Why do I love this movie?......

It would be so hard for me to pick an all-time favorite movie. Top 20 sure, top 10 with some thinking, top 5 ok, maybe with a gun to my head. There are a handful for whatever reason I would put on that top 5 list. Aliens is one of them. I've watched this movie maybe 200 or 300 times, almost as much as Auntie Mame and Strictly Ballroom. For several years I worked a part-time job at a local video rental called That's Rentertainment. It stayed open till mid-night and every night at 9:30pm, like clock-work, I'd pop Aliens in the VCR. The story really isn't original and a sequel, to boot. Screenplay and direction by Titanic giant James Cameron, it's pacing is taut, tight and tense. The dialogue is as quotable as the two a-fore-mentioned films. Of course due to some interpersonal problems I've been having for almost a week, it's the line, "You're not going to sleaze your way out of this one, Burke. I'm gonna nail your ass right to the wall, ya hear, right to the wall". Ah, there, I feel a little better just putting it print. There are SO many great lines! Who can forget Newt's (Carrie Henn) eerie delivery, "We'd better be getting back soon. They mostly come at night...........mostly." Squeal! Whenever I use regular James Cameron actor, Bill Paxton's line as Pvt Hudson, "We're on an express elevator to Hell. Goin down!" I get the oddest looks from the company I'm in. I can't imagine why. I guess I just love the characters and the actor's portrayal of them. Adrian Biddle's dark and dank cinematography captures and enhances the sinister, isolated and even claustrophobic feeling in the colony base. Kudos as well to James Horner's score and Peter Lamont's production design. But bottom line it's Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her Oscar nominated performance that must really do it for me. She's strong, courageous, loving, smart, loyal and a good shot. She confronts her fears. She spits in the eye of danger. Destroys her enemy and even though I have just a smidgen of sympathy for the main villain only because she a Queen, in the end........she blows it out of the goddam airlock. If only............