Apocalypse Now (1979) Director: Francis Ford Coppola Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper
Perhaps surprisingly, there are relatively few 18-certificate war movies - usually the historical context leavens the violence, while a sense of respect on the part of the film-maker normally prevents them from merely making it a gore-fest exercise. But Coppola's 'Nam-relocated Heart Of Darkness is so harsh, searing and brutally hallucinary that even now it (rightly) maintains its 18 certificate. Sheen's Willard isn't on a mission to bash the bad-guys; he's out to assassinate one of his own. Squatting in the shadows of the human psyche it depicts a war without reason, without cause and - crucially - without any sense of victory.
Aliens (1986) Director: James Cameron Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Carrie Henn
James Cameron's genius extension of Ridley Scott and Dan O'Bannon's Alien is the ne plus ultra of sequels: take a great idea, sharpen its edges and hurl it in a whole new direction. Cameron's key contribution to the Alien canon is sustaining its strictly adult appeal; Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet both did the same with less success, but at least their instalments resisted the teenifying of the franchise we've seen with the AvP development. Plus he gave us his finest creation of all: the Bitch herself, the towering, hissing, stiletto-toothed Alien queen, mistress of all movie monsters.
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