Lists
- ranked 14 in Empire 100 Greatest Movies (1999)
- ranked 14 in O Magazine's "50 Greatest Chick Flicks of All Time"
- ranked 30 in Empire 500 Greatest Movies (2008)
- ranked 32 in Empire 100 Greatest Movies (2003)
- ranked 42 in Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
- ranked 51 in Total Film's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time
- ranked 64 in Cinema Fusion Movie Bloggers' Top 100 Movies
- ranked 65 in My Favourite Film
- ranked 80 in The IMDb Top 250
- ranked 306 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (December 2006)
- ranked 315 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (March 2006)
- ranked 320 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (August 2005)
- one of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
- one of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills Nominees
- one of The New York Times Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made
- one of OFCS Top 100 Sci-Fi
Ridley Scott's Alien was horror as much as science fiction; James Cameron's sequel is action to the core. Ripley returns to LV-246 with a squad of hard-ass future-marines -- mysteriously unchanged in the centuries since Full Metal Jacket -- to face down not just one alien but hundreds.
The aliens are scarier as an ominous off-screen threat than they are in person, making the first half of the film significantly beter than the second, and there's a little too much Children in Peril! hysteria. Still, it's a worthy sequel.