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Funnily enough there's a small possibility that Finch's voice is actually still in the movie. One very brief line while Kane is not on view: listen for the "Keep trying." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFMbnJnocSk&t=128s
Sounds quite a bit more like Jon Finch than John Hurt does in the rest of the scene.
Some Jon Finch speaking parts for reference: (https://youtu.be/4JIMbdJObGM?si=KVX8OpUrYGTkr2kZ&t=20s)
(https://youtu.be/Hj6gQhpMW30?si=oRA2Nhi7LXHJb6_r)
The model(s) used for the Nostromo during the landing sequence unfortunately don't successfully convey the sense of scale they were going for. It's easy to believe only a piece of the ship separated in order to land, but no, it is indeed the entire Nostromo going down, it simply dettached itself from the refinery.
Getting deeply stabbed multiple times in the gut can severely mess you up, causing all kinds of nasty body fluids going where they shouldn't. Yikes.
There were also the stabs to her back which could possibly reach her lungs or her heart, and the final knife attack has him extending a lot of effort to not only stab, but carve a path through her torso. That attack was actually one of the more viscious ones in the series.
They're all humans (even Spock if you want to get technical about it) and all but Spock are Terrans ("earthlings").
So seeing as they begin the movie starting their trip back to Earth, and most of the movie takes place in 1986 past Earth, the audience presumption is that "The Voyage" refers to a time travel adventure to save and return "Home," or 23rd century Earth.
There's a twist at the end, though, remember.
Kirk: "My friends, we've come home."
It turns out the home they were voyagin to was the reborn Enterprise, even if they didn't know it until just then.
To each their own and all, but Star Trek IV received a significant increase in budget over its two immediate predecessors and its production values are quite lavish.
It featured groundbreaking matte and modelwork (the bird of prey flying through the skies in all kinds of different weather and sunlight), animatronics (real enough to fool animal welfare groups!) that set the stage for pretty much every non-CGI exotic animal movie that came afterward, one of the earliest instances of morphing effects, TONS of location shooting both outdoor and indoor, much more detailed new sets (compare the bird of prey bridge here to how it looked in part III, and to tjat same movie's Excelsior interior) and more nuanced cinematograpy (I think it's Star Trek's only cinematography Oscar nod).
Whether it looks good or notis in the eye of the beholder- I suppose I can understand if someone thought the alien probe and the warp speed effect on the bird of prey looked goofy, but that's more the design than the effects themselves. Comparing Star Trek IV to its contemporaries (say, Aliens from the same year) I'd say its effectivesness comes off very favorably.
Star Trek has always aspired to be "woke." If you're concerned about that I humbly suggest you avoid all things Star Trek, it is not for you.
Yeah the score rocks. And it's also fascinating as a kind of state-of-the-art for orchestral horror in the mid 80s. You can hear some influence of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, and you can almost hear it take some steps into territory that Marco Beltrami would cover with Scream in the coming decade.
Holy cow this thread is insane. The poster art rocks. Really evocative and makes you want to see the movie. That it was obviously made before the movie itself was just makes it more interesting.
Hmm, the general idea is ok, but I don't like that portrait of Khan. Also seems a missed opportunity to integrate the Mutara nebula into the design somehow.
Is there a particular reason there's a new poster?
Oh, that's a cool poster. I only wish it had more than just Kirk on it (though once you do that I suppose it starts getting a little too close to the original)
The main girl is usually a bit more modest than a "bombshell," but even though I do think Monica Keena's cute I think I know what you mean. She looks more like she'd be one of the random supporting characters in another movie rather than the lead. I think because she looks sorta short and has this wide-eyed and pouty lips look that comes off child-like.
Like others have said, she eventually grew on me as the movie went on.
They *did* try to get this made all throughout the 90s, and it couldn't get off the ground because all the scripts they commissioned all had overly complicated plots trying to get Freddy and Jason to meet and fight each other, usually introducing elaborate high-concept gimmicks that didn't resemble either A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th at all.
Even if they'd managed to reign that in earlier, I'm not convinced FvJ would've turned out all the different in the late 90s. It already is pretty much the last of the Scream wave of horror, if it had come out 4 or 5 years earlier I think it would've been much the same but with worse special effects, and I suspect it would've only leaned even more into cheesiness, not less.
Funny enough, "Fantasy" had a famous remix that comes fairly close to being a full-on cover of "Genius of Love," dialing back the production, restoring "I'm in heaven..." as the main hook, and bringing back the "What you gonna do when you get of jail" chant; it was popular on R&B and hip-hop radio.
I like that version just fine, too, but it loses the big infectious anthemic chorus of Carey's original track, and of course can't replicate the unique trippy/funky vibe of the Tom Tom Club song, so for me it's a little on the dull side, the only compensation being a fun guest verse and intro from Ol' Dirty Bastard to liven things up a bit and give it a little bit of an edge.
<blockquote>a New Wave alternative classic was "poppified" - so to speak.</blockquote>
You know, I never thought of "Genius of Love" as a new wave song, that's interesting. In fact, I'd always thought it was from the 70s! I oughta check out more from Tom Tom Club.
Hmm nah sorry, "Genius of Love" is dope but "Fantasy" also rules. The chorus is catchy as hell and the harmonies are sublime.
It's also a pretty inventive use of the sample, producing a very different kind of song despite using much the same instrumental. The two songs end up complimenting each other rather than competing, imo.
They're trying to understand how the Aliens function in general, in terms of behavior and biology. They're using the situation with the colonists and the atmosphere processor as examples/ reference points. When Ripley asks "who's laying these eggs," she's wondering aloud how the eggs are formed and realizing there's a significant gap in their knowledge of the Aliens' life cycle.
There's even a deleted scene in which the Clamp building's persistent automated voice greeting wonders aloud "Wouldn't Daniel Clamp make a great President?" I kid you not!
<blockquote>When you look at the history of theatrical releases some fantastic films overlapped quite a bit. It definitely feels like theatres had a greater array of superb films on show versus today where there is often only one or two films at any given time worth checking out.
When Gremlins and Ghosbusters opened the following films were still in theatres - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Romancing the Stone, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Once Upon a Time in America and Sixteen Candles.</blockquote>
The main reason studios could do this back then was because there were WAY less multiplexes and less theaters in general. Since most theaters only had one or two screens, you'd have situations like a theater on your side of town showing Ghostbusters while a theater on the other side of town was showing Gremlins, so competition was less direct than it'd be these days where you'd go to a multiplex and you'd have to make the decision right there "hmm... Ghostbusters or Gremlins?"
By the way, Friday the 13th (2009)'s 2nd weekend drop record for a saturation release (3000+ theaters) has recently been broken! <i>Joker: Folie à Deux</i> is the new, uh, champion.
<i>Joker: Folie à Deux</i> _ (1st ->2nd Weekend): <i>$37,678,467 ->$7,002,654</I> Change: <b>-81.4%</b>
<i>Friday the 13th (2009)</i> _ (1st ->2nd Weekend): <i>$40,570,365 ->$7,942,472</i> Change: <b>-80.4%</b>
<i>Halloween Ends</i> also came really close! (1st ->2nd Weekend): <i>$40,050,355 ->$8,000,510</i> Change: <b>-80%</b>
It's true its second weekend drop was hilariously steep, but there are some other factors behind it other than simply bad "word of mouth" (it actually had a fairly decent reception among horror fans all things considered):
-- Friday the 13th (2009)'s release date was Friday February 13th 2009. Think about that, you had:
(1) a Friday that was the 13th,
(2) that Saturday was Valentine's Day,
(3) Monday was President's Day which a lot of schools had off, and so Sunday was basically like a second Saturday at the box office.
So the movie had what amounted to <i>THREE</i> holidays during its opening weekend, pumping the grosses higher than it would've otherwise: Its $40 Million opening was considered gargantuan!
-- Friday the 13th sequels have always been very front-loaded performers, even compared to other horror movies: in the 80s Jason movies tended to have big opening weekends and then drop about half afterwards, which was extremely steep for the time, and that just increased into the 90s and 2000s. It's just how these movies tend to perform, they play to fans who all try to make it in as soon as they open.
So when you combine the unusually gigantic opening weekend with the series' nature at the box office, you had a recipe for a ludicrously front-loaded run. Going by domestic weekends (so slightly different figures from OP's weekly data):
1st weekend: <b>Feb 13-15</b> Rank: <b>1</b> Gross: <b>$40,570,365</b> -
2nd weekend: <b>Feb 20-22</b> Rank: <b>6</b> Gross: <b>$7,942,472</b> Change: <b><i>-80.4%</i></b>
Its domestic total ended up at <i>$65,002,019</i>, a solid success, though most movies with a $40M opening would usually be expected to clear a $100M total, LOL.
That being said, I also get a kick everytime someone casually refers to it as "Aliens 3"