invisibility and healing powers). With the help from a friend inside Area 51, Paul sent an SOS to his home planet, and was escaping to rendezvous with them. The next morning, Paul intentionally reveals himself to Ruth during a theological discussion, and the trio are forced to kidnap her and make a hasty escape. Moses steps outside and sees Paul and, believing him to be a demon, grabs his shotgun and chases after them in his truck. Paul shatters Ruth's faith by sharing his knowledge of the universe via telepathic link; at first horrified, Ruth suddenly becomes eager to sin, which her father had raised her to fear doing. She initially does not trust Paul, but he heals her left eye, which she lost her vision in at the age of four.

Paul eventually reveals his intention to return to Tara Walton, the girl whose dog he crashed his ship on in 1947 and who subsequently saved his life, who is now an old woman. After spending her life being ridiculed for what she said she saw, Tara is grateful to see that Paul exists. She turns her gas cooker on to make tea, but is interrupted by Haggard and O'Reilly on one side of the house, and Zoil on the other. As the motley crew escapes and drives off with Paul, O'Reilly shoots at them, and the gas ignites, destroying Tara's house and apparently killing O'Reilly. A winded Zoil attempts to follow, but Haggard takes off first, shooting at Moses, running him off the road and catching up to the RV. However, due to an error in judgement, Haggard accidentally drives off a cliff and is killed, leaving Zoil as the last remaining agent in pursuit. He reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within an hour, but she declares herself tired of waiting, and informs Zoil that she has ordered a military response.

When Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at the rendezvous, they set off a signal and wait. Eventually, eerie orange lights show up over the surrounding trees, and everyone believes that it is Paul's rescue ship. However, it is an army helicopter, with the Big Guy on board. As she and three troops move to shoot Paul, Zoil arrives, and it is revealed that he was Paul's inside contact who helped him to escape. Zoil disarms the men, but is shot in the shoulder by the Big Guy. Tara punches out the Big Guy, but Moses appears with his shotgun and mortally wounds Graeme while aiming at Paul. Paul heals him and collapses, briefly appearing to be dead before he quickly recovers; Moses proclaims this to be a miracle from God. The Big Guy regains consciousness, but is immediately crushed by the arriving alien ship. Paul begins to depart and informs Tara that she is coming with him to live a better life. He bids farewell to his friends, hoping to meet them again one day. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and even O'Reilly are shown again at the Comic-Con convention, where Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their new hit novel.

L² Scored: 3/10

L² Comment:

Well, i'm not sure how good the fiction is, but it definitely not my cup of tea. The whole film is just bored and not kinda fun to watch at. Even with my favorite Sigourney Weaver as one of the big rival does not help. The only touching part is when Paul risk his own life to save his human buddy... The rest of the things are just mainly stupid

The Village

Released Year: 2004
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Casted by:
Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy Elizabeth Walker
Joaquin Phoenix as Lucius Hunt
Adrien Brody as Noah Percy
William Hurt as Edward Walker
Sigourney Weaver as Alice HuntStory:

The movie starts out at a funeral of a child in a small village. The death date on the tombstone establishes the date as 1897. As the story progresses, it is revealed the villagers live in fear of nameless creatures in the woods that surround the village. They have built a barrier of oil lanterns and watch towers that are constantly manned to keep watch for "Those We Don't Speak Of", who are spoken of numerous times early in the film. It is explained that the villagers have a long-standing truce with the monsters; the villagers do not go into their woods, and the creatures do not enter their village. Even so, dead, skinned bodies of small animals are starting to appear around the village.

After the funeral, Lucius Hunt asks the village elders for permission to pass through the woods to get medical supplies from "the towns." His request is denied and, later, he is admonished by his mother, Alice, for wanting to go to the towns, which the villagers describe as "wicked places where wicked people live." It is revealed in that scene that the Elders seem to keep dark secrets of their own in the form of black boxes, the contents of which they keep hidden from their own offspring. After Lucius makes a short venture into the woods, the creatures leave warnings around the village in the form of splashes of red paint (referred by the villagers only as "the bad color") on all the villagers' doors.

Meanwhile, Ivy Elizabeth Walker, the blind daughter of the chief Elder, Edward Walker, informs Lucius that she has strong feelings for him, and he returns her affections. They arrange to be married, but things go horribly wrong when Noah Percy, a young man with apparent developmental problems who is in love with Ivy, stabs Lucius with a knife that he kept hidden away in his pocket.

Edward goes against the wishes of the other Elders, agreeing to allow Ivy to pass through the forest and seek out medicine for Lucius. Before she leaves, the first plot twist is revealed when Edward explains the secret of the creatures – they are fabrications created by the Elders in an attempt to keep any of their children from leaving the village. He does mention, however, that he had heard rumors of "real creatures" living in the woods at one time.

While Ivy is traveling through the forest, one of the beasts suddenly attacks her. She tricks it into falling into a deep hole to its death. It is then that the second plot twist is revealed — the creature is actually Noah in a costume that he had found under the floor of the room where he was kept locked from others. It is implied in that scene that it was Noah who had been skinning the animals all along.

Ivy eventually finds her way to the edge of the woods, where she encounters a large wall. After she climbs over the wall the final plot twist is revealed: the film is set in the present day (a newspaper in one scene shows July 30, 2004, the date of the film's release). A park ranger driving a Land Rover with the words "Walker Wildlife Preserve" on the side spots Ivy and is shocked to hear that she has come out of the woods. He then learns that Ivy's last name is "Walker."

It is revealed that the village was actually founded some time in the late 1970s, when Edward Walker, professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, approached other people he met at a grief counseling clinic after his father had been murdered. He asked them if they wished to join him in "an idea" he had. From this apparently grew "the village," a secluded town in the middle of a wildlife preserve purchased with Edward's family fortune, a place where they would be protected from any aspect of the outside world. The head ranger named "Jay" in the ranger station seen reflected in a glass door, fills in several plot points; the Walker estate pays to maintain the ranger corps, the rangers make sure no one goes into the wildlife preserve to "disturb the animal(s)", the Walker estate "paid off" the government to keep the entire wildlife preserve a "no-fly zone". Once the village was created, it appears the original "Elders" rolled the clock back to the late 19th century to what they thought was a simpler, more peaceful time.

The ranger retrieves medicine from a ranger station and Ivy returns to the village. This sequence is intercut with brief segments showing the Elders opening their black boxes, which are revealed to contain mementos from their lives in the actual outside world, including one or more items related to their past traumas. The film ends with a scene in a cabin where all the Elders are sitting around Lucius' bed. In that scene Edward points out that Noah's death will allow them to continue deceiving the rest of the villagers that there are "creatures" in the woods and all the Elders take a vote to continue living in the village. The film ends with Ivy arriving and saying "I'm back, Lucius."

L² Scored: 7.5/10

L² Comment:

Well, this is definitely a good movie which i'm really interested on. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan himself is a movie which u shouldn't miss. I remember when i watched it in the cinema, i was so gan zheong during the whole movie and was shocked on the twist of the story at the end...

But this is definitely not a movie for rewatch, guess knowing the ending has spoiled the mood of watching it again.