The Fly (1986) - Cronenberg's gory, entertaining treatise on sickness, decomposition - and transformation

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A technical wonder turns out to be a physical nightmare, as promised on this effectively tingling poster for David Cronenberg's The Fly

Promising physicist Seth Brundle is getting near the revolutionary goal of his experimental research, when a beautiful journalist threatens to publicize his teleportation invention before it is ready. The following romance between them leads him to make a fatal decision.

The Fly is written by Charles Edward Pogue (Psycho III (1986)) and great Canadian co-writer/director David Cronenberg (Scanners (1981)), adapting the same-titled 1957 short story by George Langelaan (Turncoat (1967)), which was first adapted as Kurt Neumann's great The Fly (1958).  
Cronenberg's film is a successful sci-fi splatter, which, however, for me loses some of the existential sting that Neumann's film produced due to its wallowing in the physical aspects and resulting gore effects of Seth Brundle's metamorphosis into a fly monster. A later revisit of the film has made me realize that Cronenberg's The Fly is still existentially horrific, only Cronenberg fixes on the bodily aspect of sickness and decay whereas Neumann focused on our fear of shrinking and vanishing without explanation, which I for some reason responded more to.
Jeff Goldblum (Vibes (1988)) and Geena Davis (Stuart Little (1999)) are both excellent as the ill-lucked pair; especially Goldblum's ordeal of portraying awful transformation and mania is praiseworthy. Howard Shore's (Hugo (2011)) score makes the experience glide quite wonderfully. The Fly transports us back to the transformation fantasies of the past.
The film is unfathomably gross, (as is teased in the stills below), with special effects that will still make most viewers gasp out in disbelief and repulsion. The Fly is a tremendously entertaining monster movie.

Related posts:

David Cronenberg: Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg/DeLillo/Pattinson's speculative limo lullaby
A Dangerous Method (2011) - Cronenberg's rather disappointing waltz with the fathers of modern psychology 
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2007 in films - according to Film Excess Eastern Promises (2007) - Cronenberg invites us to meet the Russian mob in London
A History of Violence (2005) or, Who Is Tom Stall? 
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic 
Existenz/eXistenZ (1999) - Cronenberg's 1990s-flavored VR nonsense
Dead Ringers (1988) or, Brothers and Their Instruments 
The Dead Zone (1983) - Eerie sci-fi/horror King-adaptation  
The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!   
The first adaptation of the same short story: The Fly (1958) - Neumann's great existential angst sci-fi classic

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9-15 mil. $ (different accounts)
Box office: 60.6 mil. $
= At least a big hit, and possibly a huge hit (returned at least 4.04 times the cost)
[The Fly was released 15 August (USA) and runs 96 minutes. Great comedian Mel Brooks' Brooksfilms was instrumental in developing, financing and producing the film. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, from December 1985 - February 1986. Notorious is the gory material cut out from the film after test screenings, including the so-called monkey-cat and butterfly baby scenes. The film opened #1 to a 7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it held the #1 for another week and then stayed in the top 5 for another 4 weeks (#3-#3-#3-#4), grossing 40.4 mil. $ (66.67 % of the total gross). It won the Best Makeup Oscar, a National Board of Review award and was nominated for 2 BAFTAs. It spun a sequel in The Fly II (1989), directed by Chris Walas, the special effects wizard behind the first film's ghastly wonders, with neither Goldblum, Davis nor Cronenberg's involvement. Davis' then-husband Renny Harlin and Cronenberg have been interested in their own sequels, which haven't come to fruition. Cronenberg returned with an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series (1988) and theatrically with Dead Ringers (1988). Goldblum returned in Beyond Therapy (1987), Davis in Pet Shop Boys' music video for It's a Sin (1987) and theatrically in Beetlejuice (1988). The Fly is certified fresh at 92 % with a 8.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fly?

Aliens (1986) or, Alien War

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Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is cemented as the capable action heroine of the franchise on this multiplex-feeding poster for James Cameron's Aliens

Ellen Ripley, sole survivor of the alien drama of the first Alien (1979), is saved in space after 57 years of stasis. When contact is lost with the current colony on the moon of the first alien contact, Ripley is convinced to go there and defeat the aliens with a group pf marines.

Canadian master writer-director James Cameron's (Titanic (1997)) Aliens recycles somewhat over-zealously from its great predecessor. It comes up with a very long plot that is a bit too knotty and characters-overpopulated, SPOILER like Ripley's 66-year old daughter and some of the Marine Corps members. - The film is 20 minutes longer than Alien, without any real justification.
But it is a very action-packed film nonetheless, extremely entertaining and also filled with good ideas, SPOILER like the sewer scene, the girl Newt, the mother alien, the yellow robots, and Lance Henriksen (Justice Served (2015)) as an android. A fun trivia aside is that Henriksen was originally chosen to play the the terminator in Cameron's same-titled great hit from 1984, until a certain Austrian bodybuilder entered the room ... Henriksen got a smaller part in the movie, and Michael Biehn (Tombstone (1993)) and Bill Paxton (Vertical Limit (2000)), - who is a lot of fun in Aliens, rivaling his manliness with the group's female alpha, Vasquez (Jeanette Goldstein (It Is What It Is (2001))), - are also enjoyable, reappearing Terminator stars here.

Related posts:

The Alien Franchise: AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) or, Everyone Loses
Alien: Resurrection (1997) or, Queen of the Goo Massacre!
Alien 3 (1992) or, The Monsters Go to Jail!
Alien (1979) or, Space Eggs Are Bad News
James Cameron:  Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date
Avatar (2009) - The Colorful Adventure Epic That Won the World (also with Sigourney Weaver)

Watch a 2016 58-minute panel with Cameron, Weaver, Paxton and others at the San Diego Comic Con on the occasion of the film's 30th anniversary

Cost: 17 - 18.5 mil. $
Box office:  130.8 mil. - 183.3 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned at least 7.07 times its cost)
[Aliens premiered 14 July (Los Angeles, California) and runs 137 minutes. Development of the sequel was prolonged due to Fox executives' unwillingness to proceed with it for years. Only after the success of Terminator did they believe in the Cameron script, and production began with Gale Anne Hurd (Raising Cain (1992)), Cameron's then wife, serving as producer. Fox wanted another lead, refusing Weaver her 1 mil. $ salary (30 times what she was paid for Alien), until Cameron insisted on her participation. Main inspirations for the film were the Vietnam War and Robert A. Heinlein's (Red Planet (1949)) novel Starship Troopers (1959). After an unsuccessful audition of reportedly 3,000 British actors, Americans were chosen. Filming took place in England at the abandoned Acton Lane Power Station and at Pinewood Studios from September 1985 - February 1986. The film's original cinematographer Dick Bush (Little Monsters (1985)) had to be fired due to creative differences with Cameron about lighting during filming, and was replaced by Adrian Biddle (V for Vendetta (2005)). Post production, including James Horner's (The Karate Kid (2010)) score, was completed under severe time pressure. The film opened #1 to a 10 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it was #1 for 4 consecutive weeks and remained in the top 5 for 10 weeks, grossing 85.1 mil. $ (65 % of the total gross, if going by the 130.8 mil. $ total gross figure). It was the year's 7th highest-grossing film in North America. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 9.3 mil. $ (7.1 %) and France with 7 mil. $ (5.4 %). The rumored 183.3 mil. $ gross may be including home video sales. Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars, equal to a notch higher than this review. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars: Best Actress (Weaver, in a major highpoint for the recognition of sci-fi and action at the Oscars), lost to Marlee Matlin (Some Kind of Beautiful (2014)) for Children of a Lesser God, Art Direction/Set Decoration, lost to A Room with a View, Sound, lost to Platoon, Editing, also lost to Platoon, Score, lost to Herbie Hancock for 'Round Midnight, and Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects, both of which it won. Weaver was also nominated for a Golden Globe, the film's only nomination there. It was nominated for 4 BAFTA's, winning one, and is today #64 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, between American Beauty (1999) and Princess Mononoke/Mononoke-Hime (1997). Cameron returned with The Abyss (1989).  Weaver returned in Half Moon Street (1986). Aliens is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Aliens?