Friday the 13th - 1980: I know, I know, this is clich� from the word go, but nonetheless fairly strong cheese, here. Mind you, I lost interest after the first two sequels, and haven't seen all of the others at one time, which has left me with an odd patchwork of recollections about the rest of the series -- but the first film nonetheless is a hoot to watch.

The Gate - 1987: Probably the only PG-13 horror flick I'll ever recommend. As one could guess by the rating, it's not exactly filled with violence and titillation, and the leads are all kids -- but it has some really neat stop-motion effects, and moments of genuine creepiness. A nice rental.

Halloween - 1978: Basically, the film that started the whole "survival horror" sub-genre. This film seems tame by today's standards, since it mainly relies on tension and suspense more than shocks and violence. It nonetheless is one of my faves, if only for the always-excessive Donald Pleasance as the that wacky psychotherapist, Dr. Sam "He's Evil On Two Legs" Loomis. After the second film and third (a cheeesy delight, that one), I basically lost interest, as by then the original filmmakers were no longer involved, but the first film is great for its atmosphere.

Hellraiser - 1987: A decent flick from Clive Barker, unfortunately dated now in terms of visuals -- but a imaginative film anyway. To be honest, I like the sequel (Hellraiser II: Hellbound) better than this one, but again, lost interest after it. Really depends on if your into Barker's sfuff. I for one dig the otherworld of The Lament COnfiguration, and the Cenobites and lost souls who live there. Creepy stuff.

THe Hitcher - 1986: This one is a trip. C. Thomas Howell gets on the wrong side of Rutger Hauer, and lives to sincerely regret it. But he doesn't really get the worst of it - that's saved for the girl he meets along the way... I will say no more. Just see this one if you can.

THe Howling - 1981: High-grade cheesy fun, with some neat Rob Bottin werewolf effects thrown in. Like most of the Roger Corman-produced flicks of the '70s-'80s, this comes off like a made-for-TV movie with something extra. Director Joe Dante plays along well, but not without his usual dose of the tongue-in-cheek, fueled onward by John Sayles' quirky screenplay (Sayles makes an appearance in the film as a coroner, btw). And Dee Wallace Stone makes a cute werewolf, don't she?

That's it for now, again I'll post more if there's interest. 

I only saw the 'version you've never seen' edition, earlier this year. What's better/different in the other version? 

The 25th Anniversary edition was simply a digitally remastered version of the original theatrical release. What's different is that it is missing the spider walk scene, the extra scenes at the hospital (which mainly consist of Regan getting pissy with the nursing staff and some other tests that they run on her), a brief dialog between the two priests midway through the exorcism when they're sitting at the stairs, and a slightly elongated ending, where Lt. Kinderman and Father Dyer meet up at the end, which basically sets the stage for the third film, in which they're depicted as old friends. Also, there are those annoying digital paste-ins like fucking stickers one would get out of a box of cereal throughout the film, usually of ol' Pazuzu and one of Karras' mother that's seen on the curtains of Regan's window right before he jumps through it.

If you listen to the commentary on the 25th Anniversay edition, you can basically follow a list of stuff that William Friedkin says he wouldn't do to compromise his original vision for the film, and that's basically what he turned around and did with The Version You've Never Seen. Albeit it doesn't contain the spider walk, but I simply think the original is way better, since things aren't as spelled-out to the viewer on what's going on at the core of the film (the good vs. evil stuff), and those fucking digital pastiches aren't in there. 

I thought those things were meant to look like cheesy symbols, didnt know they were additions. Thanks for that though, will check the original out sometime but I'm viewing the version I have again since I still havent worked out a few things (eg how regan became possessed). At least it wasnt a total disaster ala Apocalypse Now Redux. 

you can basically follow a list of stuff that William Friedkin says he wouldn't do to compromise his original vision for the film, and that's basically what he turned around and did

That sounds suspicously like Alien: Directors Cut. When the bonus footage, including the infamous 'cocoon sequence', was released originally as part of the boxhugger set, it wasn't reinserted into the movie because Scott said the original release version was the 'director's cut'. But here we are with an extra 6 minutes of footage to justify the re-release. Oh, the thundering of the bandwagon :P 

how true. 

Apocalypse Now redux was *horrible*.
I loved the original movie, it was so slow that you could only stand it because it was so good. It had mood and atmosphere. With the nearly hour of extra footage, the movie is just ruined. And the thing I'm most pissed off about is, I can't see Apocalpyse Now on DVD without the damned extra footage! Yes, I could technically skip the scenes, but that would just ruin the mood, and I'm serious that's the movie's primary strength. 

However, no less than nine discs of Alien-goodness will surely make up for the extra 6 mniutes. 

it depends what they've managed to find to pad out 9 discs; a proper interview with Ron 'N66 cyclone thrust tunnel' Cobb would be top of my list. Less of Sigourney 'you can't fire me' Weaver would be good too :P 

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avp/ 

from what I understand you should be able to watch both the theatrical and director's cut versions of both Alien and Aliens.

The only scene I didnt like in Aliens's drector's cut was the dune buggy ride by newt and her parents near the start fo the film, totally kneecaps the suspense when the marines find her. 

yes you can, order the original, it's still available in R1 format, albeit very expensively.

And it's harder than just skipping scenes since they've rearranged some of the footage in the timeline too. 

Starbuck: thank you, my man

Nitin: yes, the Jordan family scene was the one that stuck out the most to me, especially since it also includes Timmy, the derelict and a facehugger. Too much information. The Operations scene with Mac 'fat cop' McDonald ( aye, there's a canny name :) was rather good, though. Of course, by the time I saw the SE I'd seen the movie so often none of the extra scenes detracted very much. Perhaps it will be like that with Alien: DC.
Oh, and the 'dune buggy' is a Daihotai Tractor, btw. 

from what I understand, each movie will be on a standalone disc, hopefully meaning better quality and the extras on a separate disc. Disc 9 is prbably documentaries etc ala disc 5 of the original release. 

...had me pissed off because it wasn't showing any footage of actual gameplay. Then I realized it's an actual movie! Sweet!

Though, I'd maybe prefer a game... Lots of movies like this end up being sub-standard (let us all forget Street Fighter, Mario Bros., and Mortal Combat - heaven help us). I did like Resident Evil though (I've never played the game, I got into Dino Crisis), so maybe AVP will be good enough to like. 

bear in mind that the franchises to which you refer are computer games -> movies; Aliens and Predators are movies -> games. The AvP movie is not to be based on the plot of either game - one little factoid that has come to my attention is that the movie is actually title Alien versus Predator and not Aliens versus Predator to subtly distinguish the movie from the games. Though that seems a bit too subtle for Hollywood :P
The plot for the movie has been posted around - I'll find the link if you want it. Near future. Antarctica. Ancient ruins. Read 'At The Mountains Of Madness' and you're halfway there. Anyone care to guess the author of said yarn? ;)
No holy cows. Nope, not here. 

Rob Zombie? 

You, sir, are extracting the urine :) 

teh humar! 

one little factoid that has come to my attention is that the movie is actually title Alien versus Predator and not Aliens versus Predator...

Yeah, that stood out to me too, but I was worried it might actually mean what it says, i.e. one alien versus one predator in some demented 'Freddy versus Jason' style bandwagon-jumping. Hopefully the plot thats circulating contains a few thousand aliens or the Predator would end the fight in five seconds and we'll have a very boring film :) 

Here's a long, long list of extras.

Alien:
Bob Burns Alien Collection
Ridley Scott Q&A
Theatrical Trailer A
Director's Cut Trailer
TV Spots

Aliens:
"57 Years Later: Continuing the Story" Featurette
"Preparing For Battle: Casting and Characterization" Featurette
"Two Orphans: Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn" Featurette
"Building Better Worlds: From Concept To Construction" Featurette
"Bug Hunt: Creature Design"
"The Risk Always Lives: Weapons And Action" Featurette
"The Power Of Real Tech: Visual Effects" Featurette
"Beauty And The Bitch: Power Loader vs Queen Alien" Featurette
"The Final Countdown: Music, Editing And Sound" Featurette
"Aliens Unleashed: Reaction To The Film" Featurette
"This Time It's War: Pinewood Studios" 1985 Featurette
Multi-Angle Pre-Vis Animatics with optional Commentary
Interview With James Cameron
James Cameron Interview/Film Footage
James Cameron Intro to Extended Version
International Trailer
Domestic Trailer
TV Spots
Easter Egg: "The Boy And His Power Loader"

Alien 3:
The Making Of Alien 3
Alien 3 Advance Featurette
Theatrical Trailer A
Theatrical Trailer B
Theatrical Trailer C
Theatrical Trailer D
Theatrical Trailer E
TV Spots

Alien Resurrection:
The Making Of Alien Resurrection
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots

Additional Supplementary Disc:
"Alien Evolution" BBC Documentary
"The Alien Legacy" Documentary
Alien Quadrilogy Trailer
Alien Legacy Trailer
 

And the source was http://www.dv-depot.com/ for all of you who want to know. 

just saw this and my god is it disappointing. It's very slow to start off with (which isnt really a bad thing per se) and takes itself way too seriously. And when it finally gets going, its too hard to enjoy because of the crappy and utterly fake FX. I heard before that the hulk looked bad but even the other FX shots could use a lot more work.

Good points - funky 'comic book' style editing which actually works rather than being distracting. Too bad the direction is not as inspired as the editing.

Also saw Back to the future and the first sequel for the first time. The first one's pretty cool, I was worried it might look dated and cheesy but I didnt enjoy the second one too much (too much Biff IMHO). 

meh. Unimpressed. Should have quit after the first movie while they were still ahead.

Several scenes felt way too long. It seemed to alternate between taking itself too seriously and having too much cheese. Unlike the previous movies, there weren't even any cool fight scenes to pique my interest. There wasn't any tension, and it seems the lead characters finally realized that they were going to survive, and thus stopped trying to dodge bullets. The ending was overly happy.

On the plus side, I noticed several religious and philosophical bits that are open to analysis. Half-way through the movie we discover that Trinity and Neo are not invulnerable, but it wasn't soon enough to stop me from successfully predicting the ending; although the ending still had a few surprises.

Uh, I don't mean to be overly negative, but I was indeed quite disappointed. There weren't even any hot chicks at the theatre to sit next to. 

Thanks for the info, and I was worried while reading your post that you would give away lots of stuff but you didn't, yay!

Im seeing it on friday, we'll see...