Alien 3 (1992)

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Lance Henriksen

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure.

Did I Like It: I get the complaints about the film. Hell, I feel the complaints about this film. Having an opening sequence designed solely to take the air out of any positive feelings one might have had at the end of Aliens (1986) feels like an injury one is not likely to overcome over the next nearly two hours. I think it is probably pretty fair to say—and Fincher would likely to agree—that David Fincher with one arm tied behind his back is not the filmmaker that James Cameron or Ridley Scott are in their prime. Editing problems abound. Early CGI effects abound that seem less designed to wow than to try and paper over some of those aforementioned editing problems. It all ends in a bummer. For a big summer movie, it’s a sad, not very thrilling affair.

And yet…

I’ve had the weird misfortune of watching a lot of misbegotten 90s sequels lately, and the more misbegotten those films are, there’s a rash of “Where’s Skippy?” moments. A beloved—or even liked—character from previous entries is missing from the entry. Inevitably, the actor reads the script and bows out of the prospect of more-of-the-same. The script isn’t re-written to be not include the character. Instead, there’s is fifteen seconds of dialogue about why the character is just off camera (“I broke up with Jack” Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997); “Taggart’s retired in Arizona” Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)), after which we are introduced to the same type of character so that the script wouldn’t have to be re-written and… gasp… the movie might lose its release date.

That doesn’t happen here. We can be horrified by Newt and Hicks’ fate (or lack of one in this film), but at the very least the filmmakers have something akin to the courage of making Ripley (Weaver, still good despite doing one film too many) always seem as if she is in mourning. The film may not care about characters from Aliens, but at least they didn’t send them to Arizona. It’s a film about mortality and mourning, and while the mangling of a big studio movie that would make any big studio nervous dulls that theme somewhat, the theme can’t be extinguished.

Rudy (1993)

Director: David Anspaugh

Cast: Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Charles S. Dutton, Jason Miller

Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.

Did I Like It: There’s a certain emotional target that I imagine most films are probably aiming for, and if they hit that target they move beyond the confines of normal movies. It is an ephemeral goal. For every, say Rocky (1976) or Saturday Night Fever (1977) that hits it, there are any number of examples like say… Staying Alive (1983) (to mix and match the same ingredients) that miss it entirely.

It doesn’t matter what the topic of the film is, if the target is hit correctly. I return again to my affinity for the Rocky (and by extension, Creed) films. I couldn’t possibly sit through a single boxing match. For that matter, I don’t really have any particular desire to serve in a maximum security prison, but I don’t think that a year has gone by where I haven’t watched The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

If the target is hit, it doesn’t matter if the story is schmalzy or too melodramatic for its own good. It doesn’t matter if—in the case of Rudy—that the “based on a true story” parts are, if Joe Montana is to be believed, more of a joke than a rousing triumph of the human spirit. As long as that spirit is right and properly roused, we tend to ignore any and all flaws.

Maybe it’s all tied to Jerry Goldsmith’s score (which I could eat with a spoon, were the opportunity afforded), or maybe it’s that deadly earnestness at the film’s core, but Rudy hits the target with room to spare. It doesn’t really matter that I couldn’t give even a little bit of a crap about football or the University of Notre Dame. It doesn’t matter that Rudy’s (Astin) goal is kind of singularly nuts and he may just need some therapy*.

But it’s probably a good thing he Ruttiger didn’t get involved with ending the Cold War.

*They had therapy in 1972, right?