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Directed by |
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Starring |
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Specs |
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- 16:9 Enhanced
- Dual Layer ( )
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Languages |
- English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
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Subtitles |
English - Hearing Impaired, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Commentary - English |
Extras |
- 11 Featurette
- 7 Photo gallery
- Storyboards - Videomatic
- Original screenplay
- THX Optimiser
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Aliens: CE |
20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment .
R4 . COLOR . 148 mins .
M15+ . PAL |
Feature |
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Contract |
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Well, if the first film transfer in this box set, Alien, is the cream, this is the crap. Being one of my favourite all-time movies, I was so looking forward to checking out this one in the Quadrilogy. However, while the disc contains two versions of this classic space epic (as does each disc in the 'Quadrilogy'), I naturally wanted to see the extended version, which is widely accepted to be the best. Yeah I’d seen it before; once even on a Friday night on television many years ago, but while the film is awesome and certainly one that cemented James Cameron as a director to watch, the transfer is comparably a piece of shit. After the last little trip Officer Ripley went on turned to crap, she gets back into hyper-sleep with cat Jones and takes a nap for the projected ten months home to Earth. Unfortunately she kinda misses her target and ends up rescued by a salvage team 57 years after the events of the first film. A lot has changed - though not bureaucracy - and soon she’s on charges for willful destruction of the space vessel Nostromo. Until the planet her crew found the alien on (now colonised) loses touch, of course. So she’s immediately reinstated and back on a ship to the colony to take on a shitload of the acid-blooded bastards with a team of space marines. Naturally, carnage follows. "They mostly come at night; mostly..." |
James Cameron had the courage to take on a sequel to a film that had succeeded for a totally different reason; the first had a cast of eight people (including the guy in the suit...) whereas this one had scads of them everywhere. The first was a tense cat and monster thriller, whereas this was a balls-out action film. So well made it was, and so true to the original ideal, that it achieved massive applause from around the world - and deservedly so. As far as action films go, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one so unrelenting and terrifying. Filling in a little more of the ongoing story of Ripley (as did the following two films) there was suddenly a second story at work here. No longer just a bug-hunt, this had become a human story of people during crises and of Ripley’s losses at the cost of sleeping away her homelife... and of chances renewed. Maybe most people take less than that from the film, and maybe some more; the fact remains that Aliens, even some 15 years later, can still kick arse as an action film and with the extended version available here does so all the more.
Video |
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Well, the disappointments come in the form of grainy scenes and a smaller cinema aspect ratio than the three other films in the set. Unfortunate also in that the original Special Edition DVD version is practically immaculate! What happened down at Fox? Maybe a couple of them alien-fellers got loose or sumthin’? Anyway, particular points of reference regarding said grain can be found in numerous shots in the nest under the cooling towers and in the infra-red Med Lab scenes. To be honest I was quite shocked and more than a little disappointed. The cinema aspect here is only 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement and while this is entirely adequate, it’s kinda odd when the rest of the box set is in 2.35:1. Oh well. Anyhow, the rest of the video transfer is just fine with few if any artefacts, blacks and colours being well saturated and shadow detail being fairly good.
Audio |
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The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround will work your system until it bleeds. The same awesome soundtrack as the original Special Edition release needed no upgrading as it is near perfect here. Plenty of surrounds and deep booming gunfire with squeals and explosions and relentless noise really bring the house down. The final scenes among the decaying power plant are everything a growing Aliens fan needs by way of sound. Aww, yeah! Dialogue is fine and the sound effects well deserved the two associated Oscars won for editing and sound. Composer James Horner, long time collaborator with James Cameron, has outdone himself with a fitting military style action assembly of noise and hardware with orchestral superiority. From the gentle opening violins as we re-encounter the Narcissus to the full metal racket of the first conflagration, the soundtrack is spot on every time and suits the film perfectly.
Extras |
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Contract |
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Overall |
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Contract |
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Well, the film is a modern classic and is naturally going to be in a box set of Alien films. However, it isn’t as nice a version as we saw in the Special Edition release a little while back and is therefore the biggest disappointment of the set. That being said, it is still awesome, with only momentary pieces of lacking film quality. The only one released in the 1.85:1 ratio is another mystery here, however the film still kicks major arse and with the multitude of extras included balances the scale again. Stay tuned for more Alien reviews from the Quadrilogy from your Alien experts, DVDnet.
LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=3493
Send to a friend.
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And I quote... |
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Review Equipment |
- DVD Player:
Nintaus DVD-N9901
- TV:
Sony 51cm
- Receiver:
Diamond
- Speakers:
Diamond
- Surrounds:
No Name
- Audio Cables:
Standard Optical
- Video Cables:
Standard Component RCA
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