James Cameron is equal parts a technician and an artist. Say what you will about him pivoting his career from one-off experiences to the world of Pandora (three more Avatars are on the way). Still, he cultivates thrilling films about the work process – people doing particular jobs in unique places. Whether underwater, on the water, in outer space, or on alien worlds, we get to know characters, their relationships, the roles they play, and the consequences of their actions.
With half of his filmography newly released on 4K Ultra HD and 4K UHD Digital, it’s the perfect time to peel back the layers across his work, soak in the awe and wonder of his visuals, and speculate what he may be saying while entertaining us.
For the fourth and final part of our James Cameron 4K UHD analysis, here are 1986’s Aliens and 1994’s True Lies.
(View Pt. 1 – The Abyss here, Pt. 2 – Titanic here, and Pt. 3 – Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water here.)
ALIENS
1986 | R | 137 min.
Ridley Scott is a tough act to follow. His 1979 sci-fi horror feat, Alien, was a cinematic breakthrough that blended two film genres in a gripping fashion. With its success, a sequel was ordered almost immediately. It just took until 1986 to cross the t’s and dot the i’s. Thankfully, that time led to an outstanding, action-packed continuation commonly hailed as one of the best sequels ever made.
Coming off the hot heat of 1984’s The Terminator, Cameron recognized the essential ingredients in Scott’s original film and changed the tone to avoid telling the same story twice. We pick up with Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the franchise’s fighting heroine, as she fights more acid-spitting monsters and impregnating facehuggers. With the Vietnam War fresh in the generation’s minds, Cameron decided to make the film about a band of soldiers (including Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein) who accompany Ripley on an in-and-out rescue mission. However, the only thing that’s going in and out are the aliens that turn these poor soldiers into hosts. So, things get bloody and combat ensues after the unit discovers the location is a nest.
Thirty-seven years later, Aliens is an exhilarating sci-fi action film with a reach that many films still aspire to. It’s a visceral and intelligent work that punches up the original’s haunted house setting with a cinematic energy that leaves the mouth almost permanently agape. You’ll laugh over Paxton’s constant whining as Private Hudson, be compelled by Lance Henriksen’s mysterious Bishop, and feel for Ripley in this tender mother-daughter-like story between her and young Newt, the sole survivor of an attack at her settlement. Look out for one scary-good shot of Xenomorphs crawling through the ceiling. It’s a film that hits everything on the emotional spectrum.
Here, the 20-minute extended cut improves upon the theatrical release and looks sharper than ever. The sound warrants its Oscar win, and the extras come fully loaded with juicy material. It features both the theatrical and special edition versions of the film, as well as an insightful audio commentary with Cameron. Don’t forget about the deleted/extended scenes and the riveting documentary feature, “The Inspiration and Design of Aliens.” For any diehard Alien fans, these special features are exactly what you’d want out of bonus content – something that doesn’t feel like producers jamming a knife into the talents’ ribs. It’s an honest discussion.
Cameron is an articulate filmmaker who causes viewers to become easily sucked into his process and way of thinking. The fact that they pulled this off with a limited budget is amazing. It’s an equation that should be replicated more often in films, especially ones that don’t trust that audiences can gain a lot from quiet character moments. A favorite scene of mine is a Rogue One-type of fate between two characters. You don’t need a lot to understand their relationship, and it’s moving.
For a more thorough review, also listen to Preston’s review on My Bloody Podcast. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
Grade: A+
TRUE LIES
1994 | R | 141 min.
True Lies is perhaps Cameron’s greatest departure in his filmography – to me, at least. Going from Aliens and Terminator 2 to Titanic seems like the bigger swing, but each film in Cameron’s roster seems to perfectly set up the next.
The Terminator showed that Cameron could make a world feel so large with such limitations. Aliens displayed how he could manage tone and story while delivering memorable thrills amid so much pressure. The Abyss laid out his fearlessness in filming in seemingly unfilmable environments. Terminator 2 ramped up the feels beyond suspense with quality laughs and cries. And True Lies is a James Bond fantasy mixed with a genuine love story. It’s a seamless marriage between laugh-out-loud comedy and cartoonish violence.
Most of Cameron’s work is so serious, but True Lies is one where he doesn’t take it as such. He managed to make a funny, romantic movie about spies fighting terrorists who’ve obtained a nuclear bomb. It hardly sounds like the kind of material where you have lines like, “We’re gonna catch some terrorists, we’re gonna beat the crap out of them, and you’re gonna feel a hell of a lot better.” There’s also all the lines spoken by scene stealers Bill Paxton and Tom Arnold — it’s amazing. I mean, a chase sequence between a motorcycle and a horse happens through a hotel lobby.
Within its sea of lunacy is the perfect pairing of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis as two flames who are trying to rediscover each other. The lengths Arnold’s character goes to, to sniff out some secrets are incredible. How he manages to walk away without getting sued by the agency he works for is a big question that this film could care less to answer. The same goes for how he successfully kept up this level of deception for so long without his wife falling out of love with him. Ah, who cares? We’re here for the laughs and the good times, and those quality giggles and stunts roll on from start to finish. True Lies is straight-up awesome!
The extras may not be as loaded as some of the other Cameron 4K releases, but it comes with a stellar making-of documentary. It comments on the story’s silliness and how they molded it into a damn-good movie. It’s a science. Bravo, James Cameron.
Grade: A
