Let’s Make Some Noise, vintage movie style: celebrating the films of yesterday and the day before

Let’s Make Some Noise, vintage movie style: celebrating the films of yesterday and the day before

By: Kevin Vickery

 Welcome back to the latest monthly feature of my column where I continue to explore feature films from 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years ago. Each month I’ll choose a common theme and then highlight and discuss movies of those specific years.

“Aliens”: 1986, Rated R

Forty years ago in July of 1986, Director James Cameron delivered this science fiction-action blockbuster sequel to the 1979 science fiction horror film “Alien” starring Sigourney Weaver as, the sole survivor of an alien attack on her ship. The film co-stars Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Carrie Henn.

“Aliens” follows Ellen Ripley (Weaver) as she awakens from a 57-year cryosleep to discover a human terraforming colony has been built on LV-426, the same planetoid where her crew first encountered the deadly Xenomorphs. After losing contact with the colony Ripley agrees to accompany a heavily armed squad of Colonial Marines to investigate.

They find only one survivor, Newt, a young girl who had hidden in the ventilation shafts and discover a nest built under the colony with the remaining cocooned colonists. The aliens ambush the unit killing many of the soldiers. Eventually Ripley takes command and fights her way out of the colony along with Newt and a few soldiers.

“Aliens” was received with critical acclaim and grossed over $183 million during its box office run. The film received several awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Weaver and is now considered among the greatest films of the 1980s, and often deemed equal to or better than the original, “Alien”. The franchise went on to release sequels: “Alien 3” (1992) and “Alien Resurrection” (1997), an interquel film, “Alien: Romulus” (2024), and a TV series, “Alien: Earth” (2025).

Amazon Prime members can view “Aliens” through multiple rental and purchase options.

 “Independence Day”:  1996, Rated PG-13

Celebrating it’s 30th anniversary is this blockbuster science fiction action film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich, and producer Dean Devlin starring an ensemble cast consisting of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Adam Baldwin, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, and Harvey Fierstein.

The story follows three central characters and their roles in humanity’s desperate fight against a hostile alien invasion over the Fourth of July weekend. Marine pilot, Captain Steven Hiller (Smith) David Levinsin (Goldblum), a brilliant satellite technician, and the President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman) unite to coordinate a global counterattack after massive alien ships decimate major cities across the globe.

Survivors and military personnel converge on Area 51 in the Nevada dessert where the government has been secretly hiding a crashed spacecraft and a captured alien since 1947. Captain Hiller (Will Smith), having captured an alien attacker after a dogfight, brings it to the base for study. The scientists there learn that the aliens are a locust-like species traveling from planet to planet to harvest resources.

Levinson hatches a plan to upload a computer virus into the alien mothership to disabling their shields so President Whitmore, himself a Gulf War combat veteran, can lead an aerial assault on the craft. Hiller and Levinson pilot the recovered alien spacecraft into the mothership, successfully upload the virus, and launch a nuclear weapon from within. With the alien shields down, the allied forces and ordinary citizens, including a conspiracy theorist-crop-duster pilot (Quaid) destroy the alien saucers, and take down the ship, saving the planet.

“Independence Day” received positive reviews and grossed over $817.4 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1996 and the second highest-grossing film ever at the time, behind “Jurassic Park” (1993). The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound. The sequel, “Independence Day: Resurgence,” was released 20 years later on June 24, 2016, as part of a planned series of films.

I saw the film in the theater when it was released and as a big fan of disaster films, I have re-watched it countless times since. I think it still holds up today and would recommend it highly if for no other reason than to be nostalgic about a time when Will Smith was still cool.

“Independence Day” is available to stream for free with ads on Tubi and without ads for Hulu subscribers as well as rental and purchase options through Amazon Prime.

“Independence Day: Resurgence”: 2016, Rated PG-13

A decade ago, Director Roland Emmerich, returned with Dean Devlin to co-write and co-produce “Independence Day’s” stand alone sequel, Summer Blockbuster science fiction action film, “Independence Day: Resurgence” starring another ensemble cast consisting of Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Jessie T. Usher, Travis Tope, William Fichtner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Brent Spiner and Judd Hirsch.

The film is set twenty years after the events of the original, during which time the United Nations has collaborated to form an international military defense and research organization called Earth Space Defense. Through reverse engineering, the world has used the power of alien technology mixed with that of mankind in order to resist a second invasion.

This time the aliens return with a ship so large it has its own gravitational pull, and the Alien Queen descends to the surface to crack open the planet and drain its molten core.

Scientist David Levinson (Goldblum), former President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman), and Dr. Brakish Okun(Spiner) return to help investigate the new alien threat along with a defense led by a new batch of fighter pilots, including Jake Morrison (Hemsworth), Dylan Dubrow-Hiller(Usher), son of Steven Hiller and Patricia Whitmore(Monroe,) daughter of the former president.

The pilots use their advanced, hybrid human-alien fighter jets to battle the alien forces and breach the Queen’s defenses allowing Jake and Dylan to defeat the Alien Queen, which forces the massive mothership to retreat. I won’t spoil the additional ending twist for those who may not have seem the film.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” received largely negative reviews from critics and was a financial disappointment, grossing $389.6 million worldwide at the box office. Following the film’s release, director Emmerichopenly expressed his dissatisfaction with the completed film, as he regretted making it without Will Smith’s involvement.

Personally, I didn’t miss Will Smith but even so, I agree that the film was far less captivating than the original. I would have felt cheated if I had seen it in the theater, but it was decent for an at home watching experience.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is also available to stream for free with ads on Tubi and without ads for Hulu subscribers as well as rental and purchase options through Amazon Prime.

Fade to black and roll credits on the July edition of my tribute to classic cinema. You can take your pick of the two common themes. The original intention was Summer Blockbusters, but alien movies are also correct. Tune in next month as I dive into more great blasts from the silver screen past.