Previews: "Alien: Romulus" "Caligula: The Ultimate Cut"
What's upcoming this week and soon after
I saw the original Alien (1979) in a theater and loved that Ridley Scott / H.R. Giger future vision so much that of course I soon acquired the 18-inch-tall Kenner action figure, the first mass-market kids’ toy based on an R-rated movie. And even then, noting the penis-shaped head that an off-screen boy’s hand kept squeezing in the TV commercial to make the jaw work, I was saying to myself, “Did no one at the ad agency look at this and say, ‘Uh … wait a minute….’”
Regardless, I went on to see every subsequent Alien film, including the two Alien vs. Predator movies — love how the Alien got top billing. Last night was the press screening for the latest, Alien: Romulus, and you’ll see this decades-long aficionado’s take on it Thursday morning. I’ll say this for now: Anyone underwhelmed by the 2012 prequel Prometheus can take heart. In the meantime, here is where the official press notes and writer-director Fede Álvarez place Alien: Romulus in the chronology:
And then next week’s essay covers another favorite of mine:
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
You’ve never seen Dame Helen Mirren until you’ve seen Dame Helen Mirren in Caligula (1980), the infamous offspring of Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione and Italian exploitation director Tinto Brass … with a screenplay by Gore Vidal! Trust me, there is nothing else like it. Starring Malcolm McDowell as the titular debauched Roman Emperor and Peter O’Toole a long way from Lawrence of Arabia, the movie gets what distributor Unobstructed View calls a 4K, “scene-by-scene reconfiguration” that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Following a limited theatrical release beginning Friday, it’s set for home-media release on Sept. 17.
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