If any of you visit Dooyoo you may know me as Frankingsteins, the Guide for TV and for being an idio...
If any of you visit Dooyoo you may know me as Frankingsteins, the Guide for TV and for being an idiot! Ha ha. No, that last one I just made up. I've just started trying Ciao out for real so please don't read any of my old reviews - they are rubbish.
Member since:26.10.2002
Reviews:32
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Inevitably due for a re-release now that a director's cut has been released in cinemas, Alien was not among the very first films to be transferred to the DVD format, but was relatively early on. It was certainly among the first wave to be packaged in what are now called 'DVD cases,' rather than those cardboard things.
The film will be familiar to countless people, whether you liked it or not, and is essentially a science-fiction-suspense-shocker where an entire crew, except one lady, are wiped out by a hostile and very very cool looking alien, courtesy of the great H. R. Giger the painter from Belgium or wherever it was. Constantly referred to as one of the best sci-fi films of all time, or one of the scariest films of all time, Alien managed to impress the average thrill-seeker as well as greatly impress the dedicated fan. Oh yes, and it started a very famous, yet increasingly worse, film franchise. Sigourney Weaver will be forever known as Lieutenant Ripley, the strict scientist
who ironically seems the first character who should be tokenly killed, but who manages to survive. Along with the cat.
Alien appeals to me for a number of different reasons. Primarily, I suppose, because I am a big fan of high quality science fiction, and the future depicted in Alien is an interesting take on the genre. Far from the stable federation of Star Trek, Alien shows space to still be an unknown place where colonies and ships are sent out by the mysterious 'company;' possibly Ridley Scott's idea that the increasing power of corporations in america would eventially end up with them ruling the world and indeed the sector. Alien is the only horror film I have ever bought, or am likely to buy, as I do not usually enjoy this genre apart from this exception. The sets and characters are all so believable and unique that I couldn't stop watching this film when I bought it off eBay, and i was also able to admire the top quality directing. I would recommend this film to any science fiction fan due to the 'tramp steamer' quality of the spaceship Nostromo, a look which was basically ripped off for Red Dwarf's third season. I have no problems with that though, it was certainly an improvement on the grey.
In terms of the DVD, this is very impressive considering it was brought out so long ago. The special features leave nothing to the imagination, including very important and famous deleted scenes including the infaous 'alien cocoon' sequence which was cut and reintroduced into the second film. Some of the deleted scenes are simply cut for time reasons, although there is one in particular which reveals that the alien is far too guy-in-a-suit; the less is more approach thankfully deleted this one! Director Ridley Scott's audio commentary was also, apparently, the first to be recorded for use on a DVD and it manages to raise interesting points, although not much that can't be found in the behind-the-scenes galleries and notes (which are too extensive even for me to re-read). A peculiar feature of the DVD is an alternate version of the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, probably removed to try and keep the tension with the very subliminal final score, which plays the whole film in silence apart from certain scenes where sound effects are changed or the music is different. I'm not sure I could sit through two hours of that though, even if this was something like Monty Python & the Holy Grail, arguably the greatest film of all time.
Overall, Alien is a very classic and very enjoyable film which I will always have in my collection. It manages to combine the interest and wonder of science fiction with the scariness of being hunted and murdered by a spiky black alien, and is truly an original, especially in 1979. There are only a couple of scenes where the film shows its age, notably the very large and slow computer and the very fake head of Ian Holm, but the cast are great, the directing is top quality and the overall look is of something incredible. Despite many years of hearing from my friends that Aliens (Alien 2) was the best because of the "dead cool guns" I found it very lacking as a film, although it was enjoyable as a straightforward blast-em-up. Alien 3 bored me as a child, although I did enjoy a bit where a man was pushed into a fan, and Alien Resurrection was simply a poor modern day average space film. It's a shame, as they could have done so much more with the franchise. This DVD is very cheap all over the internet, and I would recommend it.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Great review, I've only ever seen dribs and drabs of this movie, and must rent it to see it all the way through, Matt x
anwar 11.12.2003 23:54
Not one for me but a good review
jillmurphy 11.12.2003 23:10
I'm pretty sure I recently answered some naff internet survey about the cover design for the director's cut DVD release. They were all dire, the covers.
By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together ... more
with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi withAlienthat, despite the passage of years and countless ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together ... more
with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi withAlienthat, despite the passage of years and countless ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Alien is the first movie of one of the most popular sagas in science fiction history and ... more
introduces Sigourney Weaver as Ripley the iron-willed woman destined to battle the galaxy's ultimate creature. The terror begins when the crew of the spaceship N...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Alien is the first movie of one of the most popular sagas in science fiction history, and ... more
introduces Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, the iron-willed woman destined to battle the galaxy's ultimate creature. The terror begin when the crew of the spaceship No...
Advantages: Excellent presentation of the film itself in terms of both image and sound; comprehensive photo gallery; interesting interview with James Cameron. Disadvantages: No Director’s Commentary; only one trailer included; no music audio options — essentially, this is not an extras-lite DVD, but it simply has nowhere near as much content as the Alien DVD it follows.
![Alien [DVD] [1979]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78531320.jpg "Alien [DVD] [1979]")
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