Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Amazon's reviewer calls this movie overrated and drawn out, while the Leonard Maltin movie guide review seems a bit baffled that some people like this kind of entertainment. Don't listen to either of them. Alien is, quite simply, one of the best movies ever made in both the sci-fi and horror genres. Those who complain that the film takes too long to get going suffer from some kind of cinematic attention span disorder; Ridley Scott draws his scenes out because he wants to build tension and establish a sense of realism before introducing H.R. Giger's terrifying creation. Unfortunately we can all see that the monster is just a guy in a suit during the closing sequences when Scott finally lets us see what the big slimy nemesis really looks like, but otherwise the film hasn't aged a bit since it came out two decades ago. The DVD is great too, with excellent picture quality and a really great commentary track, despite some disastrously inappropriate menu screens (the interfaces are all CG-rendered glitz, which really doesn't go with a movie known for its slow, elegant, quiet suspense). Anyone with any interest in horror or science fiction films in general should pick up this classic immediately.