Just the Ticket

Article by Sean Wilkinson, Showing you what you cannot see. Ever since it subverted slasher movie convention by introducing a villain so monstrous that it could dismantle multiple incarnations of the 80s action hero trope single-handed (as well as nearly every known celebrity not-yet-former-governor, and Shane Black--a.k.a. the writer of Lethal Weapon  and the director of THE Predator , a.k.a. "the pussy joke guy"), the Predator  franchise has had its ups and downs. Many would say there have been nothing but  downs since the original  Predator  graced movie screens in 1987, but still, even the lower quality entries had their bright spots. I may do a full franchise review at some point, but for now, you can revisit my thoughts on the AVP  movies and Predators  at the links here: AVP  & AVP:R  - Ticket Stubs #32: Rogue V. Prey (Part I) Predators  ( Prometheus focus) - Just the Ticket #65:   Rogue V. Prey (Part II) I'll try t...

Last time, via Ticket Stubs , we looked at the AVP films, which served as horribly non-canon prequels to the Alien franchise (a little tidbit that I didn't realize when I was watching AVP the first time: Lance Henriksen, who played the android Bishop in Aliens  has a role in AVP  as Bishop's likeness, Weyland-Yutani founder Charles Bishop Weyland). The crossover event continues in this issue of Just the Ticket , which will be devoted to the canonical pre-boot, Prometheus , with a special Critical Quickie  on Predators . I recently read a review of the Blu-Ray release of Prometheus , which said that the movie answered none of the questions its cover promised (tagline: "Questions will be answered"). It's been such a long time since I saw an Alien  movie that I really had no questions, and very little basis on which to found any. For me, the Alien  series was just a fun, scary monster-fest with iconic creatures and (I now realize) predictable plot mech...

In a typical issue of Ticket Stubs , I'd give you guys a re-print/post/whatever of a review I did in the old days, closing things out with a relevant Critical Quickie  or two before the usual "stay tuned" mumbo-jumbo. This time, however, we're talking about the twice-mashed-up (and once-screwed-up) worlds of Alien  and Predator , where blood isn't always red (or safe to splatter every which way), what you don't see may kill you, and what you do see is worth screaming about, except that no one in space can hear you. So a little more web space is required to give the newcomers their due. To make the due-giving adequately possible, Ticket Stubs  and Just the Ticket  are crossing it over once again for a two-part update on a one-shot I wrote in college. Without further ado, here it is FROM   April 5, 2005 (SW@ Ticket #35: Rogue V. Prey):  Alien V. Predator . Cheap cast, choppy conglomeration of the two franchises (unless you place AVP after Pre...