22 ms·

Notes on watching "Aliens" for the first time again, with a bunch of kids

396 points by dcre 12y ago

tptacek 12y ago
And as we watched, I realized again that while unfortunately you can't see a great movie again for the first time, the next-best thing is to show it to people who've never seen it. The third-best thing is reading a well-written account of that fresh showing of the movie. Now I want to watch Aliens again with my kids.
xivusr 12y ago
Very fond memories of watching Aliens, Predator, & Leviathon with my dad on weekends when mom was working. Fun read.
agumonkey 12y ago
Some movies will leave beautiful scars in your minds. The atmosphere of Robocop and Alien still pull me back.
- q7 12y ago
  "Beautiful scars in your mind". Love that.
- jsmeaton 12y ago
  Yes, Robocop did do this to me. It was one of the weirdest movies I had watched at the time. It's been a long long time since I've seen it though, I'm probably due for another viewing. I watched the remake a few weeks ago. It was ok but it didn't leave an impression on me like the original did.
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    None of the reboots have the spirits of the 80s. Technology changed the way "art" is produced and feels, too much details, backstory, less ~onirism. In Robocop's case, far too less cyberpunk, flesh and metal. In these days a Cyborg was a thing to imagine, nowadays it's a possibility, and the ethical comments : 'should we really pursue robotics' and 'is man playing god', aren't just a sci-fi story anymore, it felt like watching the news. If movies are correlated to societies subconscious, dreams have changed and the way we express them too.
    - unwind 12y ago
      Tilde-onorism? Approximately-onirism? Binary inversion-onirism? No, I just don't get that one. :|
      - agumonkey 12y ago
        I don't communicate in programming languages, I just lack the correct word. I believe that art is more about impression and people's current subconcious and dreams than what is told or shown. Onirism, impressionism, ... When you look back at old movies, which were lacking technology to materialize the subjects, they still managed to convey the essence. Today it's easy to have precision to appease the senses (CGI, 3D sound, 3D images, etc) but I don't find them an improvement over their predecessors (more often the opposite). Hence my idea that it's more about feeding the imagination than anything else.
  - __david__ 12y ago
    > I watched the remake a few weeks ago. It was ok but it didn't leave an impression on me like the original did. What bothered me was that they completely removed all the satire of the original. Robocop had a very dark sense of humor throughout—I love the scene where they're shooting the cans of baby food, and the one where the all news cameras follow the man falling out the window to his death[1]. Oh, and all the news reports and commercials. The new one played it really serious, where the original didn't take itself seriously at all. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md14H_qD8iQ?t=1m47s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md14H_qD8iQ?t=1m47s
    - DanBC 12y ago
      There's a bit of footage where the filmakers talk about the death of the executive after the new robot malfunctions, and how censors reacted. The original clip showed him dying, and the machine just keeps firing and firing and firing. It becomes darkly funny. Censors didn't like the scene but their suggestion was to cut down the length of time the gun fires. That turned the scene into something less funny and more brutal.
noir_lord 12y ago
I was born in 1980, I didn't have an awesome home life but some of my fondest memories are watching films like Aliens (and Blade Runner and Terminator) with my father. There was and is something undefinable about movies of that era (maybe everyone feels the same about the movies of their era) that modern films rarely capture for me.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  Ha, crossed comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9128083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9128083) I too was thinking about dark scifi movies of this era[1], am very very often questioning how subjective this is, but some things do stand the test of time and these don't fade. [1] something I can't find anymore in nowadays movies.
  - trevelyan 12y ago
    Many of the sci-fi action films that have persisted are about ideas, and this elevates them far about the sort of films that pass for most science fiction these days. Just like in twenty years people will watch Inception and Pan's Labyrinth and everything Michael Bay has done will be wiped clean from memory.
    - agumonkey 12y ago
      The last decade has been spoiled by technology, diverting movies from inspiring to showing Hi-Res CGI.
    - stcredzero 12y ago
      Inception will be remembered in part because it's overrated. (Birdman does better incidentally what Inception tries to do.) Pan's Labyrinth will be remembered for its style. Michael Bay will be remembered as an example of the excesses of technologists in art.
- Joeri 12y ago
  I suspect it's a combination of the cold war inspiring powerful story lines and atmospheres in a way that today's messy conflicts can't, and physical special effects reaching their zenith. The digitization of special effects led to a step back in many ways. Compare for example digital yoda versus rubber yoda. Sure, the digital one is more lively, but at the same time he isn't fully alive, and looks more dead with every passing year.
pluma 12y ago
In Germany the film is rated 16+, so this story strikes me as really odd. I wouldn't have thought of showing the film to children any younger than 14, personally. But I guess this is a cultural thing. We tend to be more prudish when it comes to violence but are a lot more relaxed when it comes to nudity or sexuality. I do remember watching Alien under age (no idea at what age exactly) and thinking it's the scariest thing I had ever seen, though. However I think it's difficult to tell whether that did me any harm or not. We tend to overestimate our own psyche, just as we tend to overestimate how "adult" our children really are.
- neckro23 12y ago
  In the US it's rated "R" (17+). If it wasn't for all the bad language though, I bet it would only be PG-13 by modern standards. Attitudes vary. My own parents would never have let me see Aliens when I was 11. I think I was 14 or 15 by the time I finally saw it.
  - JohnBooty 12y ago
    To clarify for those not from the US: an MPAA "R" rating means that children under 17 are not admitted unless accompanied by an adult. http://www.mpaa.org/film-ratings/ http://www.mpaa.org/film-ratings/ In other words, it's movies we're okay with kids seeing - but they need to see it with an adult, presumably one who knows it's something this specific child will be able to handle.
    - zanny 12y ago
      I read this and thought "I'd be amazed any parent would let their child see any movie by themselves". Then I realized I did it all the time with friends when I was 10-16 and we had a cinema 3 miles into town we would walk to, and I am only 24 this year. Its like the American Family went over-protectionist deep end in just this decade or something, because my brother who lives with his mother can't even walk to the school bus stop down the street by himself without it potentially resulting in a police call.
- wvenable 12y ago
cubano 12y ago
The first time I saw Aliens, I was on acid, and to me, in that state of mind, it seemed like the best movie ever created. I remember sweating a lot watching it, and all the meta-references that psychedelics enhance seemed to work perfectly within the framework of this story and show. More to the authors point, I have two grown sons and a 13yo daughter, and always, the best way for me to relive my (often misspent) youth is with and through them, by sharing the same or very similar experiences.
sbarre 12y ago
The biggest challenge was dissuading kids from trying to predict every single thing that was going to happen. This is a generation of talkers. They have to comment on everything. No thought can go unexpressed. This is, unfortunately, why I so rarely go to the movies anymore. I honestly don't remember if it was this bad when I was a kid, but I don't think I've seen a movie in the last 2 years where I didn't want to (or actually have to) tell some kids (late teen or younger) in my radius to stop talking. A few times other people even had to chime in when they scoffed at me, like I was somehow out of place telling them to not talk during a movie.
- itbeho 12y ago
  It's not just kids. There was a middle aged couple next to my wife and I the last flick we caught. I asked politely if they could save the discussion until after the movie and the woman told me in a loud voice to fuck off... seriously. I told my wife "I think I can take her..." but she, being the voice of reason as usual, told me to stand down. :)
  - greggman 12y ago
    where do you live? the most of the theaters I go to in LA and SF people mostly don't talk. The theater runs stuff before the movies, no talking, no texting, no phones. etc..
    - methodover 12y ago
      I live near SF. Where are these theaters?! Coming from Austin, and it's Alamo Drafthouses, I've been really disappointed with the talkers in films around here. Most movies that I've seen in the SF area have been filed with talkers.
      - wooster 12y ago
        Try Sundance Kabuki, especially the 21+ shows. Also, we're getting an Alamo Drafthouse, which I'm really looking forward to: http://drafthouse.com/san_francisco/new_mission http://drafthouse.com/san_francisco/new_mission
benmarks 12y ago
Great write-up. But why did I read the comments? Immediate conjectural descent into the harm inflicted on the children without parental consent. This is a more egregious reality today than kids needing to verbalize all the things. Personally, if I'd sent my 11yo over to Roger Ebert's house I'd expect him or her to watch whatever movie was on offer and thoroughly thank me for the experience years later. I just watched Aliens for umpteenth time last week. The harsh language line still gets me. And I always am just a little more on edge when I walk outside after watching.
- raldi 12y ago
  Roger Ebert didn't write this.
- sukilot 12y ago
  Watching a movie with a corpse is something any parent could fairly object to.
  - Crito 12y ago
    Oh come on. Even Disney movies have corpses in them.
jonhohle 12y ago
My son (just born Friday!) has a named influenced by Aliens. The special edition is one of my favorite movies. Even as an adult I could watch it continuously. I can't wait to watch it with my boys (quite a few years to go). What a treat to see such a great dad and movie story on an exhausted morning. Joeri's comment about practical effects is spot on.
- nacnud 12y ago
  It's a lil' baby Facehugger! (congratulations!)
JohnBooty 12y ago
I first saw Aliens when I was 12 or 13 on cable in the late 80s and it blew me away. Perfect movie in every way. I could watch it every day and never get tired of it. Funny thing was that our local cable network showed the "extended version" (with the sentry turrets, scenes with Newt's parents, etc) and for years I thought I'd imagined some of those scenes because the extended version wasn't available on video until much later. Fun fact: Jenette Goldstein (Pvt. Vasquez) runs several bra stores in the Los Angeles area that cater to women with difficult-to-fit sizes. She is a total sweetheart. If you have a small group and contact her via email ahead of time she may be willing to make accommodations for your group. We had about four couples and she opened the store a bit early for our group. The women got fitting sessions (she personally fitted my wife) and she chatted with us for a bit afterward, including answering some questions about Aliens. Please be respectful of her time and the fact that she's running a business, obviously. The bras are fairly expensive (but worth it, according to the women in our group) and they don't carry anything smaller than a D cup. So if you're not a potential customer, this is not the way to meet "Pvt. Vasquez!"
- dingaling 12y ago
  > Fun fact: Jenette Goldstein (Pvt. Vasquez) Did you ask her about the auditioning gaffe where she turned-up thinking it was a film about illegal aliens? Hence the Vasquez recruiting joke that made it into the film. Anyway, I have found that it's pretty much impossible for a group of adults to sit and watch Aliens. Everyone wants to shout Hudson's lines, at least after dubbing-over Frost for the first 30 minutes. Completely spoils the atmosphere.
  - JohnBooty 12y ago
    Did you ask her about the auditioning gaffe where she turned-up thinking it was a film about illegal aliens? YES! In fact, this was the only thing I asked her. She said that she did mistakenly think it was a movie based on resident aliens going into the audition, but it was her understanding that the joke was already in the script and was not specifically based on her audition. The way she phrased her answer suggested that she was pretty sure of this, but perhaps not 100% sure. My personal and completely uninformed speculation: even if the joke in the script was inspired by her misunderstanding, they may have told her otherwise for politeness' sake. I have no idea how likely that is.
danso 12y ago
It's almost a crime to be a writer on RogerEbert.com yet not reference Ebert's classic review of Aliens, so well written that I can still remember his characterization and nod my head at it: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aliens-1986 http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aliens-1986 > It's here that my nerves started to fail. "Aliens" is absolutely, painfully and unremittingly intense for at least its last hour. Weaver goes into battle to save her colleagues, herself and the little girl, and the aliens drop from the ceiling, pop up out of the floor and crawl out of the ventilation shafts. (In one of the movie's less plausible moments, one alien even seems to know how to work the elevator buttons.) I have never seen a movie that maintains such a pitch of intensity for so long; it's like being on some kind of hair-raising carnival ride that never stops. > I don't know how else to describe this: The movie made me feel bad. It filled me with feelings of unease and disquiet and anxiety. I walked outside and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was drained. I'm not sure "Aliens" is what we mean by entertainment. Yet I have to be accurate about this movie: It is a superb example of filmmaking craft. It sounds like all of the kids were boys...It'd be interesting to hear the perspective of girls watching it for the first time. Aliens was one of the first action movies I ever watched (and remembered) and I don't remember ever, at all, thinking that it was odd that a woman was in charge (in fact, all of the strong characters are female). Only years later have I realized that Alien and Aliens (never watched the other Alien movies) were unique among blockbuster movies in how the heroine is both the savior and not written as an object of romantic interest (beyond a brief flirtation with Cpl. Hicks)...Unlike movies like "Kill Bill" (which I love), the woman isn't written as an oddity, but a down-to-earth character who happens to be strong and resourceful. I never even thought Sigourney Weaver was beautiful until seeing her in other non-action movies. Edit: speaking of watching Aliens as a kid...I think it's the movie that caused the longest-running movie-inspired-phobia in my life...hearing something under my bed, and then not wanting to look under my bed for fear of a facehugger attacking me.
- kevin_thibedeau 12y ago
  > Aliens was one of the first action movies I ever watched (and remembered) and I don't remember ever, at all, thinking that it was odd that a woman was in charge (in fact, all of the strong characters are female). That's because the Ellen Ripley character was originally a man named Martin Roby.
protomyth 12y ago
I saw Aliens when it opened and I was about a week from turning 16. I had seen Alien when it came out (my Mom was a movie lover), and had been about a month from turing 9. I had not even seen the trailer so I was expecting another creepy horror film. I was totally blown away, it really felt like an action adventure with some horror. Since then, they released an extended edition with the auto-cannons and it seems like a different film. Funny thing is the first movie was scary when I saw it, but not something I dwelled on. I did get the big Alien that glowed in the dark for Xmas, and that scared the crap out of me when my Dad hung them by their tails in the basement. Plus, for how many times you hear: "Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure" or the actual quote "Nuke the entire site from orbit--it’s the only way to be sure", it had to have a bit of an impact.
- a3n 12y ago
  I actually heard the phrase in a programming shop before I'd ever seen the movie, and it made sense. It was a fun moment when I finally saw the movie.
malloreon 12y ago
The second episode of the excellent "I Was There Too" podcast features Ricco Ross, who played Private Frost in Aliens. It's an excellent episode (and show) filled with cool trivia from the cast and film shoot. http://iwastheretoo.wolfpop.com/audio/20250/aliens-with-ricco-ross http://iwastheretoo.wolfpop.com/audio/20250/aliens-with-ricc... Also, Aliens is the 2nd greatest action movie (after Die Hard) of all time, and #1 sci-fi action movie ever.
sparkzilla 12y ago
I watched Aliens with my 10-year-old daughter a few weeks ago. We had watched Alien a few weeks before. She had wanted to watch a real horror, but couldn't make it through the first few minutes of Scream, so we settled on Alien. She thought the alien bursting out of John Hurt's character was really funny. And it is. She thought the beginning of Aliens was too slow and it wasn't all that scary for her, but she enjoyed the film overall. I don't know if I would watch Prometheus with her - I'm sure she'd agree that film was terrible.
- rdtsc 12y ago
  Prometheus wasn't bad I think, I just never compared or put it in the same league as Alien(s).
  - insin 12y ago
    Ripley would have just ran sideways.
    - davesque 12y ago
      Right. And she wouldn't have acted all butt-hurt about just having had a c-section without anesthesia.
      - Crito 12y ago
        That c-section was simultaneously the best and worst part of the movie for me. The scene itself was great. Thematically and artistically, it was on-point. It felt like exactly the kind of scene that belongs in an Alien movie. What I hated is how the rest of the cast failed to react after it was done. They had been trying to capture her, she gets away, gets it cut out of her, and then everyone seems to forget or forgive just because that old guy was coming out of cryo-sleep. They should not have been so easily distracted.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    It wasn't that bad (I was negatively disappointed by it and my girlfriend was pissed off at me for taking her to it, but it was because neither of us realized it's a prequel to Alien) - though I still think the best part of this movie was the TED 2023 trailer.
pronoiac 12y ago
Neill Blomkamp, director of "District 9," is going to direct an "Aliens" sequel! It seems that first he said he'd ignore "Alien 3" and "Alien: Resurrection," but it seems like he's taken that back. [1] http://www.avclub.com/article/neill-blomkamps-alien-movie-will-ignore-alien-3-an-215808 http://www.avclub.com/article/neill-blomkamps-alien-movie-wi... [2] http://www.avclub.com/article/actually-blomkamps-alien-movie-wont-ignore-alien-3-215905 http://www.avclub.com/article/actually-blomkamps-alien-movie...
tootie 12y ago
I love how the kids think action movie cliches date back to 1986. Every sang froid action hero is copying Clint Eastwood from the 60s who was copying Toshiro Mifune from the 50s who was copying Humphrey Bogart from the 40s. You can pretty much follow the trail back to Gilgamesh.
aceperry 12y ago
The Aliens series of sci-fi films is my favorite of all time. Even though I watched the first two on tv, they were still amazing, and I have the 5 DVD set. I enjoyed them all, even though one or two of them weren't as popular. The story lines and arcs were pretty original and well thought out. Just an awesome series.
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TheMagicHorsey 12y ago
This movie inspired an entire generation of Video Game developer aesthetics. You can see the influence of this movie in literally every single game that is SciFi with human soldiers in it. The most obvious examples are Natural Selection and Halo ... but there are many others.
beloch 12y ago
The early 80's were a truly special time for action cinema, and sequels in particular. There were several sequels that stand out for both putting a completely different spin on the movies that preceded them while offering relentless and tight pacing. Aliens is just one example. Consider also, "The Road Warrior" (a.k.a. Mad Max 2). It took the faded and failing civilization of the original and pushed that out to every extreme possible. Total collapse. Anarchy. Barbarism. Post-apocalyptic wasteland. It also featured some of the tightest editing, most impressive stunts, and most relentless action of any film ever made. However, it was far from alone. "The Empire Strikes Back" took the light, fun, and somewhat corny adventure of "Star Wars" and turned that into a dark, brooding character driven film that was a non-stop roller coaster of tension. Empire is the film that makes people take Star Wars seriously no matter how much zany Ewok slapstick and standup-droid-comedy Lucas put into ROTJ and the prequels (I refuse to even type the full J-J word). The 2001-derivative "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was followed by the "The Wrath of Khan", which itself focused on character development and featured a climactic battle between both leaders and star ships. This film, despite being made on a shoestring budget when compared to the first Trek film, defined Trek movies for all time. Arguably, the franchise has suffered as Trek film after Trek film tried to recapture the magic of "The Wrath of Khan" instead of blazing their own paths. When you watch these films and compare them to today's action flicks, one thing that stands out is that the action is anything but non-stop. All of these films feature extended sequences of slow, careful character development that are punctuated by action scenes. Compare the most recent Superman film to Aliens for example. Aliens may have felt relentless and draining in its last hour, but the first hour is relatively slow. That slow, building action sets everything up. It made us care so much about the characters and appreciate how utterly alone and vulnerable they were that it was tough watching them go through the meat grinder of the second half. "Man of Steel" on the other hand, begins with action, continues with action, and ends with action, taking only brief breaks to string along a flimsy plot and barely flesh out stereotypical characters. Halfway through the city-wrecking final action sequence one finds oneself wishing the film would just get to the point! Both the magnitude of destruction and sheer volume of film expended in "Man of Steel" dwarfs that of Aliens, but there is only a fraction of the tension. You could take your time going to the bathroom at any point in "Man of Steel" and, odds are, all you'd miss is some CG mayhem that has no lasting effect on the plot. Does it really matter how many buildings Superman and his foes level without resolving anything? Today's film makers are too often afraid of boring their audience and too frequently sacrifice developing what makes the action matter for the sake of giving their audience non-stop action. Non-stop meaningless action is like eating nothing but ice-cream for dinner. Sure, ice cream is great, but it simply isn't satisfying on its own. Today's film makers should look to the early 80's as an example of what can be accomplished when you don't underestimate your audience's attention span.
acqq 12y ago
> "This movie has so many cliches in it," a boy said (...) My son told him, "This movie was made in 1986. It invented all the cliches." The first boy was right. It felt full of cliches even then. I watched it in eighties as soon as it was distributed to my place and I all the time I had that feeling of "boring 'we're the marines' movie." And I still can't understand why would anybody consider Aliens an interesting movie. The first Alien is however something else. And I was always amazed to later watch "The Dark Star" made before the Alien and find it (among the other things) an Alien parody made before the Alien(!) It's really so thanks to Dan O Bannon. Now that's something. Aliens... not even worth mentioning. Watch Alien, watch The Dark Star. Forget the boring Aliens. Disclaimer: I'm old enough that I've watched the Star Wars in seventies in my movie theatre. And Mad Max. And and and.. Of course Aliens were already cliches and cliches.
- psychometry 12y ago
  Part of the problem is James Cameron reusing the same themes and tropes in all of his movies. The Abyss and Avatar are pretty similar to Aliens thematically.
  - acqq 12y ago
    Cameron made some really outstanding movies, but I at least don't count Aliens among them. The Abyss was more than amazing for me.
  - nycticorax 12y ago
    The Abyss and Avatar were both made after Aliens. How can Cameron reusing themes from Aliens in those movies be a criticism of Aliens?
    - psychometry 12y ago
      Read the article. The younger viewers complained about cliches in Aliens, probably from seeing the same cliches reused in movies they've already seen, like Avatar.
- mathgenius 12y ago
ekianjo 12y ago
Aliens is one of my most lived movies of all times. But if you plan on buying a copy of it, please, please make sure you are not buying the Director's Cut edition. The ones with 20 minutes added to it. Most of the additions are useless (or just plain bad) and spoil all the surprises the movie had in its first cut. Many, many times I find that Director's Cut is just synonymous with "take the best cut and fill all the crap we did not think was worth it in the first place".
- Eupolemos 12y ago
  That certainly wasn't true for Bladerunner, IMHO.
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    True, but Blade Runner had a different story. The producers forced the Director to add the voice-over for the final cut of the movie before release because they would be worried the audience would not "get it" otherwise (if I remember correctly). The Director's Cut was the true version of the movie originally planned for theaters.
gbog 12y ago
I don't know what slumber party means but it seems completely crazy to have a bunch of kids together and play video games, eat pizza, watch horror movies. Do you want spoiled fat bored and boring kids? Because that's how you get that. I don't mean to mean that my 5yo boy and I never eat pizza or play video games or watch anime. But when we do it's because we are on our own, a Sunday evening, after having gotten outside with friends, and I'm too tired to play Lego. Also, alien is really a horror movie, playing hard with the nerves of the audience. Way too hard for 11yo kids if you ask me.
- rdtsc 12y ago
  Oh common. I won't downvote you, because that is not what it is for. But why do you presume so much. Depending on the maturity of the kids, 11 years olds can handle Alien movies.
  - gbog 12y ago
    Ok. Maybe they can. But maybe they shouldn't. What good is it bringing to kids to see this? Are you better after watching a mediocre and violent entertainment movie? Good movies make you better. I don't think there is any good reason to spend precious youth time seeing movies that don't make you better. I'm kind of tiger mom here, which some may not like. But I wouldn't be surprised if data analysis could demonstrate the success of tiger moming (success being the general well being and satisfying life of the resulting adult)
    - rdtsc 12y ago
      The thing is the dad thought it wasn't just a gortesque mediocre movie, it was one of the top of his favourites. So to the parent, it seemed like they were showing them a masterpiece. Also by the discussion that ensued afterwards the kids could see a lot of cliches and parallels. "She is like Snow White". If they can make those kind of references, they can handle a few aliens jumping out of the shaddows.
- icebraining 12y ago
  I don't know what slumber party means but it seems completely crazy to have a bunch of kids together and play video games, eat pizza, watch horror movies. Do you want spoiled fat bored and boring kids? Because that's how you get that. Yes, I'm sure that a single party on his birthday will make him fat. For all we know he's an athlete competing on the Youth Olympics, but it matters not, that single evening will forever condemn him to be fat.
seesomesense 12y ago
Showing that movie to 11 year olds is totally inappropriate.
- davesque 12y ago
  Not all the time. I saw it when I was eleven and I consider that to have been a formative experience for the better.
bwldrbst 12y ago
When I was about 5 I wandered into the room just in time to see my slightly older cousin watch the opening scene of An American Werewolf In London. That convinced me I wanted nothing to do with "scary" movies. A few years later I saw an advertisement for Aliens and declared "I never want to see that movie!" When I finally did watch Aliens at about 15 it immediately became my favourite movie. AAWIL is also pretty awesome :]
davesque 12y ago
This is perfect. Watching Aliens at exactly that age was a rite of passage for me. I had been really scared of scary movies up to that point. When I saw Aliens, it definitely freaked me out but, after the movie was over, my mind had been blown and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Totally cured me of my scary movie phobia too.
dankohn1 12y ago
I watched the first half of War Games (1983) with my 6 and 8 year old boys tonight, and they were both totally into it. The movie holds up incredibly well, especially the back-and-forth of Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy choosing targets to attack as the officers in NORAD are running around panicked. I can perhaps imagine showing Aliens to my sons when they're 11, but it seems overly aggressive to show their friends, without getting explicit agreement from their parents first.
- rsync 12y ago
  Agreed - wargames holds up really well, even now in 2015. It's a fantastic movie.
teekert 12y ago
Based on the title I thought it was going to be about kids freaking out and that one should pay attention to "kid's friendliness" of movies. But no. I also wouldn't be very amused if someone showed it to my kid without asking me first.
nmeofthestate 12y ago
I remember being horrified by Alien when it was shown on TV - I disappeared upstairs after the chestburster scene because I couldn't handle it. It haunted my dreams for weeks. 11 year olds must be hardened wee bastards these days.
sebastianconcpt 12y ago
Hilarious kids, thaks for sharing!

396 points by dcre 12y ago

And as we watched, I realized again that while unfortunately you can't see a great movie again for the first time, the next-best thing is to show it to people who've never seen it. The third-best thing is reading a well-written account of that fresh showing of the movie. Now I want to watch Aliens again with my kids.

xivusr 12y ago

Very fond memories of watching Aliens, Predator, & Leviathon with my dad on weekends when mom was working. Fun read.

agumonkey 12y ago

Some movies will leave beautiful scars in your minds. The atmosphere of Robocop and Alien still pull me back.

q7 12y ago
"Beautiful scars in your mind". Love that.
jsmeaton 12y ago
Yes, Robocop did do this to me. It was one of the weirdest movies I had watched at the time. It's been a long long time since I've seen it though, I'm probably due for another viewing. I watched the remake a few weeks ago. It was ok but it didn't leave an impression on me like the original did.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  None of the reboots have the spirits of the 80s. Technology changed the way "art" is produced and feels, too much details, backstory, less ~onirism. In Robocop's case, far too less cyberpunk, flesh and metal. In these days a Cyborg was a thing to imagine, nowadays it's a possibility, and the ethical comments : 'should we really pursue robotics' and 'is man playing god', aren't just a sci-fi story anymore, it felt like watching the news. If movies are correlated to societies subconscious, dreams have changed and the way we express them too.
  - unwind 12y ago
    Tilde-onorism? Approximately-onirism? Binary inversion-onirism? No, I just don't get that one. :|
    - agumonkey 12y ago
      I don't communicate in programming languages, I just lack the correct word. I believe that art is more about impression and people's current subconcious and dreams than what is told or shown. Onirism, impressionism, ... When you look back at old movies, which were lacking technology to materialize the subjects, they still managed to convey the essence. Today it's easy to have precision to appease the senses (CGI, 3D sound, 3D images, etc) but I don't find them an improvement over their predecessors (more often the opposite). Hence my idea that it's more about feeding the imagination than anything else.
- __david__ 12y ago
  > I watched the remake a few weeks ago. It was ok but it didn't leave an impression on me like the original did. What bothered me was that they completely removed all the satire of the original. Robocop had a very dark sense of humor throughout—I love the scene where they're shooting the cans of baby food, and the one where the all news cameras follow the man falling out the window to his death[1]. Oh, and all the news reports and commercials. The new one played it really serious, where the original didn't take itself seriously at all. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md14H_qD8iQ?t=1m47s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md14H_qD8iQ?t=1m47s
  - DanBC 12y ago
    There's a bit of footage where the filmakers talk about the death of the executive after the new robot malfunctions, and how censors reacted. The original clip showed him dying, and the machine just keeps firing and firing and firing. It becomes darkly funny. Censors didn't like the scene but their suggestion was to cut down the length of time the gun fires. That turned the scene into something less funny and more brutal.

noir_lord 12y ago

I was born in 1980, I didn't have an awesome home life but some of my fondest memories are watching films like Aliens (and Blade Runner and Terminator) with my father. There was and is something undefinable about movies of that era (maybe everyone feels the same about the movies of their era) that modern films rarely capture for me.

agumonkey 12y ago
Ha, crossed comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9128083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9128083) I too was thinking about dark scifi movies of this era[1], am very very often questioning how subjective this is, but some things do stand the test of time and these don't fade. [1] something I can't find anymore in nowadays movies.
- trevelyan 12y ago
  Many of the sci-fi action films that have persisted are about ideas, and this elevates them far about the sort of films that pass for most science fiction these days. Just like in twenty years people will watch Inception and Pan's Labyrinth and everything Michael Bay has done will be wiped clean from memory.
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    The last decade has been spoiled by technology, diverting movies from inspiring to showing Hi-Res CGI.
  - stcredzero 12y ago
    Inception will be remembered in part because it's overrated. (Birdman does better incidentally what Inception tries to do.) Pan's Labyrinth will be remembered for its style. Michael Bay will be remembered as an example of the excesses of technologists in art.
Joeri 12y ago
I suspect it's a combination of the cold war inspiring powerful story lines and atmospheres in a way that today's messy conflicts can't, and physical special effects reaching their zenith. The digitization of special effects led to a step back in many ways. Compare for example digital yoda versus rubber yoda. Sure, the digital one is more lively, but at the same time he isn't fully alive, and looks more dead with every passing year.

pluma 12y ago

In Germany the film is rated 16+, so this story strikes me as really odd. I wouldn't have thought of showing the film to children any younger than 14, personally. But I guess this is a cultural thing. We tend to be more prudish when it comes to violence but are a lot more relaxed when it comes to nudity or sexuality. I do remember watching Alien under age (no idea at what age exactly) and thinking it's the scariest thing I had ever seen, though. However I think it's difficult to tell whether that did me any harm or not. We tend to overestimate our own psyche, just as we tend to overestimate how "adult" our children really are.

neckro23 12y ago
In the US it's rated "R" (17+). If it wasn't for all the bad language though, I bet it would only be PG-13 by modern standards. Attitudes vary. My own parents would never have let me see Aliens when I was 11. I think I was 14 or 15 by the time I finally saw it.
- JohnBooty 12y ago
  To clarify for those not from the US: an MPAA "R" rating means that children under 17 are not admitted unless accompanied by an adult. http://www.mpaa.org/film-ratings/ http://www.mpaa.org/film-ratings/ In other words, it's movies we're okay with kids seeing - but they need to see it with an adult, presumably one who knows it's something this specific child will be able to handle.
  - zanny 12y ago
    I read this and thought "I'd be amazed any parent would let their child see any movie by themselves". Then I realized I did it all the time with friends when I was 10-16 and we had a cinema 3 miles into town we would walk to, and I am only 24 this year. Its like the American Family went over-protectionist deep end in just this decade or something, because my brother who lives with his mother can't even walk to the school bus stop down the street by himself without it potentially resulting in a police call.
wvenable 12y ago

cubano 12y ago

The first time I saw Aliens, I was on acid, and to me, in that state of mind, it seemed like the best movie ever created. I remember sweating a lot watching it, and all the meta-references that psychedelics enhance seemed to work perfectly within the framework of this story and show. More to the authors point, I have two grown sons and a 13yo daughter, and always, the best way for me to relive my (often misspent) youth is with and through them, by sharing the same or very similar experiences.

sbarre 12y ago

The biggest challenge was dissuading kids from trying to predict every single thing that was going to happen. This is a generation of talkers. They have to comment on everything. No thought can go unexpressed. This is, unfortunately, why I so rarely go to the movies anymore. I honestly don't remember if it was this bad when I was a kid, but I don't think I've seen a movie in the last 2 years where I didn't want to (or actually have to) tell some kids (late teen or younger) in my radius to stop talking. A few times other people even had to chime in when they scoffed at me, like I was somehow out of place telling them to not talk during a movie.

itbeho 12y ago
It's not just kids. There was a middle aged couple next to my wife and I the last flick we caught. I asked politely if they could save the discussion until after the movie and the woman told me in a loud voice to fuck off... seriously. I told my wife "I think I can take her..." but she, being the voice of reason as usual, told me to stand down. :)
- greggman 12y ago
  where do you live? the most of the theaters I go to in LA and SF people mostly don't talk. The theater runs stuff before the movies, no talking, no texting, no phones. etc..
  - methodover 12y ago
    I live near SF. Where are these theaters?! Coming from Austin, and it's Alamo Drafthouses, I've been really disappointed with the talkers in films around here. Most movies that I've seen in the SF area have been filed with talkers.
    - wooster 12y ago
      Try Sundance Kabuki, especially the 21+ shows. Also, we're getting an Alamo Drafthouse, which I'm really looking forward to: http://drafthouse.com/san_francisco/new_mission http://drafthouse.com/san_francisco/new_mission

benmarks 12y ago

Great write-up. But why did I read the comments? Immediate conjectural descent into the harm inflicted on the children without parental consent. This is a more egregious reality today than kids needing to verbalize all the things. Personally, if I'd sent my 11yo over to Roger Ebert's house I'd expect him or her to watch whatever movie was on offer and thoroughly thank me for the experience years later. I just watched Aliens for umpteenth time last week. The harsh language line still gets me. And I always am just a little more on edge when I walk outside after watching.

raldi 12y ago
Roger Ebert didn't write this.
sukilot 12y ago
Watching a movie with a corpse is something any parent could fairly object to.
- Crito 12y ago
  Oh come on. Even Disney movies have corpses in them.

jonhohle 12y ago

My son (just born Friday!) has a named influenced by Aliens. The special edition is one of my favorite movies. Even as an adult I could watch it continuously. I can't wait to watch it with my boys (quite a few years to go). What a treat to see such a great dad and movie story on an exhausted morning. Joeri's comment about practical effects is spot on.

nacnud 12y ago
It's a lil' baby Facehugger! (congratulations!)

JohnBooty 12y ago

I first saw Aliens when I was 12 or 13 on cable in the late 80s and it blew me away. Perfect movie in every way. I could watch it every day and never get tired of it. Funny thing was that our local cable network showed the "extended version" (with the sentry turrets, scenes with Newt's parents, etc) and for years I thought I'd imagined some of those scenes because the extended version wasn't available on video until much later. Fun fact: Jenette Goldstein (Pvt. Vasquez) runs several bra stores in the Los Angeles area that cater to women with difficult-to-fit sizes. She is a total sweetheart. If you have a small group and contact her via email ahead of time she may be willing to make accommodations for your group. We had about four couples and she opened the store a bit early for our group. The women got fitting sessions (she personally fitted my wife) and she chatted with us for a bit afterward, including answering some questions about Aliens. Please be respectful of her time and the fact that she's running a business, obviously. The bras are fairly expensive (but worth it, according to the women in our group) and they don't carry anything smaller than a D cup. So if you're not a potential customer, this is not the way to meet "Pvt. Vasquez!"

dingaling 12y ago
> Fun fact: Jenette Goldstein (Pvt. Vasquez) Did you ask her about the auditioning gaffe where she turned-up thinking it was a film about illegal aliens? Hence the Vasquez recruiting joke that made it into the film. Anyway, I have found that it's pretty much impossible for a group of adults to sit and watch Aliens. Everyone wants to shout Hudson's lines, at least after dubbing-over Frost for the first 30 minutes. Completely spoils the atmosphere.
- JohnBooty 12y ago
  Did you ask her about the auditioning gaffe where she turned-up thinking it was a film about illegal aliens? YES! In fact, this was the only thing I asked her. She said that she did mistakenly think it was a movie based on resident aliens going into the audition, but it was her understanding that the joke was already in the script and was not specifically based on her audition. The way she phrased her answer suggested that she was pretty sure of this, but perhaps not 100% sure. My personal and completely uninformed speculation: even if the joke in the script was inspired by her misunderstanding, they may have told her otherwise for politeness' sake. I have no idea how likely that is.

danso 12y ago

It's almost a crime to be a writer on RogerEbert.com yet not reference Ebert's classic review of Aliens, so well written that I can still remember his characterization and nod my head at it: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aliens-1986 http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aliens-1986 > It's here that my nerves started to fail. "Aliens" is absolutely, painfully and unremittingly intense for at least its last hour. Weaver goes into battle to save her colleagues, herself and the little girl, and the aliens drop from the ceiling, pop up out of the floor and crawl out of the ventilation shafts. (In one of the movie's less plausible moments, one alien even seems to know how to work the elevator buttons.) I have never seen a movie that maintains such a pitch of intensity for so long; it's like being on some kind of hair-raising carnival ride that never stops. > I don't know how else to describe this: The movie made me feel bad. It filled me with feelings of unease and disquiet and anxiety. I walked outside and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was drained. I'm not sure "Aliens" is what we mean by entertainment. Yet I have to be accurate about this movie: It is a superb example of filmmaking craft. It sounds like all of the kids were boys...It'd be interesting to hear the perspective of girls watching it for the first time. Aliens was one of the first action movies I ever watched (and remembered) and I don't remember ever, at all, thinking that it was odd that a woman was in charge (in fact, all of the strong characters are female). Only years later have I realized that Alien and Aliens (never watched the other Alien movies) were unique among blockbuster movies in how the heroine is both the savior and not written as an object of romantic interest (beyond a brief flirtation with Cpl. Hicks)...Unlike movies like "Kill Bill" (which I love), the woman isn't written as an oddity, but a down-to-earth character who happens to be strong and resourceful. I never even thought Sigourney Weaver was beautiful until seeing her in other non-action movies. Edit: speaking of watching Aliens as a kid...I think it's the movie that caused the longest-running movie-inspired-phobia in my life...hearing something under my bed, and then not wanting to look under my bed for fear of a facehugger attacking me.

kevin_thibedeau 12y ago
> Aliens was one of the first action movies I ever watched (and remembered) and I don't remember ever, at all, thinking that it was odd that a woman was in charge (in fact, all of the strong characters are female). That's because the Ellen Ripley character was originally a man named Martin Roby.

protomyth 12y ago

I saw Aliens when it opened and I was about a week from turning 16. I had seen Alien when it came out (my Mom was a movie lover), and had been about a month from turing 9. I had not even seen the trailer so I was expecting another creepy horror film. I was totally blown away, it really felt like an action adventure with some horror. Since then, they released an extended edition with the auto-cannons and it seems like a different film. Funny thing is the first movie was scary when I saw it, but not something I dwelled on. I did get the big Alien that glowed in the dark for Xmas, and that scared the crap out of me when my Dad hung them by their tails in the basement. Plus, for how many times you hear: "Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure" or the actual quote "Nuke the entire site from orbit--it’s the only way to be sure", it had to have a bit of an impact.

a3n 12y ago
I actually heard the phrase in a programming shop before I'd ever seen the movie, and it made sense. It was a fun moment when I finally saw the movie.

malloreon 12y ago

The second episode of the excellent "I Was There Too" podcast features Ricco Ross, who played Private Frost in Aliens. It's an excellent episode (and show) filled with cool trivia from the cast and film shoot. http://iwastheretoo.wolfpop.com/audio/20250/aliens-with-ricco-ross http://iwastheretoo.wolfpop.com/audio/20250/aliens-with-ricc... Also, Aliens is the 2nd greatest action movie (after Die Hard) of all time, and #1 sci-fi action movie ever.

sparkzilla 12y ago

I watched Aliens with my 10-year-old daughter a few weeks ago. We had watched Alien a few weeks before. She had wanted to watch a real horror, but couldn't make it through the first few minutes of Scream, so we settled on Alien. She thought the alien bursting out of John Hurt's character was really funny. And it is. She thought the beginning of Aliens was too slow and it wasn't all that scary for her, but she enjoyed the film overall. I don't know if I would watch Prometheus with her - I'm sure she'd agree that film was terrible.

rdtsc 12y ago
Prometheus wasn't bad I think, I just never compared or put it in the same league as Alien(s).
- insin 12y ago
  Ripley would have just ran sideways.
  - davesque 12y ago
    Right. And she wouldn't have acted all butt-hurt about just having had a c-section without anesthesia.
    - Crito 12y ago
      That c-section was simultaneously the best and worst part of the movie for me. The scene itself was great. Thematically and artistically, it was on-point. It felt like exactly the kind of scene that belongs in an Alien movie. What I hated is how the rest of the cast failed to react after it was done. They had been trying to capture her, she gets away, gets it cut out of her, and then everyone seems to forget or forgive just because that old guy was coming out of cryo-sleep. They should not have been so easily distracted.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  It wasn't that bad (I was negatively disappointed by it and my girlfriend was pissed off at me for taking her to it, but it was because neither of us realized it's a prequel to Alien) - though I still think the best part of this movie was the TED 2023 trailer.

pronoiac 12y ago

Neill Blomkamp, director of "District 9," is going to direct an "Aliens" sequel! It seems that first he said he'd ignore "Alien 3" and "Alien: Resurrection," but it seems like he's taken that back. [1] http://www.avclub.com/article/neill-blomkamps-alien-movie-will-ignore-alien-3-an-215808 http://www.avclub.com/article/neill-blomkamps-alien-movie-wi... [2] http://www.avclub.com/article/actually-blomkamps-alien-movie-wont-ignore-alien-3-215905 http://www.avclub.com/article/actually-blomkamps-alien-movie...

tootie 12y ago

I love how the kids think action movie cliches date back to 1986. Every sang froid action hero is copying Clint Eastwood from the 60s who was copying Toshiro Mifune from the 50s who was copying Humphrey Bogart from the 40s. You can pretty much follow the trail back to Gilgamesh.

aceperry 12y ago

The Aliens series of sci-fi films is my favorite of all time. Even though I watched the first two on tv, they were still amazing, and I have the 5 DVD set. I enjoyed them all, even though one or two of them weren't as popular. The story lines and arcs were pretty original and well thought out. Just an awesome series.

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TheMagicHorsey 12y ago

This movie inspired an entire generation of Video Game developer aesthetics. You can see the influence of this movie in literally every single game that is SciFi with human soldiers in it. The most obvious examples are Natural Selection and Halo ... but there are many others.

beloch 12y ago

The early 80's were a truly special time for action cinema, and sequels in particular. There were several sequels that stand out for both putting a completely different spin on the movies that preceded them while offering relentless and tight pacing. Aliens is just one example. Consider also, "The Road Warrior" (a.k.a. Mad Max 2). It took the faded and failing civilization of the original and pushed that out to every extreme possible. Total collapse. Anarchy. Barbarism. Post-apocalyptic wasteland. It also featured some of the tightest editing, most impressive stunts, and most relentless action of any film ever made. However, it was far from alone. "The Empire Strikes Back" took the light, fun, and somewhat corny adventure of "Star Wars" and turned that into a dark, brooding character driven film that was a non-stop roller coaster of tension. Empire is the film that makes people take Star Wars seriously no matter how much zany Ewok slapstick and standup-droid-comedy Lucas put into ROTJ and the prequels (I refuse to even type the full J-J word). The 2001-derivative "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was followed by the "The Wrath of Khan", which itself focused on character development and featured a climactic battle between both leaders and star ships. This film, despite being made on a shoestring budget when compared to the first Trek film, defined Trek movies for all time. Arguably, the franchise has suffered as Trek film after Trek film tried to recapture the magic of "The Wrath of Khan" instead of blazing their own paths. When you watch these films and compare them to today's action flicks, one thing that stands out is that the action is anything but non-stop. All of these films feature extended sequences of slow, careful character development that are punctuated by action scenes. Compare the most recent Superman film to Aliens for example. Aliens may have felt relentless and draining in its last hour, but the first hour is relatively slow. That slow, building action sets everything up. It made us care so much about the characters and appreciate how utterly alone and vulnerable they were that it was tough watching them go through the meat grinder of the second half. "Man of Steel" on the other hand, begins with action, continues with action, and ends with action, taking only brief breaks to string along a flimsy plot and barely flesh out stereotypical characters. Halfway through the city-wrecking final action sequence one finds oneself wishing the film would just get to the point! Both the magnitude of destruction and sheer volume of film expended in "Man of Steel" dwarfs that of Aliens, but there is only a fraction of the tension. You could take your time going to the bathroom at any point in "Man of Steel" and, odds are, all you'd miss is some CG mayhem that has no lasting effect on the plot. Does it really matter how many buildings Superman and his foes level without resolving anything? Today's film makers are too often afraid of boring their audience and too frequently sacrifice developing what makes the action matter for the sake of giving their audience non-stop action. Non-stop meaningless action is like eating nothing but ice-cream for dinner. Sure, ice cream is great, but it simply isn't satisfying on its own. Today's film makers should look to the early 80's as an example of what can be accomplished when you don't underestimate your audience's attention span.

acqq 12y ago

> "This movie has so many cliches in it," a boy said (...) My son told him, "This movie was made in 1986. It invented all the cliches." The first boy was right. It felt full of cliches even then. I watched it in eighties as soon as it was distributed to my place and I all the time I had that feeling of "boring 'we're the marines' movie." And I still can't understand why would anybody consider Aliens an interesting movie. The first Alien is however something else. And I was always amazed to later watch "The Dark Star" made before the Alien and find it (among the other things) an Alien parody made before the Alien(!) It's really so thanks to Dan O Bannon. Now that's something. Aliens... not even worth mentioning. Watch Alien, watch The Dark Star. Forget the boring Aliens. Disclaimer: I'm old enough that I've watched the Star Wars in seventies in my movie theatre. And Mad Max. And and and.. Of course Aliens were already cliches and cliches.

psychometry 12y ago
Part of the problem is James Cameron reusing the same themes and tropes in all of his movies. The Abyss and Avatar are pretty similar to Aliens thematically.
- acqq 12y ago
  Cameron made some really outstanding movies, but I at least don't count Aliens among them. The Abyss was more than amazing for me.
- nycticorax 12y ago
  The Abyss and Avatar were both made after Aliens. How can Cameron reusing themes from Aliens in those movies be a criticism of Aliens?
  - psychometry 12y ago
    Read the article. The younger viewers complained about cliches in Aliens, probably from seeing the same cliches reused in movies they've already seen, like Avatar.
mathgenius 12y ago

ekianjo 12y ago

Aliens is one of my most lived movies of all times. But if you plan on buying a copy of it, please, please make sure you are not buying the Director's Cut edition. The ones with 20 minutes added to it. Most of the additions are useless (or just plain bad) and spoil all the surprises the movie had in its first cut. Many, many times I find that Director's Cut is just synonymous with "take the best cut and fill all the crap we did not think was worth it in the first place".

Eupolemos 12y ago
That certainly wasn't true for Bladerunner, IMHO.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  True, but Blade Runner had a different story. The producers forced the Director to add the voice-over for the final cut of the movie before release because they would be worried the audience would not "get it" otherwise (if I remember correctly). The Director's Cut was the true version of the movie originally planned for theaters.

gbog 12y ago

I don't know what slumber party means but it seems completely crazy to have a bunch of kids together and play video games, eat pizza, watch horror movies. Do you want spoiled fat bored and boring kids? Because that's how you get that. I don't mean to mean that my 5yo boy and I never eat pizza or play video games or watch anime. But when we do it's because we are on our own, a Sunday evening, after having gotten outside with friends, and I'm too tired to play Lego. Also, alien is really a horror movie, playing hard with the nerves of the audience. Way too hard for 11yo kids if you ask me.

rdtsc 12y ago
Oh common. I won't downvote you, because that is not what it is for. But why do you presume so much. Depending on the maturity of the kids, 11 years olds can handle Alien movies.
- gbog 12y ago
  Ok. Maybe they can. But maybe they shouldn't. What good is it bringing to kids to see this? Are you better after watching a mediocre and violent entertainment movie? Good movies make you better. I don't think there is any good reason to spend precious youth time seeing movies that don't make you better. I'm kind of tiger mom here, which some may not like. But I wouldn't be surprised if data analysis could demonstrate the success of tiger moming (success being the general well being and satisfying life of the resulting adult)
  - rdtsc 12y ago
    The thing is the dad thought it wasn't just a gortesque mediocre movie, it was one of the top of his favourites. So to the parent, it seemed like they were showing them a masterpiece. Also by the discussion that ensued afterwards the kids could see a lot of cliches and parallels. "She is like Snow White". If they can make those kind of references, they can handle a few aliens jumping out of the shaddows.
icebraining 12y ago
I don't know what slumber party means but it seems completely crazy to have a bunch of kids together and play video games, eat pizza, watch horror movies. Do you want spoiled fat bored and boring kids? Because that's how you get that. Yes, I'm sure that a single party on his birthday will make him fat. For all we know he's an athlete competing on the Youth Olympics, but it matters not, that single evening will forever condemn him to be fat.

seesomesense 12y ago

Showing that movie to 11 year olds is totally inappropriate.

davesque 12y ago
Not all the time. I saw it when I was eleven and I consider that to have been a formative experience for the better.

bwldrbst 12y ago

When I was about 5 I wandered into the room just in time to see my slightly older cousin watch the opening scene of An American Werewolf In London. That convinced me I wanted nothing to do with "scary" movies. A few years later I saw an advertisement for Aliens and declared "I never want to see that movie!" When I finally did watch Aliens at about 15 it immediately became my favourite movie. AAWIL is also pretty awesome :]

davesque 12y ago

This is perfect. Watching Aliens at exactly that age was a rite of passage for me. I had been really scared of scary movies up to that point. When I saw Aliens, it definitely freaked me out but, after the movie was over, my mind had been blown and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Totally cured me of my scary movie phobia too.

dankohn1 12y ago

I watched the first half of War Games (1983) with my 6 and 8 year old boys tonight, and they were both totally into it. The movie holds up incredibly well, especially the back-and-forth of Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy choosing targets to attack as the officers in NORAD are running around panicked. I can perhaps imagine showing Aliens to my sons when they're 11, but it seems overly aggressive to show their friends, without getting explicit agreement from their parents first.

rsync 12y ago
Agreed - wargames holds up really well, even now in 2015. It's a fantastic movie.

teekert 12y ago

Based on the title I thought it was going to be about kids freaking out and that one should pay attention to "kid's friendliness" of movies. But no. I also wouldn't be very amused if someone showed it to my kid without asking me first.

nmeofthestate 12y ago

I remember being horrified by Alien when it was shown on TV - I disappeared upstairs after the chestburster scene because I couldn't handle it. It haunted my dreams for weeks. 11 year olds must be hardened wee bastards these days.

sebastianconcpt 12y ago

Hilarious kids, thaks for sharing!