
DATE: Saturday, November 29, 1997           TAG: 9711270088

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

LATEST ALIEN FLICK DOESN'T DISAPPOINT IN GORE CONTENT

CONTEMPLATING WHAT will happen when her child gets loose, Sigourney Weaver, with a totally deadpan delivery, says, ``She'll breed. You'll die. Everyone will die.''

For those who buy tickets, it is a promise, not a threat.

Lt. Ellen Ripley, the toughest, most buffed heroine of all time, is back. She's our leading expert on slimy aliens infatuated with breeding, yet - once again - no one will listen. It raises the question that humans aren't much smarter in the future than they are now.

Perhaps they're reluctant to heed her warning because, technically, Ripley's dead. Dead or not, she knows. She was in ``Alien,'' ``Aliens'' and ``Alien3''.

In the last film, which was too full of religious allegory and dark metaphors to have been a hit, Ripley flung her pregnant self to a fiery death in order to save humans. Inside her body, you see, was the ``thing.''

Now, some 200 years later, Ripley is brought back to life through DNA, cloning and stuff. The ``thing'' is still inside her, but not for long.

Enough mumbo jumbo about science. Bring on the monster!

Rest assured, no will be disappointed by ``Alien Resurrection.'' It delivers the monsters galore - even a return of the scariest of them all, the chest-burster.

You might well ask if the point here is to scare you or simply to turn your stomach. In either case, the film delivers.

The dark overtones of ``3'' have been jettisoned in favor of ``Aliens' '' all-out assault on the eyes. The second film was the real hit of the bunch. Weaver even got an Oscar nomination for that one.

The new film has a James Bond kind of one-line humor that cheapens the franchise a little, but doesn't really harm it. Weaver takes the assignment seriously and there is some authentic dramatic interest in whether she has gone over to the alien side.

Luminous Winona Ryder, who gets prominent billing, merely shows up - a misstep in her career. Why would she get grimy when she could be the new Audrey Hepburn? She can't hold her own with Weaver and, in fact, she isn't even asked to try. She's enigmatic, but it isn't really all that important.

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet delivers a stylishly dark and foreboding look, complete with long looks at the aliens.

``Alien Resurrection'' is no more than nor less than exactly what it is meant to be - an out-and-out monster flick. Even though they've been there before, fans of the franchise will find this a whopping gory show. ILLUSTRATION: SUZANNE TENNER

In the movie ``Alien Resurrection,'' Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) tests

Call (Winona Ryder) during their first meeting.

MOVIE REVIEW

``Alien Resurrection''

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya,

Michael Wincott

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

MPAA rating: R (violence, language, suggested nudity)

Mal's rating: ***