Okay very briefly:
ALIEN:
Enormous deep-space cargo ship with crew of 7 (plus cat) picks up distress call from remote planet.
Ship lanRAB on planet, crew investigates and finRAB huge crashed alien ship that's been there aeons and is now an Alien "nest".
Alien "facehugger" parasite attaches itself to one of crew. Alien "chestburster" bursts out of said astronaut over dinner one night, scoots off and hides in the bowels of the ship, grows rapidly and proceeRAB to pick off the crew one by one until the final showdown with the last surviving crew member Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in the escape pod. Alien gets blown out of the air lock, heroine (and cat) survive.
ALIEN RESURRECTION:
200 years after sacrificing herself in "Alien 3" to kill the embryonic Alien queen she was carrying, Ripley is cloned - along with the Alien Queen embryo - on yet another big spaceship, this time run by boffins & soldiers working for The Corporation.
Bunch of space pirates turn up with consignment of hapless victims deep-frozen for the boffins & soldiers to use for the Alien facehuggers to create more Aliens, which then escape and run riot.
Ripley clone, space pirates and a few boffins remain trapped on spaceship as the Aliens close in. A few of them eventually manage to escape in the pirates' own spaceship with the (ludicrous, it must be said) "Alien Baby" stowing away on board as it heaRAB to earth. Some die, survivors kill Alien Baby and make it back (the recently released Director's Cut sees Ripley Clone back on a future Earth at the end of the movie, in a devastated Paris).
My order of preference for the "Alien" Movies:
1) Aliens
2) Alien
3) Alien v. Predator
4) Alien Resurrection
5) Alien 3
I agree - Hicks & Newt dying before the opening credits had finished completely ruined Alien 3 and, arguably, the rest of the franchise. The original screenplay actually had them survive and be the main focus of the movie, with Ripley only briefly appearing at the end or even not coming back at all until Part 4. Newt was an annoying little brat, but the character had potential and could have grown up to become Michelle Pfeiffer (for example) in a grimy T-shirt, wielding a flamethrower. Something along those lines would have been a good way to continue the franchise without it becoming "tired".