Alien (DVD)

...released upon the world. Although Alien was really a 50's 'B' movie pretending to be a mainstream movie, the visual skills of its director, its sets and top-notch cast made the movie a huge success. Ridley Scott, who directed the film, was just beginning his top of the hill period going on to direct Bladerunner a few years later. He recently made his ace comeback with Gladiator last year. Alien takes the basic story of hapless crew thawing out an ...
...50s B movie hokum but Alien bread new life into this largely ( at the time ) dead genre. Firstly, the film is so darkly atmospheric, it literally sucks you into its shadowy depths from the first establishing shot. Even now, this first film in the series is scarier than the others. Why? I believe its the stark, jarring musical score and the wise decision of Scott not to show too much of the creature. Ridley Scott has stated that his real love is ...

ultras67 07.11.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

Alien - a ground breaking movie which really put Sci-Fi on the big screen map. Take director Ridley Scott (yes, he also directed a film titled 'Gladiator' recently which you may have seen), several top name stars such as John Hurt, Tom Skerrit, Yaphet Kotto, and a relative newcomer - Sigourney Weaver - and the scene is set to produce a fabulous movie. Alien does not disappoint. The plot is a simple one - an alien being on a craft with a skeleton ...
...package, and now all four Alien movies are available for around £10 - £12 online. ALthough, to be honest, if you can afford it, get the boxset. All four movies are included plus a bonus fifth disc which contains - well you'll just have to buy it won't you! For those of you that have had a look at my Aliens review - there are places online that sell the set for around £50ish, so steer clear of the high street for this one. Highly recommended both ...

petrasol 02.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...indeed. Whether you buy the Alien DVD on its own, or as part of the ‘Alien Legacy’ boxset (which also contains ‘Aliens’, ‘Alien3’, and ‘Alien Resurrection’ as well as a bonus documentary disc) as I did, this is what you get… THE FILM The deep space mining vessel Nostromo is returning to Earth, its seven crew in hypersleep hibernation, when it intercepts a pulsating signal which could be a sign ...
...· Picture format: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Alien is a film to whom, even more than most, colours, shadows and the trade-off between the two are very important. Thankfully, the print included here is beautiful, and one simply cannot believe (with the possible exception of the computer displays) that this film was made as long ago as 1979. The shadows have a depth and a texture which would simply not have been possible even with the best VHS, ...

B.Bligh 01.07.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

Ridley Scotts film is easily the best of the series because it has far more atmosphere and tension than the other three put together. Like his own Blade Runner he creates a world which draws you in with it's immense attention to detail and realistic, grimy and industrial feel, a style whcih has inspired too many film makers to mention. As the film progresses and their situation becomes bleak to say the least, the hairs will begin to rise on the back ...
...of can do that. Jerry Goldsmiths outstanding score is simply part of the atmosphere - he never intrudes but just heightens the fear factor even more. The only thing I would say is the characters are never studied in any depth so we feel little compassion for them, even so it remains for me the greatest sci-fi horror movie. ...

JSpencer 16.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

Alien is a good film but is not as good as I expected. It does have a lot of things going for it but the main one is the alien. The spaceship Nostromo is returning to earth when they are forced to respond to a distress signal from another planet. While investigating Kane (Ian Hurt) enters a chamber full of alien eggs and a crab like alien jumps up and attaches it self to his face. Kane is then in a coma and when he wakes up an alien burst out of ...
...such moments as when the alien burst out Kanes chest. They also show the sheer terror of there individual confrontations with the alien very well and this manages to make the alien seem convincing. The star is the alien but in my opinion you don’t see it enough. The scenes when the alien attacks although very good as short and sweet. I would have liked to see people being chased down the dimly lit corridors before their spectacular death. ...

elspeth334 25.01.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

There's a violent vicious alien on board our large empty spaceship. Let's all go into dark rooms alone to look for it. Oh dear, it's got me. There's more to it than that of course, including an intriguing subplot about the venality and greed of "The Company" who want to study the Alien, and many long lingering shots of the, admittedly stunning, set design. But it's the set up of the scares that's the important thing about this movie. As a monster ...
...the remains of a huge alien spaceship. The pilot, a giant alien, is long dead, its skeleton strangely buckled as if exploded from within. John Hurt goes down into the bowels of the alien craft, and in one of the great SF scenes of all time, finds a nest of alien eggs. He foolishly gets too close to one, and it hatches, releasing a face-hugging alien that wraps itself tightly around Hurt's head, refusing to let go. When they get Hurt back to the Nostromo, ...

williemeikle 01.09.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...sides anyway. The fundamentals of Alien are combinations of factors which had been seen before; it is in the execution that Alien proved far superior to what anyone had seen up to 1979, and began the process of launching one of the most successful sf / horror film series ever. The deep space mining vessel Nostromo is returning to Earth, its seven crew in hypersleep hibernation, when it intercepts a pulsating signal which could be a sign of intelligent ...
...be derided. In this arena Alien once again comes up with the goods, and the reason why Alien is even better remembered than its worthy stablemates such as The Thing becomes clear; in The Thing, the initial suspense was well rewarded, the film’s monster bursting suddenly and without warning through a door, the shot expertly conceived with the shadows exquisite. Afterwards, however, the monster is seen a few too many times for its own good, and ...

B.Bligh 01.07.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...until they spoilt it in Alien Resurrection). Just in case you haven't seen it (which I consider quite unlikely), the story is this: The crew of a deep space cargoship is awoken from hypersleep with orders to invesitgate a signal being transmitted from what had previously been considered an uninhabited planet. Once there, they discover a spaceship of unknown origin crashed on the surface. Inside the enourmous ship's body are found thousands of what ...
...one by one... Alien was almost certainly the first Science Fiction film to introduce the concept of a proper plot to fall back on, rather than simply relying on special effects and action (see 'Star Wars'). In it's day, the kind of psychological terror this film generates ("Here, kitty kitty kitty...") puts The Blair Witch Project to shame. That is not to say, however, that the Special Effects were anything less than incredible - especially the creature ...

Reficul 20.01.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...in her motion picture debut, Alien tells the tale of the deep space vessel Nostromo who's journey back to Earth is interrupted when it picks up an alien signal from an unexplored planet. Venturing down to the surface Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) leads crewmembers Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) and Kane (John Hurt) inside a crashed alien ship to investigate the signal. Finding nothing but the corpse of a dead alien the crew set about exploring ...
...lets the crew and the alien parasite aboard. It is here that and the fun and games begin. With the Nostromos grim industrial interior, and the films Oscar winning special effects, Alien has a gritty almost documentary feel to it that is enhanced by the realism with which the characters are portrayed. Had this film been made now, the cast would have been a bunch of pretty boys with big muscles who show no fear and spend half the film trying ...

EarthGirl 18.06.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...crew is 'infected' by an alien and brought back on board. For the time, this film was literally astounding - nothing as visceral had been done in the sci-fi genre before. Previous films portrayed the future as quite light and adventurous (2001 with its glaring white all over the place; Star Wars with its happy-go-plucky little band of rebellious entrepreneurs), but this is very dark all the way through. Practically the only light to be seen is strobes, ...
...the life cycle of the Alien and bringing them to horrific, bloody life. Indeed, the first emergence of the tiny baby alien is a scene that simply cannot be forgotten (at trial showings, this caused fainting and vomiting in the audience, it is reported). Scott also draws together splendidly the talents of the cast - Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Sigourney Weaver. Indeed, this film springboarded Weaver to her succeeding film career. There is a debate as ...

tatum69 02.02.2001 (08.04.2001) · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

..."out takes". I thought wow, Alien bloopers, that could be quite amusing, to see Sigorny Weaver forgetting her lines or falling over in an ackward scene, or maybe the alien burping at an inoportune moment. I was looking forward to that section having been a fan for so long. So it is with much dissapointment that I tell you there are only two "out takes" and they are not what we Brits may perceive as "Out takes." I remain a little confuised tot his ...
...to provide and extra two deleted scenes. And the reason they have not been seen before is possibly because they are really not good!!. So just quell that excitement over that section, but get the DVD anyway, the film, the extra scenes, and directors commentry more than make up for the dissapointing out takes. ...

jwdcruicks 20.03.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...behind it, the success of Alien was quite simple and easy to understand. After all, what is the underlying power of the horror movie? Rather than the creation of a foul, unworldly, horrible monster at the root of all our fears, it is the creation of suspense and a deeply felt but barely articulated sense of helplessness in the face of some dark, evil, nameless Other. It is not the monster that is the cause of our distress, but rather our fear of ...
...sense of impending doom. Alien had it made, and was the forerunner for a thousand copyist science fiction horror movies. But none could match its bleak and horrific majesty. Really, these days Alien is just too much the epitome of the space horror genre and too easily recalled for me to truly do it justice, or for there to be much point in trying to explain why it is so good. A brilliant idea, the conception of true horror arising from being completely ...

dave27 01.06.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

...nearly 22 years the film Alien still has the power to frighten the living daylights out of people, even those who have seen the film before. The director Ridley Scott is out of the Hitchcock mould as he takes the viewer on a journey through their worst nightmares. Although set in outer space on a mining vessel, this film is more horror than science fiction but doesn't rely totally on spectacular visual special effects to set the heart racing. Instead ...
...the making of the Alien monster you never really get a good clear view of it, which is maybe just as well as what you do see is frightening enough. It has always been said that the best horror stories are those that hint at what is to come leaving the viewer's imagination to do the rest. This premiss is exploited well in this film as Jones, Ripley's ginger cat spits and snarls at something not quite seen. This is one film where the women are not ...

jimbuck 11.11.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

In space no one can hear you scream – one of the most effective and often quoted tag lines from cinema history from the film that helped set the standard in sci-fi suspense. Building on the strengths that 2001: A space Odyssey built a decade before Ridley Scott captured the mood of the situation perfectly to create one of the most fascinating films ever made. A film that makes you want to look away from the screen but is so gripping and intense ...
...film brimming with tension from the first scene builds slowly in a crescendo of action, tension and chaos. Brilliant Scott created a film that not even Cameron’s excellent sequel could match for suspense and it’s only peer of the time was Jaws. Built on a simple story the film tells of a group of worker travelling back from a trip through deep space. When the film starts they are all in stasis or hibernation for the long trip. They are ...

Pulpdiction_1999 14.02.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Alien (DVD)

This really is the last word in survival horror films, easily the best of it’s kind. The feel of immense claustrophobia despite only seven people in a huge vessel, knowing that they have the freedom to roam, but everywhere is a danger. Knowing that nobody is there to help. The creature is the best I’ve seen in all the series, the lone hunter and predator is shown to full potential here while in later films, the threat of one has been replaced by ...

pabdesign 31.08.2000 · Read full review
Review of Alien (DVD)