MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

20th Century Fox's Alien Quadrilogy DVD collection isn't quite a box set as much as an archive. It's also a dream come true for anyone who's been waiting for the vaults to be opened on this horrific series. In a nutshell, what you get is all four films in their theatrical and alternate cuts, almost 12 hours of featurettes, exhaustive photographic and conceptual-drawing still galleries, and insightful audio commentary tracks for each film. As a bonus, the set comes with a ninth disc featuring extra documentaries and trailers not available on each film's stand-alone, two-disc editions (sold separately). Taken as a whole, it's an unbelievable look at the series' 20+ years of production. Each film is presented in a widescreen edition with aspect ratios ranging from 2.35:1 to 1.85:1. The overall picture quality is superb, given the films' varying degrees of grain in their stock (see Aliens for an example). The audio ranges from both a 5.1 Dolby Digital and 5.1 DTS track for the first and fourth films to a singular 5.1 Dolby track for the second and third entries with all tracks mastered in THX sound with additional Spanish mono tracks.

Each film's alternate cut can be viewed optionally, with additional Special Edition markers that can be activated to let you know when the added footage is onscreen. Ridley Scott's original Alien has been packaged with the 2003 Director's Cut, which, even though it includes additional footage, is one minute shorter due to the director's reworking and splicing of some scenes. Aliens comes with both the 137-minute theatrical cut and 154-minute Special Edition, long available from various editions. Alien 3's 114-minute theatrical cut has been beefed up to a 144-minute Special Edition, which lets audiences finally view the first cut of the film that was cut by the studio. Alien Resurrection has also been given additional treatment, with the original 109-minute theatrical print supplied alongside the 116-minute 2003 Special Edition cut. The most anticipated of the four films would be the alternate version of David Fincher's third installment of the series -- a production long known to have been hindered by money-grubbing corporate suits throughout filming. Sadly, Fincher declined a revisit to the film, so that the extra footage now acts as a template for what could have been, rather than a true Director's Cut. Still, the footage is quite remarkable, with excised acts of the plot and a slightly alternate ending now being re-inserted, along with key atmospheric and character beats which benefit the overall vision of the film. Spliced-together commentaries can also be found on each disc, with snippets by filmmakers, actors, and technicians making up the tracks. Highlights include James Cameron's first recorded track about the sequel along with some hilarious banter from Bill Paxton and company in the space marine reunion sections of the Aliens commentary.

Supplemental discs for all four films provide far greater detail into the series. Each disc is split up into three different sections covering pre-production, production, and post-production. Featuring various featurettes, galleries, time-lapse photography, multi-angle options, and much more (including continuity polaroids -- wow!), these sections get to the heart of each film's production. Also supplied is a very handy Navigation Options area that lets you view all the featurettes, artwork, and photography in their own sections. Through here, you can access the full documentaries that are at the heart of this collection. With three full hours each given to Alien, Aliens, and Alien Resurrection, these featurettes are the fullest and most accomplished behind-the-scenes work seen since the Lord of the Rings: Expanded Editions. Sadly, although the most awaited of the bunch, Alien 3's documentary was cut at the last second from three to two-and-a-half hours before release. While still eye-opening, one can only guess at how good the work was before they excised some of the more scathing scenes between the director and the producers. Still, there's plenty to gleam from all this thorough work. From the controversy surrounding each film's score to the constant heated budget demands from the studio, it's amazing that the series achieved what it did.

The final disc could be called the capper to the whole set. Found here are vintage promotional featurettes, the hour-long documentary Alien Evolution, trailers, TV spots, Q & As, and the first two films' archive from their long out-of-print laserdisc special editions (which are immense in their own right). Apart from each film's separate sections, there's also quite an amazing featurette on the biggest Alien collector out there, Bob Burns -- infamous for his haunted house attractions at his California home. Rounding out the disc is an extensive Dark Horse Cover Gallery, featuring credits, synopses, and covers for every Alien-related comic the publisher ever released, along with a script-to-screen comparison for DVD-ROM users. There are even more goodies awaiting you on each of these discs, including unparalleled stories of craftsmanship and creativity for those brave enough to dig in. Menu designs are a home run, as well, with packaging that ranks lower only because of the set's almost five-foot span. (Note: The Region 2 version has a more user-friendly design, with library-style cases for the discs.) Still, for any hardcore fan of the Alien series, it'll be quite hard to beat this daunting archival set. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 9
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: THX
• Features:
  • cc
  • Alien:
  • 1979 theatrical version with audio commentary
  • 2003 director's cut with audio commentary
  • 9 new in-depth featurettes
  • Deleted and extended scenes
  • Sigourney Weaver screen test
  • Aliens:
  • 1986 theatrical version with audio commentary
  • 1991 special edition with audio commentary
  • 11 new in-depth featurettes
  • Original treatment by James Cameron
  • Multi-angle animatic to final scene study
  • Alien 3:
  • 1992 theatrical version with audio commentary
  • 2003 special edition with audio commentary
  • 11 new in-depth featurettes
  • E.E.V. scan (multi-angle study)
  • Storyboards
  • Still galleries
  • Alien Resurrection:
  • 1997 theatrical version with audio commentary
  • 2003 special edition with audio commentary
  • 12 new in-depth featurettes
  • First-draft screenplay by Joss Whedon
  • Multi-angle rehearsals
  • Still galleries
  • Alien Quadrilogy:
  • New "Alien Evolution" documentary
  • Exclusive new Ridley Scott Q & A
  • Laserdisc archives
  • DVD-ROM content

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Sound Effects - 1986 (Don Sharpe)
•     Won Best Visual Effects - 1986 (John Richardson, Bob Skotak, Suzanne Benson, Stan Winston)
•     Won Best Visual Effects - 1979 (H.R. Giger, Nick Allder, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson)
•     Nominated Best Visual Effects - 1992 (Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, Jr., Richard Edlund, George Gibbs)
•     Nominated Best Actress - 1986 (Sigourney Weaver)
•     Nominated Best Art Direction - 1986 (Crispian Sallis, Peter Lamont)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 1986 (Ray Lovejoy)
•     Nominated Best Score - 1986 (James Horner)
•     Nominated Best Sound - 1986 (Roy Charman, Graham Hartstone, Nicolas Le Messurier, Michael Carter)
•     Nominated Best Art Direction - 1979 (Michael Seymour, Ian Whittaker, Roger Christian)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Art Direction - 1979 (Michael Seymour)
•     Nominated Best Production Design - 1986 (Peter Lamont)
•     Nominated Makeup Award - 1986 (Peter Robb-King)
•     Nominated Sound Award - 1986
•     Nominated Visual Effects Award - 1986

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - 1986 (Sigourney Weaver)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Tom Skerritt - Dallas
       Carrie Henn - Newt
       Charles Dance - Clemens
       Dominique Pinon - Vriess
       Brian Glover - Andrews
       Bill Paxton - Pvt. Hudson
       Daniel Webb - Morse
       Brad Dourif - Gediman
       Holt McCallany - Junior
       Kim Flowers - Hillard
       Gary Dourdan - Christie
       Leland Orser - Purvis
       Al Matthews - Sgt. Apone

• Director:

  Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

• Producer:

  Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill, Gale Anne Hurd, Bill Badalato

• Screen Story:

  Dan O'Bannon

• Screenwriter:

  Dan O'Bannon

• Screen Story:

  Ronald Shusett

• Screenwriter:

  James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill, Ronald Shusett, Larry Ferguson, Rex Pickett, Greg Pruss, Eric Red, David N. Twohy

• Screen Story:

  Vincent Ward

• Screenwriter:

  William Gibson, Joss Whedon

• Cinematographer:

  Derek Vanlint, Adrian Biddle, Alex Thomson, Darius Khondji

• Composer (Music Score):

  Jerry Goldsmith

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Lionel Newman

• Featured Music:

  Howard Hanson

• Composer (Music Score):

  James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal, John Frizzell

• Editor:

  Terry Rawlings, Peter Weatherly, Ray Lovejoy, Herve Schneid

• Production Designer:

  Leslie Dilley, Anton Furst, Michael Seymour, Terry Ackland-Snow, Peter Lamont, Fred Hole, Norman Reynolds, Nigel Phelps

• Art Director:

  Roger Christian, Leslie Dilley, Ken Court, Bert Davey, Fred Hole, Michael Lamont, James Morahan, Andrew Neskoromny

• Supervising Art Director:

  Stephen Cooper

• Co-producer:

  Sigourney Weaver

• Executive Producer:

  Ronald Shusett, Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill, Ezra Swerdlow

• Set Designer:

  Ian Whittaker, Crispian Sallis, John M. Dwyer

• Costume Designer:

  Roger Dicken, John Mollo, Emma Porteous, Dave Perry, Bob Ringwood

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Michael Carter, Roy Charman, Nicolas Le Messurier, Graham Hartstone, Richard Bryce Goodman, Leslie Shatz

• Makeup:

  Peter Robb-King

• Special Effects:

  Nick Allder, Bernard Lodge, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson, Norman Baillie, L.A. Effects Group, Stan Winston, John Richardson, Richard Edlund, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, Jr., George Gibbs

• First Assistant Director:

  Paul Ibbetson, Michel Cheyko, Mark Oppenheimer

• Camera Operator:

  Adrian Biddle, David Worley

• Stunts:

  Eddie Powell, Stuart St. Paul, Paul Weston, Jason White, Jazzer Jeyes, Chris Webb, Malcolm Weaver, Simon Crane, Mark Newman

• Casting:

  Mary Goldberg, Mary Selway, Judy Taylor, Mike Fenton, Jane Feinberg, Billy Hopkins, Priscilla John, Rick Pagano

• Creature Design:

  H.R. Giger

• Conductor:

  Lionel Newman

• Model Effects Supervisor:

  Martin Bower

• Visual Consultant:

  Syd Mead

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Bob Skotak, Dennis Skotak

• Special Effects Editor:

  Don Sharpe

• Music Editor:

  Robin Clarke

• Visual Effects:

  Suzanne Benson

• Creature Effects:

  Amalgamated Dynamics

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Ernie F. Orsatti

• Special Effects Supervisor:

  Pitof, Erik Henry

REVIEWS:

• Combining science fiction with horror, Swiss artist H.R. Giger's alien design and Carlo Rambaldi's visual effects creepily meld technology with corporeality, creating a claustrophobic environment that is coldly mechanical yet horribly anthropomorphized, like the metallic monster itself. Director Ridley Scott keeps the alien out of full view, hiding it in the dark or camouflaging it in the workings of the Nostromo. Signs of '70s cultural upheaval permeate Alien's future world, from the relationship between corporate capitalism and rapacious monstrosity to the heterogeneous crew and Ripley's forceful horror heroine. The intense frights and gross-outs, however, are credited with making Alien one of the biggest hits of 1979 (it premiered on the two-year anniversary of Star Wars); Giger, Rambaldi, et al. won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Alien went on to spawn three genre-bending sequels (and reconditioned Ripleys): exceptional '80s actioner Aliens (1986), dark prison drama Alien 3 (1992), and exotically grotesque Alien Resurrection (1997). With its atmospheric isolation, implacable monster, and whiff of social conscience, Alien stands as one of the more thoughtful yet utterly terrifying horror films of the 1970s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
• For big-budget, high-octane showmanship, Aliens (the sequel to Alien, directed by Ridley Scott) is hard to beat. While not as deliberate or interesting as the first in the series, Aliens is a wide-open visual-effects bonanza, with enough intensity and thrill for three standard action movies. Director James Cameron again proves himself more than capable when it comes to making the genre pay off. Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ripley, but this time she's no mere survivor, she's ready to lay waste to those ultra-nasty creatures from the first movie. She's like Wonder Woman without the skimpy clothes. The female heroine in this series has always been fascinating because of her complete ignorance of her sexuality. This is given an interesting spin at the end of this film when Ripley's goal becomes to destroy the alien eggs in their nest. A slap in the face to traditional motherhood? Anyway, too much shouldn't be read into the proceedings here. The dialogue is often horrendous, and the characters other than Ripley are little more than fodder for some impressive scenes of carnage, but this remains one of the most enjoyable action movies of the mid-'80s. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi