david_hollyfield

A Cronenbergesque body horror about ideals of feminine beauty and ageing. Demi Moore's performance is a tour de force as an ageing star and I'll say no more to avoid spoilers. She deserves her Golden Globe award and should be up for an Oscar.

Forty years working in Hollywood and this is her first award for anything so I guess some would have thought she was a lightweight and she has done a few awful films but this is definitely not one.

Cronenberg's influence is all over this movie but that is a definite plus. It's great to see a horror film with subtext instead of all the empty dross around.

Firstly, I love the Alien franchise... That said I couldn't maintain enough interest in this spin off to get to the gory bits. The original had the stink of authenticity in it's characters and the habitat in which they lived and worked their mostly humdrum and sometimes hazardous jobs for the payday. You could virtually smell the sweat and foot odor of the grizzled veterans of space exploitation. This, like the countless Star Wars spin offs, is one for the kids. No substance to the characters, just a bunch of attractive young folks going through the motions for teen appeal. This is a cash grabbing exercise that's merely trying to repeat the grittiness of the first Alien film. Without nuance. The whole franchise had a narrative arc that made sense, the characters were flawed; ambitious, greedy, exploited, and sometimes weak but above all believable. Even the android help were somewhat human. This film just grabs the texture and look of the original as a backdrop for a young cast to play two dimensional heroics against CGI monsters that we're so familiar with that they no longer have any of their original power to shock and horrify. H. R. Geiger and Ridley Scott gave us something absolutely new and Scott has managed to maintain a narrative arc that justifies the original movie, which despite it's 80's technology and fashions, remains believable. They are all films that I can sit through again without boredom. As I said previously, I couldn't even be bothered finishing this one.

I guess if you're a tween, a teen or young twenty something who hasn't seen the original or followed the franchise, this film may have some appeal for you, but as one of the reviews I read said; this is a reboot, done by a cover band, without any feel for the source material.

A big fat disappointment.

What century is this supposed to be set in?

Honestly? So many plot holes you could drive a truck through.

All got mobiles, all texting and instant messaging, videoing compromising situations, all the good stuff... And yet no one has bothered to ping the phones of potential and actual victims, including the Police, not once.

Mum doesn't use her phone camera to catch Nico with his pregnant other half? Need I go on?

Is this a case of dispensing with all the normal procedural protocols to highlight a very real social problem while sacrificing authenticity?

FFS, her parents are both professional technocrats?

They're using their laptops to spy on her behaviour but not even considering searching for an ISP?

Get outta here. Great acting, good dialogue but the teens especially must have needed a coach to get them through all the holes that the truck missed.

Pun totally intended.

France couldn't do Rock and Roll, couldn't do Punk, and now can't do Hip-hop.