Thriller Reviews

Pulp Fiction

Released on the 10th of September 1994, Quentin Tarintino's hit film Pulp Fiction won a series of awards as it immediately captured audiences and made itself part of film history. Some awards it received are; Best Writing (Oscar) , Best Screenplay (Golden Globe) and also a Bafta for best screenplay. The film Stars Samuel L. Jackson- who also won a Bafta for best supporting actor, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer and Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace.The film is controversial because it has three story lines that intertwine in radical ways. The film begins with two small-time thieves, Honey Bunny and Pumpkin, who spontaneously decide to rob the restaurant they are currently situated in. The film then shifts before the action starts to the story of Jules and Vincent, a pair of hit men for the well known and feared Marsellus Wallace, who is caught up in a deal gone wrong with successful boxer Butch Coolidge.



      The American crime/drama/thriller has a rating of 9.0 on IMDB.com as well as 1,761 user reviews of the film. Rotten Tomatoes says this film is a solid 94% out of 100! With 64 reviews for it. Quentin Tarantino is know well for his action films, and in my opinion PulpFiction is one of the best he's directed.

Alien

In 1979 Ridley Scott released the first part from his long horror sci-fi phonemenom. Alien is the first film of many based around the terifying bioform named the Xenomorph. Although not every sequel was directed or written by Ridley Scott- his esence is present throughout the whole saga.
      The film is about 7 crew members who feel abliged to investigate an SOS signal that there ship (The Nostromo) picks up, awakening from hypersleep to go down to the foreign planet, the crew soon realise that the signal was no SOS but in fact a warning as a deadly creature stowes aboard with them. The film won a Bafta award for best production designer (Micheal Seymour) as well as an Oscar for it's visual effects. Sigourney Weaver plays the role as Ripley, the only member of the crew to survive the terrible attacks from the Xenomorph. Throughout the film the creature viciously attacks and kills the majority of the crew: Tom Skerrit (Dallas), Veronica Cartwright (Lambert), Harry Stanton (Brett), John Hurt (Kane), Ian Holme (Ash) and Yaphet Katto as Parker all suffer terrible deaths from the bioform.



Xenomorph
 

        Ridley Scotts franchise is still running to this day, with his most recent addition to the story: Prometheus which is in fact a prequel to Alien. The first sequel to Alien, was Aliens (1986) which focusses on Ripleys struggle when she is asked to return to fight the Xenomorph a second time. In 1992 Alien 3 was released, showing Ripleys struggle against the Alien as she is inpregnated herself and is now a host to an alien queen embryo. 200 years later in the Alien universe is when Alien Ressurection takes place, released in 1997 we see humans attempting to breed the Xenomorphs to study them, but of course it goes terribly wrong. Aliens (Alien2) was directed by James Cameron and is deemed the best in the franchise with a rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Alien 3 was far less successful, directed by David Fincher the film was relatively unpopular despite having a strong storyline- it only received 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, whilst Alien Ressurection received 52% (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet).

Trainspotting

Scottish Youths turn to taking Heroin to escape living in reality. Based in Eddinburough the goup soon realise the downside to taking drugs. The film focusses on Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, who attempts to give up the habit who later see's the positive outcomes of quitting in his relationships. Trainspotting was directed by Danny Boyle and is based off Irvine Welshes novel. The film won a Bafta film award for Screenplay and a Bafta Scottish award for Best Feature Film.
     Released in 1996, Trainspotting received a percentage rating of 89 on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 8.9 on IMDb.com.