I loved this article enough that I may honestly consider eating one of these. Much like how I always love overly deep analysis of b-movies, I find the idea of really talking up fast food to be admirable and enjoyable in its way.

Being a young man in Michigan who to this day continues to play in bands that attract the kind of people who were into Bear Vs. Shark at one point, I have to say that I've never quite caught the bug for them and I have no idea why. Having not heard anyone really talk about them since shortly after high school I…

Speaking personally I do still think Alien is good, although everything you mention is still a fair point. I love Alien for the atmosphere and vibe it accomplishes, but while it establishes the monster as a credible threat it's still a big climb down from the 90s FPS-like hordes they're portrayed as in Aliens and if…

That's really fucking neat and I need the first edition immediately. Thank you for the info (and book suggestions!)

I finally saw Day of Reckoning over the weekend, and while I prefer Regeneration, they're both absolutely fantastic. It was the Universal Soldier/Metal Gear Solid/Heart of Darkness mashup I never knew I needed in my life.

Oh my god I needed all of those things in my life and I am so sorry I wasn't alive yet. Fuck Burke.

You know, that's actually an interesting way of looking at it. Maybe that's the only way they could really follow up Aliens was to provide the "older, saltier" version to up the stakes a little. This could help explain why I hate 3 so fucking much.

Sammo Hung is one of my favorite unsung heroes of HK cinema, to the point where I was briefly in a band called Burger Cop as that was my favorite solo movie of his.

It does, and it's remarkable to think how well both of them do at each genre they try for. A horror movie having a shitty action sequel I can totally imagine, but for each of them to be so tonally different and still deeply effective is impressive.

I feel that! Road Warrior is my favorite of the four of them still, but Mad Max is mega underrated and wholly unique. Aliens and Alien at least seem connected, but if someone told me Max Max wasn't at all related to Road Warrior (or vice versa) I'd believe it.

Not to mention his SUPER TEENSY UNDERWEAR, which really highlights how weird and uncomfortable that scene is supposed to be for everyone.

If I can put on my "Community College Film Student Pedant" hat, I believe the term you're looking for is "genre film" or "exploitation movie"! *clears throat, adjusts glasses*

I don't remember if we ever saw those in the Terminator movies, but the idea of T-units with rubber skin just reminded me of the clear artificiality of the Working Joes from Alien Isolation.

I met him once, he was super nice and autographed my copy of Metal Gear!

I think Mnemonic is pretty close in aesthetics, at least - it doesn't lean QUITE as hard as the future stuff as something like Demolition Man (to name a contemporary) did, and Reeves visually takes a lot of cues from a "man out of time, 50's G-Man" kind of approach.

If I remember right, the first episode of Bubblegum Crisis jocks a lot of the opening setup shots of Streets of Fire almost verbatim, but it's been forever since I've watched it.

It's got that Fallout vibe of "the 1950s lasted until 2025"

I used to hear that song constantly at K-Mart and it blew my goddamn mind when I saw Streets of Fire the first time.

I've always wondered if the Aliens/Alien preference boils down to which one you saw first, as you could really say about a lot of things. Me, I saw Aliens far before I'd see the first one (had the same situation with T2-T1, actually) so to me the vibe of the Alien series was always "desperate fight for survival…

You will LOVE it. It isn't perfect; it's got some weird pacing and Diane Lane kinda doesn't get a lot to do, but its insane vibe and perfect casting and perfectly Walter Hill-y elements really work in concert.