Alien (The Director's Cut)
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Movie Reviews of Alien (The Director's Cut)
Movie Review: Don't forget the cat!
Summary: 5 Stars
For a 1979 sci-fi/horror flick to be this good, this believeable, and this darn scary twenty-five years later is a testament to the ferocious creativity its makers brought to the film. H.R. Giger's creature and set designs are some of the most extraordinary things put to film. The fact that they did it on a budget under $9 million is even more mind blowing.The cast was incredible, the sets and designs were ahead of their time, the direction and editing were superb.
The two-disc collector's edition is great. (My only complaint is the menu interface; I'm not really interested in how spooky my menu options look, I only want to be able to read them. Instead the menu is a monochromatic green with a lot of moving crap all over that makes it hard to figure out what is what. Not clever.) Disc 1 has the 1979 studio version and Ridley Scott's 'Director's Cut,' which is about 20 minutes longer than the original. Disc 2 has an extensive "making of" that is actually really impressive.
The making-of documentary shows what a DVD extra should be! With most movies you'll get a couple of bland behind the scene shots and then dull interviews with the actors and director talking about how wonderful it was to work with each other and what an amazing person everyone else is. Basically, bland platitudes. With ALIEN, over twenty years has passed, which means most of these guys are settled in their careers and aren't afraid of being honest about how the movie got made. Writers, actors, producers, and the director hold forth with very honest assessments of themselves and each other. When the writer, Dan O'Bannon, and the producers talk about each other it gets downright bitchy.
The director and editor of the documentary seemed to have this very subversive and sardonic approach, and I think give a brilliant look inside the peculiar sociology of Hollywood production. I almost can't believe they got away with it. They get the various players, the writer, the several producers, and Ridley, all remembering the same topic or encounters, and then edit them so that all of these wildly contrasting perspectives of the same event come right after the other. You could see that some of these people were still annoyed twenty years later, and that the ego battles still aren't resolved. You wonder how this movie ever got made at some points, and I think it helps explain why so many mediocre blockbuster crapfests get produced. I think it's more fascinating than watching some guys paint plaster rocks.
Thus, I highly recommend the Collector's Edition. The movie is beautiful, and a rightful classic, and the documentary is also in a class of its own.
Movie Review: Even Hollywood thinks this is No.3 of 100 all-time best
Summary: 5 Stars
I succeeded in avoiding this movie when it first came out, but it caught up to me that next year as I was cutting through the student center at my college on my way to the library. Didn't get the paper I was working on written that night; I sat down in one of those ugly orange chairs that furnish such places, and gradually disappeared downward as the movie worked its magic. I don't do horror pictures as a rule, but "Alien" is without doubt so much more - class at its best. As I write this, "Nova" is on, discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life, in fairly sunny terms. "Alien", the other side of the coin, postulates that things could be quite different out there. Everybody here isn't nice; what makes us think we're going to find the Friendlies elsewhere?
The movie starts on a dark, eerie note. The mining ship Nostromo,apparently having been out for an extended period of time, is on its way back to Earth, with its weatherworn crew asleep. The ship intercepts a communique of indeterminate origin which it initially interprets as a distress call and wakes up the crew to investigate. What nobody discovers until too late is that the Company has been looking for the source of this communique for some time in its own mercenary interests, without regard for the possible consequences of making contact.
The crew breaks off from their return home to follow the Company's directive, but with a lot of dissention amongst the ranks. These are people who are already tired of each other's company, so this just gives them more to argue about; but Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, in the role that pretty much defined her), partially decoding the communique, susses out too late that it's a warning - not an SOS. She argues unsuccessfully to quarantine the crew member who ends up infected by what the search party finds on its visit to the alien ship that sent out the message, and the Nostromo becomes an unpleasant place to be after that.
The original poster for "Alien" had the caption: "In space no one can hear you scream." This was the first movie of its kind that ever made me leave the light on - a full grown intrepid human being - the night I saw it. I was scared to go home in the dark, even. And I've got to tell you - Iim not sure I want to know what's out there. I'm of the opinion that if somebody can come up with a concept, it's possible.
This film is a classic and should be in every movie library, whether you like horror movies or not. It is so well done in all regards, it deserves a place of honour on the shelf.
Movie Review: Solid sci-fi classic, but not too subtle
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't believe that this came out 30 years ago, so I just had to watch it again and see if I enjoyed it as much as the first time.
There is no doubt that this is a very strong sci-fi monster flick for a number of reasons. The atmospherics, from the cluttered ship to Geiger's eerie designs, are absolutely first rate. Just by looking at it, you get a feeling for the story, a mixture of fear and fascination that all good sci-fi horror should evoke. Then there are the characters, all superlatively acted by relative unknowns, including the star-making performance by Weaver. There are very few sci-fi films that have such fully believable people, so that marks this one in my mind as equal to, say, the Day the Earth Stood Still. Even the ominous corporation, acting through Mother and Ash, is a sinister presence. Finally, there is the alien itself, also a wonderful creation that is utterly weird and completely believable in an immediate emotional sense - you just feel the fear, you don't ever have to try to forget that someone made it up.
As a sci-fi fan, I love the way that the alien became part of my imagination, more as questions than anything one can know. Was it brought onto the first ship as an infection that evolved into a more sophisticated organism as it exchanged DNA with the unlucky voyagers? Or was it some kind a invader, part of some plan that was moving through the universe? How much did the corporation know about it before the crew went and what did they want from it? How intelligent was the alien - just to survive or as a hive mind that was in touch with its cohorts? Even with the subsequent films, you can't really answer these questions, which is a mark of how fertile a product of imagination the film is. It is completely cogent, much like Close Encounters.
On the critical side, I did not enjoy the blood-curdling stuff all that much. It is gross and graphic. Also, I did find a lot of the suspense akin to horror house antics and feel that they could have used the alien for more subtle terror. That means that the first watch is the best, even if it meets the test of multiple watchings.
I have a special connection to this film. WHen I arrived in London fresh out of college, I ran into Tom Skerritt on the street and recognized him form MASH. He told me he had just made the movie, ALIEN, which he said with his eyes wide open in mock fear. I have loved the series ever since.
Movie Review: Great DVD package for sci-fi/horror landmark
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll not re-tread what the other reviewers have said. Alien is, indeed, a landmark science-fiction film, a great horror-suspense film, and more evidence (like it was needed) that Ridley Scott is The Man. It has been often copied (including by the rest of the Alien franchise), but never really equaled. You don't have to like sci-fi at all to like this movie, but you do have to like to be scared out of your pants to like this movie.What is impressive is how good the film looks, both in terms of the DVD image quality (vastly improved over earlier video and DVD versions), and in terms of the special effects themselves. Although the methods used were simple even by the standards of the time (no computer motion controlled cameras like were used in Star Wars), they were so well executed that in many respects the film has more visual impact than movies using much more sophisticated methods. Like most really good film makers, Ridley Scott made the absolute most of what he had to work with (much like director Nick Meyer did with Star Trek II).
The new digital surround sound mix is also outstanding, and captures a lot of the little ambient sounds that were harder to pick up in the crappier video and DVD versions.
Piles of special features are included with the Collector's Edition, and are generally very good. The audio commentary track to the movie, however, isn't so hot. It is basically a re-hash of what you already heard from some of the special features, and since about a half dozen people are talking on the track, it mostly consists of unfocused rambling.
As Ridley Scott himself notes in the little booklet that comes with the DVDs, The Director's Cut is NOT the superior version, but rather more of a novelty he made at the studio's request. The original version (also included with full re-mastered audio & video) is his favorite version, and will probably be yours too. You have to give big kudos to Fox Video for giving you both versions of the movie in this set.
Aliens was a great sequel, but also a very different movie from Alien. Where Alien was a suspense/horror film that took its time to screw with your head several times over, Aliens was an extremely well done full-on action thriller. The other two movies in the franchise are a waste of time. In a way, the best sequels to Alien and Aliens weren't the next 2 movies in the franchise at all, but rather The Thing (as a sequel to Alien) and Predator (as a sequel to Aliens).
Movie Review: 'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is still one of my favorite sci-fi horror flicks, even after a quarter of a century. It has spawned so many imitations that newcomers may feel that it is a bit commonplace. But, at the time, it literally created a new genre. Alien still sets the bar where science fiction meets both suspense and splatter. It's easy to be hockey, but Ridley Scott proved that in the chambers of a spaceship, there is no escape.
When the crew of the Nostromo answers a mysterious beacon, they find and ancient spaceship, the ruined body of its pilot, and a cluster of eggs. One of these attacks a crewmember and succeeds in implanting a nearly unkillable embryo in its victim. The crew returns to the Nostromo, the alien tears its way out of its victim's body and, in the dark of space, humans become the prey in a deadly hunt. Sigourney Weaver, as Lt. Ripley, sees crew members die and disappear around her as finds that there is more to this than an inadvertent run in with a bad alien and the discovery drives her to desperate action.
I don't think I will ever forget the alien's debut as a bloody jack-in-the-human-box. It still is a jarring moment, as Kane (John Hurt) becomes the first in a string of grim deaths. Ash's (Ian Holm) confrontation with Ripley is another memorable scene, and the final sequence is outstanding. Needless to say, I also was impressed by Ripley's bikini underwear but that has little to do with the plot.
In watching the film this time I finally realized that the fatal flaw that creates the nightmare isn't the deadly creature or a secret plot, but everyone's failure to realize that the Alien was not a simple monster, but a deadly and intelligent artifact of war. This message is as timely today as it was in 1979. Failing to respect your opposition is a fatal mistake.
For all purposes this was Sigourney Weaver's debut (does anyone remember her bit part in Woody Allen's Annie Hall?). Managing to convey a strong personality and overwhelming terror is no simple task and Weaver manages to create a believable personality in an unbelievable situation. Yaphet Kotto also does an excellent job, and nearly steals some scenes from Weaver. All of the acting is well orchestrated and focused. It is this, not the creepy monster and the spooky sets, it what makes Alien work.