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| Review by alias-rf2 | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
Intro- The plot is quite straightfoward: the crew are heading back to earth when the spaceship's (called the Nostromo) computer intercepts a message from an derelict planet. Following standard company (or "The Company") procedures for recieving distress calls,it has altered the ship's route to the derelict planet and it revives the ship crew from 'hibernation'. As the crew lands their ship to the planet only to an odd spaceship, the ships captain, Dallas and 2 other crew members, Lambert and Kane explore the alien ship and find a large alien thing. As the other crew are making repairs, the other 3 crew found an odd lair containing several eggs. They send Kane down to the pit and is curious enough to look inside one of the eggs. From there, you experience one of the most scariest things you see.
To put this in 4 words: You must see this. For a title with only one word, Alien will scare the living crap when you are least expecting it! The film seemlessly mixes stunning visuals with horror thanks to Ridley Scott's direction. Alien is not for the faint of hearted as with any horror film but this one will stick to your skin and stay under it. A true classic.
Video- Most DVD releases have either bad video quality for more extras or good video quality but no extras. Many DVD release today seem to have the worst of both worlds. I've seen the video quality of this particular film on the Alien Quadrilogy and it is one of the best video qualities I've seen and is better than todays films which have been transfered to DVD. The video quality on the Legacy is also comparable to that of the Quadrilogy. Alien is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, it is suprisingly in great condition. The print is mostly clean with the exception of the title sequence. In a time where CGI is unheard of, the visual effect simply beats the rubbish CGI filled movies of today. I wonder how many directors avoid use of CGI deliberately. The alien ship and the creature designed by surreal artist H.R. Giger are just so....surreal.
Sound- The sound department has been cleaned up with a superb DD 5.1. The movie was originally presented in stereo but this sound mix lives up to the film itself. Scored by the late Jerry Goldsmith, the score is a very immersive one and is chilling. One gripe I have with the soundtrack
is that the sounds can be a little muffled at times but this is 1979 so there's nothing I can do. There are two other sound options (apart from the commentary), Goldsmith's score and an alternate score with production sound.
Extras- Alien is packaged in a keep case without a booklet instead the chapter stop is part of the artwork for the film. If you buy the film seperately, there is only 1 disc but if you buy the Legacy boxset (despite it being OOP, you can buy the film from the Amazon marketplace instead), you get a 5th disc containing an hour plus documentary with interviews with the writers of Alien and Scott himself. This 5th disc is part of a 2 disc set for Alien. Here, I will just review it as if you bought it seperately.
The first extra is an audio commentary from Director Ridely Scott. Here, he takes his time as he talks about the movie with regular breaks (you can hear him puffing his cigar). Highlights of the commentary include the crew eating muesli and the rain in the engine room. It's a bit slow but it's a must listen.
The next lots are a handful of deleted scenes which clock in around 18 minutes. The quality is rather poor but they are watchable. One notable deleted scene is the famous "cocoon" scene. It contains spoilers and therefore I won't say what happens there. You get the famous Ridleygrams, some production photos and promotional art photos. There are more art galleries from Giger, Ron Cobb, Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud and Chris Foss. All speaks for themselves. If you watch the movie, you get two other sound options, Goldsmith's score and alternate score. There are 2 easter eggs, giving info on crew and alien life cycle. The trailers should never be considered as a special feature.
Overall- Grab your copy of Alien now! You can grab a copy of the Legacy from the Amazon marketplaces or you can get the Quadrilogy and get even more extras. A true fan should get both.
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| Review by the_film_king | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
Feature:
1979 Alien hit cinemas, I wonder if Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Hannibal) realised how big this film was going to be. Well he does now. The classic story of the crew of the Nostromo lead by Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver answer a call from a ship which to the crew's horror contains one of the most famous cinema Monsters of all time. The film is one of a kind and one of the best. Shame that after Aliens the film franchise went down hill.
Sound:
Brilliant use of Dolby Digital 5.1 what more can I say?
Picture:
The picture is good if not brilliant but has some minor faults, especially in the darker scenes though most of the film is dark.
Extras:
Brilliant Ridley Scott commenatry, good selection of deleted scenes including the cocooned Dallas. There are also other bits like photo galleries outtakes even an isolated music track.
Fox has done this film justice on a cracker of a disc.
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| Review by NiM | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
If you havnt seen it yet.. Where have you been!!?? What have you been doing?! See it!
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| Review by randy buckskin III | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
Everyone who has reviewed this film so far has mentioned some very valid points about the overall quality of this film/disk, however I thought it was a right load of old tripe and doesn't deserve all this credit.
Need I say more!
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| Review by AD1986 | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
This sci-fi horror classic from 1979 is still a great film. The crew of the Nostromo investigate a planet which they have located. One of the crew members looks too closely at a egg as it splits open. I am not saying anything else. You'll just have to see the rest if you want to know what happens next.
The small cast are very good, the visuals from H.R Giger always impress and the alien itself is pretty damn cool.
FOX have given this title great respect. From the animated menus alone, you know that this disc will not disappoint.
There is an excellent commentary from director Ridley Scott which is split into chapters so you can skip to a certain part.
There are also 10 deleted scenes which last nearly 18 minutes and are very interesting. They include a discussion of what to do about the alien, an alternate version of Brett's death and the famous cocoon sequence. Also, we have 2 cinema trailers and 2 TV spots. The first trailer is great because it shows so little from the film: just an egg spliting open with a howling effect. The second has the same build up but includes many well edited scenes. The TV trailers are shorter versions of the first cinema trailer. There are 2 outtake scenes which are just more deleted scenes. Finally, we have a art and photo gallery and an isolated version of Jerry Goldsmith's score.
Overall, this is an excellent film presented on a almost perfect disc. Although a documentary would have been the icing on the cake, what we get is great. There is a documentary called The Alien Legacy which is included in the box set. I did not get this though. Still, it does not matter, as the disc still delivers and that's the main thing.
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| Review by Blazingmonga | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
I dont need to much reviewing here, nothing I can say that hasnt been said already.
Content:- I forgot how much this film rocks. It is far more stylish than all the others, with an impressive amout of depth and detail everywhere. The characters are fantastic, my favourite is Yaphet Kotto. He rocks.
Video:- This is the best bit. The transfer is, effectively near perfect. It looks so good that you could mistake it for a film that came out this year, not 20 years ago! You couldnt ask for a better copy, not realistically at least.
Audio:- Sounded pretty rockin' on my stereo setup. No complaints as far as my ears could see.
Features:- Really cool menus. Commentary. Outtakes. This disc has plenty of stuff, one of everything really.
Overall:- Damn near perfect.
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| Review by chris21 | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
Alien set the bench mark for sci-fi horror films and is still as shocking today as it was in 1979. This disk more than does justice to the film visually, and to some extent audially as well. The picture is very clear for a film 20 years old however, and i don't know if im alone here but in the scene where ripley is talking to parker and brett in the tunnel '' Dont worry about it parker yeah, you'll get whatever's coming to you'' i noticed a quite obvious lip synch problem. In the same scene on the isolated soundtrack it plays fine but when the soundtrack is on, ripleys lips are out of time with the words above. This aside, Alien is a great disk, the features are superb. If anyone else has the problem i mentioned please let me know and put my mind at rest.
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| Review by Hamill82 | Login to see your ratings of this reviewer |
What i think about the alien
Alien was released in the end of 70's and i would really liked to see alien in the theathre, but it was impossible, because i wasn't even born yet.i saw alien first time with my cousins in year 1987 or something like that.i didn't see it from the beginning, but i can still remember the scene where alien jumps into kane's face.on that day alien became one of my favourite movies and i still think those years with warmness.the director is ridley scott who is known from movies like blade runner, legend, thelma & louise and gladiator.ridley scott is not actually my favourite director, but i really love some of his early movies like blade runner and ofcourse alien.nowdays alien is over 20 years old movie and it has became a real classic in scifi world.ok, but what actually makes alien so good?i would say that the special effects are great for a movie from 70's or movie for a any year.actors are just wonderful, specially john hurt who is my favourite actor with sigourney weaver and yaphet kotto.the atmosphere of the actors is very good, so that you can enjoy their dialogs with laughs and with interest just like in the sequal.one of the best scenes is where they all are eating breakfast or something and yaphet is complaining about the bonus system "i wanna go home and party".the alien is a true artpiece in movie history and it has got a ridley scott's kinda quiet and beautiful actraction just like blade runner.musical score is made by jerry goldsmith and he has doned very beautiful music and it really follows the happenings in this movie.jerry has doned many good musical scores like in totall recall, gremlins, but i think that jerry's best music is found from the alien.then the one of the most important things in alien is the story, which is very uniq and a very very interesting.dan o'bannon's and ronald shusett's work is awesome and one gold medal would go to them.the second gold medal would to the swiss artist called h.r.giger who made really much work with the alien and his job was really cool.third medal would go to terry rawlings and peter weatherley who made those film editing stuff.i would say that alien is the best movie of the 70's if i don't count star wars.the years have prooved that alien is a great masterpiece in it's own class and it's a movie, which won't be never forgotted.
The transfer
This alien dvd is actually 20th anniversity edition and it's got lots of cool stuff to all alien fans.i really waited this dvd for a while and after long waiting it was released into european version so that i could finally see this great classic on dvd.the video quality is quite good for the alien, when we think about the age of this film and it's presented in 2.35:1 widescreen.it didn't get full points for video, because some dark scenes weren't as sharp as i was expected.usually in the nostromo's flying scenes the dark color wasn't so very clean, but all the other scenes were very clear and sharp.the audio was digitally thx mastered and it was presented in dolby digital 5.1 as it should be.there wasn't nothing else wrong, except that the balance of the volume was sometimes too high or too low.i had to many times raise the volume so that i could the hear the music, but then suddenly other sounds were too loud.some special effects were a little flat, like there weren't any thx effects.i don't know, maybe i should buy a remotecontrol or new ears.the menus of this dvd are really cool.first when you'll push the play button the 20th century fox logo appears and then it goes inside the nostromo.green computer text is running on the screen and "mother" is activated by restarting systems and opening the door to the main menu.the extras are very good, even there's not tons of stuff.the quality of the extras is really good and there's information about all the characters, many trailers like 2 tv spots, 2 a trailers and one b trailer.then there's about 10 deleted scenes, which were luckilly deleted, a couple poor out takes, lots of artwork and photo galleries, including ridley scott's own artwork.alternative music track of jerry goldsmith, isolated original score and a nice audio commentary by ridley scott specially recorded to this dvd.you find out lots of new information about the alien, when you'll listen ridley scott's commentary and i really enjoyed it, because audio commentaries are my favourite extras.after looking everything from the disc i would give full points for it's value.if you a true fan of alien movies, you gotta have this at any price and remember in space, no-one can hear you scream.
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