Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)

Monty Python is the name of perhaps the greatest comedy troupe of all time. Their second (well, third - if And Now For Something Completely Different counts) movie is Life of Brian, directed by Terry Jones.

The movie begins in the year 0 - Jesus Christ's stable-neighbor is a guy named Brian Cohen, whose life is a series of misfortune: not only it turns out, his father was in fact a Roman officer, he even captured by the Romans, when he took part in some rebel activity. Brian survives an insane space chase, but the real shit comes, when the fanatic crowd starts to believe that he's none other than the Messiah itself.

Terry Gilliam, the talented animator of the group made this extraordenary intro for the film (he also directed the part, when Brian was rescued by a UFO). The song we hear, which is wittily called 'Brian's Song' is about the obvious growing up of our hero, but performed as he was some kind of a saint. Meanwhile, we see Roman-style buildings, sculptures, paintings, and writings about the cast & crew, while Brian randomly stumbles around the scenes. The troupe's name is written in luminous neon, while the title is with those epic hollywoodian stone-letters.

Schindler's List (1993)

Schindler's List is a historical drama, directed by Steven Spielberg. The naturalistic, touching film is an adaptation of Thomas Keneally's award-winning novel, Schindler's Ark.

In 1939, all the Jews in the near areas are forced into the Kraków Ghetto. Meanwhile, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), the german businessman gathering friends amongst high ranked SS-Officers, and employ Jews as cheap labour force in his new enamelware factory. When the agressive SS-Haupsturmführer, Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) is liquidating the Kraków Ghetto, and Schindler witnesses the horrifying brutality, he decide, he will save as many people from death, as he can.

The film is starting with a Jewish family holding Sabbath at their home - probably the last one for a long time. When the prayer ends singing, we see two candles - between them, we can read the titles. With the candles burning out, the film's turn to black and white, and we can only see one colour later: the lost little girl in the middle of the chaotic liquidation of the ghetto, has a red coat.

The Goonies (1985)

The Goonies is from the middle of an era, when really great writers/directors came up with a bright idea, and actually made films about them. 'Let's make a movie about a professor of history, who's in fact a tough adventurer/a little, fluffy creature, which should not touch water, or eat after midnight/a young couple, moving in a house which slowly collapses onto their heads/a bunch of kids, who are seeking the secret treasure of an old pirate-leader!'

The movie's about the Goonies, a band, usually hanging out in a house, which an evil company wants to bulldoze down to the earth. They need money, and they haven't got a cent. But hope shines on, when they find an ancient treasure map, and starts to follow the way towards the "X"...
The film's one of the great ones made in the '80s, I really love it for the nostalgic atmosphere (thought, it's not nostalgy for me since I was born in the '90s).

The titles are quite quiet, we going into the eyehole of a pirates' skull. After some captions written in pirate-stlye (you know, what it means - it's like writings on papyrus), we zooming out of the eyehole, only to see, the skull is now the dot above the "i" in the title 'The Goonies', which is written in the same stlye as the captions before.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

"Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings -

These are a few of my favourite things..."

Terry Gilliam's surreal, and wild road-movie is based on Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel of the same name - and both of them are depicting the darker side of the so-called American Dream.

The story is about Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp), the hedonist journalist, and his samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro - somewhere between 'friend', and 'drinking companion') - they're heading towards Las Vegas to cover the annual Mint 400 motorcycle race. Since they carrying a bag full with almost "every type of drug known to civilized man since 1544 AD", they forget about the whole race-thing soon enough, and get sinking deep into the endless, nightmarish Las Vegas nights, and only Duke's messy notes can get together what's happening.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is now a cult classic, a true document about the passive voidness of the post-hippie era. 

This film has one of the greatest openings: The Lennon Sisters singing 'My Favourite Things' with their sweet, angel-like voice, but the whole thing's a bit dark, mostly becouse the meanwhile black and white archive footages about the Vietnam War, and those, who are protested against the massacre. And, after that, we see Ralph Steadman's characteristic letters in red (almost as it was paint with blood), and, as it melts down, it shows Dr. Johnson's fitting quote:

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Alien: Resurrection (1997) is the fourth installment of the Alien franchise, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Two-hundred years after the suicide of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), she - I mean, her clone - reborns on the spaceship Auriga by the hands of the Company's scientists. They are now study adult xenomorphs (the actual race of the alien beings) under "safe" circumstances. Some unexpected events cause the more intelligent creatures unleash themselves, and the bunch of smugglers on the ship could survive only with the help of the mutant clone of Ripley.

This title screen is much more campy than any other in the series. On the disgusting background, which probably shows the details of a xenomorph through a distorted lens, suddenly, with a flash of light, the word 'Alien' appears with large, futuristic type of letters, and then, the word 'Resurrection' under it. It looks great thought, suits well the film's absurd atmosphere.

Alien 3 (1992)

      
Alien 3 (1992) is the third film of the franchise, directed by David Fincher.

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) somehow survived the aliens again. Her escape pod crashes on a distant planet, near a penal colony, where the all-male inmates discover her. Soon enough, an alien hatches from the prison's dog, and starts its usual massacre, but this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is right now grows inside Ripley's belly...

The titles follows the slow, dark mood of the previous Alien films. The starting sequence, where we can see that a facehugger is aboard on Ripley's escape pod is interrupted by captions. The title 'Alien 3' is somewhat similar that we've seen at the first film.

Aliens (1986)

Aliens (1986) is the sequel of Ridley Scott's Alien, and is directed by James Cameron.

The more action-oriented story focuses on the Nostromo's only survivor, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who returns to Earth fifty-seven years after the incident. She somehow - by pressure of the vile Weyland-Yutani Corp., of course - changes her mind, and instead choosing a boring, but peaceful life, she returns to the planet where the crew of Nostromo originally found the alien eggs. Our heroine is accompanied by tough military guys this time, but hell gets away, when the evil, and almost invincible aliens starts to slash them down. Ripley in the middle again...

The title now serves us the well known Alien-logo with the futuristic blue letters, and the almost vagina-like, luminous "i". The letters are appearing one by one from a striped haze, and the "i" is getting more shiny, and, by the end of the titles, it covers the whole screen with its blueish-white light.

Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien is probably the most terrifying sci-fi horror of all time.

It's about the huge commercial towing spaceship, the Nostromo's crew of seven (and, of course, Jones the cat) - they are just heading towards the Earth after a job on another planet. On the way, they find an ancient spaceship full of alien eggs...soon, their journey home becomes a nightmare.

The titles are appearing slowly with the dark, abandoned space in the background. At first, we only see senseless lines - like some ancient alien writing. Meanwhile, we hear creepy ambient music. Under the title, credits are written. Step by step, the word ALIEN emerging, and after that, we see the spaceship Nostromo, and some information about it.