Alien (The Director's Cut)
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Movie Reviews of Alien (The Director's Cut)
Movie Review: The Director's Cut do not mean extended,
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember when I was in still in grade school, my older brother came running into the house bragging that he had just saw the scariest, BLOODIEST movie ever made in history. Well, that movie turn out to be Alien.
I was intrigue by his pronouncement but given the fact it was rated R, I had virtually no chance of catching it in the theater. Well, I finally was able to watch it on video and I was instantly hooked. Through the years I have grown to appreciate and enjoy this movie more and more.
To watch Alien is like going to a gourmet banquet dinner...it is an experience to immerse youself into and to savor every moment. One of the many criticism toward it, mainly from the MTV generation who has grown up with instant gratification for everything was that the movie moved too slow. Well, it is supposed to and deliberately so. The movie's aim is to make you feel the horrorific atmosphere, not to gross you out with decapitations and dismemberment (although it does a pretty good job with the now iconic chestburster scene).
Alien is a mastepiece in the sci-fi horror genre. It took the familiar mad slasher vs. the final girl movie plot archetype to heights no other film since has managed to achieve, much less approach. One of the many comments are how the special effects don't really hold up to todays'. Personally, I think this film looked as if could have been shot yesterday. There is a timeless quality to it that has enable to withstood the test of time.
The horror of Alien is not cheap blood and gore so prevalent in today's movies. In fact, the chestburster scene is so primal and unsettling that it resonates with you for the rest of the movie, so you THINK that blood and gore splashes aplenty every time the alien dispatches another member of the crew. The opening titles with Jerry Goldsmith's haunting score set the tone immediately and this atmosphere of isolating fear and paranoia never lets up.
When the Director's Cut came out in the theaters, I was overjoyed that I was able to experience this movie on the big screen. However, one thing disappointed me with the Director's Cut....the film wasn't really extended....several scenes and quick shots were inserted, but at the expense of having some other scenes (mainly of the camera panning across the set) being cut. There was one interesting shot of Brett looking for the cat and a quick casual shot of the alien hanging above him. I wonder if that scene was left in the original release, would the viewers recognize the alien for what it is, or thought it was a piece of futuristic machinery.
I do have to admit that since after multiple viewings, Alien loses its effectiveness because you know what is going to happen...but I still watch it repeatedly for the performance between the 7 principal actors and the amazingly detailed sets and art direction.
Pity they don't make movies like this anymore.
Movie Review: The original classic and a reworked version
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd like to correct a misconception about this DVD mentioned in a couple of reviews. This includes both the original version and the "Direction's Special Edition" (as I prefer to call it or you can call it the "alternate version"). Director's editions of films are a bit like gambling; it's difficult to quit when you're ahead. Scott at the request of Fox went back and fiddled with his original classic. The original version (as Scott points out in his commentary)really is the Director's Cut. This alternate version allows a slightly different take on the same material. The info here suggests that the alternate version is longer than the original film; that's not true and in fact the alternate version is a minute shorter (116 minutes). Scott made some trims here and there, added two complete scenes, allowed two other scenes to run a bit longer than they did in the original version. Both versions look terrific--the transfer is top notch and Scott digitally cleaned up and enhanced the images of the film. Fans who preferred the previous DVD may be disappointed as the color is a bit different and the picture a tad brighter in spots but, hey, that's the way that Scott wanted them to be. There are some mild compression artifacts although edge enhancement appears to be less of a problem here compared to the 1999 version. The sound is terrific and has been remixed very well for this edition of the film. It sounds cleaner than the 1999 edition at least to my ears.
The commentary track by Scott, Weaver and the remainder of the cast (sans Kotto and Holm)is interesting. It's a slice and dice commentary track with bits and pieces of each group giving some interesting insights on the making of the film. Missing from this edition is the music only alternate track (they couldn't get permission for this edition is my understanding). The original DVD release from 1999 also had an alternate music track that featured all of Goldsmith's original score (some of which was dropped by Scott in favor Hansen's Romantic Symphony at the conclusion and a bit of Goldsmith's score for Freud).
There's also a second disc packed with interesting extras including Weaver's screen test, brief footage of original cast member Jon Finch (who played Kane and had to withdraw from the film). There's also behind the scenes footage (some of which was glimpsed on the special laser disc edition).
One advantage of buying these titles individually is the packaging will be superior to the accordion style packaging of the Alien Quadrilogy set. The disadvantage is that the extra info that was on disc 9 (and included a couple of neat extras and the entire contents of both laserdisc special editions for Alien and Aliens)isn't provided here. If you're looking for the complete Alien experience, you may want to opt for the boxed set, otherwise this terrific two disc release will do for most fans of the film.
Movie Review: Astonishingly good!
Summary: 5 Stars
Somehow, despite my intense interest in movies, and despite having seen the other three 1/2 films in this series, I had never, until today, seen the first movie.
It is good.
Watching this film I was really taken aback by how well it's aged. You know how sometimes you can watch a movie, and it doesn't matter when it takes place, you can still peg roughly when it was made? that's not the case here. This is a movie that's only slightly younger than I am, and yet it looks and feels as fresh as something that could've been made in the last few years by die-hards who have no interest in CGI.
The only thing that to me seemed at all out of place was the smoking. Otherwise, it looked like something recent, rather than something from 1979. It's certainly aged far better than Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition) or even the first Star Wars movie.
I'm not sure what to attribute this to. Clearly the excellent performances, exceptional writing and incredible directing are a part of it. The sets seem very modern without slipping over into "ultra-modern" and that helps.
Also in watching this I became ever more depressed by what the franchise has become. This was a thoughtful, intelligent horror movie. Aliens (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) was a thoughtful, intelligent action movie. Alien 3 (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) and "Alien: Resurection" were... well, movies. The less said about AVP - Alien Vs. Predator (Widescreen Edition) the better.
This first film, however, was as flawless of a science fiction film as any you'll ever see. Heck, it even makes me want to go back and watch "Blade Runner" again, which I did not care for when I saw it the first time.
Roger Ebert has included this movie in his collection of "Great Movies" essays. He puts it into the same areas of greatness as films like Citizen Kane, Rashomon - Criterion Collection and All About Eve, a judgement I entirely agree with.
In short, don't do what I did. Don't watch the other films in the series and miss out on this one. If you haven't watched it, do so. If you have, then go back and see it again. It's worth your time.
Movie Review: [4.5] Time to revisit this sci-fi horror classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched AVPR in the theatre recently, and actually enjoyed it (but for nothing more than great creature action and effects). Unlike the first AVP, it returned (especially with the aliens) to a bit more of a darker, horror film that the original Alien films had (but still overun by action). Not that AVPR is even comparable, but it put me in the mood to watch the first Alien move again...wow. It seperates the men from the boys. Alien is the men. This is a film in the series that is made with a bit of everything in mind - horror, mystery, acting, characters, story, and exceptional originality and creativity. In addition, also a great director (Ridley Scott) and score composer (Jerry Goldsmith). The result is a great movie that has gone down as one of the greatest horror films ever.
The movie certainly takes its sweet time to get things rolling, but at the same time creates a great sense of mystery and an atmosphere of fright. We also get to know the crew, which is a family in their own way. Things feel like they happen in real time, and the acting feels less of reading from a script and more of improv - resulting in an experience that pits the viewer in the scene that feels less like a movie and more like reality. Perhaps the most memorable moment from the film, and in cinematic history, is the chest-bursting sequence at the dinner table. Though the sequals and recent AVP movies have their gory bursting scenes as well, the original is still the most frightening.
Unlike Aliens (which is a tremendous sequal) and the AVP movies, we see see very little of the Alien in this film, but that keeps its mystery and the horror up on the scale. The effects are actually quite fine, and the Alien looks great. Slowly but surely, like any horror flick, the crew dies one by one, until our main character - Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is faced off against the alien beast. Her character begins as an average person of the crew, she's not even the captain but her role shines brilliantly as the movie progresses, finally resulting in one of the strongest female roles known in cinematic history (and the Aliens sequal aided that as well).
They just don't make them like they used to. While the newer Alien and Predator films may "look" great, the original Alien is an all around great film. It takes more than just action and effects to pull it off, and Alien provides what it needs to fullfill this. Though this is more of a horror film than action - the Aliens sequal becomes more of an actioner and less horror. If you aren't even a fan of Alien movies, still try the first Alien movie just for a scary good time.
Acting - 4.5
Characters - 4.5
Horror - 4.5
Story - 4.5
Overall - 4.5
Movie Review: After a quarter decade, `Alien' still offers terrifying sci-
Summary: 5 Stars
Typically when one is beckoned to summon a description of what an alien life form may look like, it goes something like this - albino in skin coloration, hairless, short in stature, with disproportionately long arms and an abnormally large head matched with sizable charcoal-shaded oval eyes.
Furthermore, if one were to comment on its manner, such terms as complacent and diplomatic, not to mention affable, would surely creep to the lips.
However, it was Ridley Scott's 1979 project with the tagline "In space no one can hear you scream" that hurled a curve ball at our premonitions of the extra-terrestrial.
Just when it seemed that any prospect of otherworldly domination of planet Earth was left in the paranoiac debris of 1950-59, along slithers "Alien."
Except this time the ironclad automatons of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and the mimicking pod people of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" were to be replaced with the ultimate emblem of carnage.
Eventually it was this noxious outlook of Martians that would resurrect the once-prominent genre of sci-fi in the form of such films as "Predator," "Indepen-dence Day" and "Killer Klowns from Outer Space."
Truth be told, up till now I had never borne witness to the horrifying splendor of "Alien." Seeing the infantile alien burst out of John Hurt's chest on the big screen was genuinely crotch-hosing.
But what I found far more unsettling was the enigmatic role of the face hugger. Is its sole purpose in this universe to hatch, fasten hold to another organism with its finger-like digits and then orally impregnate the host?
Watching as Hurt lies comatose as the face hugger simultaneously breathes for him while implanting an alien embryo is difficult to stand.
It makes perfect sense in my mind as to why two sequels ensued; let it be known that I have been instructed by hard-core "Alien" fans to act as though "Alien Resurrection" was never made.
Even more interesting is the fact that the two filmmakers who took up the reins in "Aliens" and "Alien 3" are now relatively illustrious. Their names are James Cameron ("True Lies" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day") and David Fincher ("Fight Club" and "Seven").
Moreover, "Alien" has enough boos and gotchas to drive even your most rough-and-tumble stud down Spooked Like A Schoolgirl Lane. I hardly knew I could bellow out such high keys. Surely Janet Leigh herself would have been pleased.
By the closure of the film, one can rest assured that fellow filmgoers to the left and right will be tweeting "Winter Wonderland" in retort to the never-ending cascade of airborne popcorn.