And holy cow! 9 discs, two versions of each film (theatrical and either directors cut or special edition) plus 5 discs of bonus materials, mostly the making-of and backstage stuff that I love! And I got it for only $44.99 at Costco ($20 off coupon, good until 12/5 or while supplies last!).
It is supposed to be a Christmas present for my brother, but since he’s out of the country until March, I’m sure he’ll understand if I watch them all and re-wrap it!
I am starting tonight, and I can’t wait! Sure, the fourth one wasn’t exactly good, but the extras should be worth it. Anyone seen them yet?
The fourth one was so bad (saw it in the theater) that I could not bring myself to purchase the Quadrilogy because it was contained there-in! Alien[sup]3[/sup] had its faults but it was a masterpiece compared to the laughable piece of shit that is Alien Resurrection.
Fortunately they were released as separate sets and was able to purchase the second film discs, Aliens, for only $19. The commentary for this one is really good. It goes back and forth between James Cameron & Gale Ann Hurd talking about making it, and a lot of the cast (Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henrickson and Jenette Goldstein) talking about being in it. Unfortunately Sigourney Weaver isn’t on it (maybe she’s on the other movie’s commentaries).
Henrickson tells a great story about how he shared a cab with Paul Riser going to work every day and yet Riser never spoke or even looked at him.
Is the 9th disc the one with the interviews and such? I’d be interested in a retrospective by Carrie Henh since she’s never acted again but not enough to buy two movies I don’t want to own.
No, the interviews are all on each films companion disc. Carrie Henn and her brother’s interviews are on mine (her brother played, well, her brother, Timmy, first seen in the Special Edition).
Alien Legacy , Alien Evolution, Experience in Terror (promotional featurette '79), Ridley Scott Q&A
Alien Laser Disc Archive: Part I (pre-production), Part II (production), Part III (post-production), theatrical trailer A, theatrical trailer B, TV spot (Egg), TV spot (Now Playing)
ALIENS:
Aliens Laser Disc Archive: Part I (pre-production), Part II (production), Part III (post-production), theatrical trailer A, teaser trailer, domestic trailer, international trailer, TV spot (Now Playing)
ALIEN 3:
6 trailers, 7 TV spots
ALIEN RESURRECTION:
Theatrical teaser, 2 theatrical trailers, 4 TV spots, Bob Burns Alien Collection
Actually the Alien3 alternate version (that is not approved by the director) is a lot better than the official version.
It was a lot more exciting with some extra storylines in it.
I quite liked Alien 3: it had its faults, but the director {name gone…not Vincent Ward…I know I’ll remember as soon as I’ve posted this…} was at least not trying to emulate Ridley Scott or James Cameron and make “Alienses”: plus it’s comforting to know that the inmates of future prison planets will be mostly comprised of British character actors.
On the other hand, there is no excuse whatsoever for Alien 4: OK, so we clone the late Ripley from her blood cells because she had been impregnated by an alien, so the alien DNA will also be present? Fine, so if some ham-fisted surgeon had left a pair of scissors inside her after a botched operation, the scissors will also be present in any clones. Give me my money back.
Thanks, DWMarch: I knew it would come back to me - as I recall, it was before Seven, and tarnished his wunderkind reputation: Seven brought him back, and you might remember hi from such films as Fight Club.
I got it for Christmas last year. I agree the ‘Assembly Cut’ of Alien 3 is better than the theatrical. The extras are great too. There’s an interview with Carrie Henn on the second Aliens disc, where she says she’s forever plagued by her friends for one of her lines, ie “We mostly go to the cinema at night, mostly.”
I couldn’t tell any real difference between the supposed Directors cut of Ressurection and the Theatrical. It only jumps off the deep end into super sucking when the half breed baby shows up anyway, I like the first hour of that film. YMMV.
If you’ve got surround sound, crank it for Aliens - I must have seen that film 200+ times, and the mix of it made me notice new things, especially when they’re securing the area at the colony - the wind howling outside makes it even more tense. You might find the lipsynch goes off slightly in Aliens as it does on mine, but flicking it to commentary and back again with the audio button corrects this.
Does anyone else think that the extended Aliens isn’t as good as the theatrical release?
Some of the extra scenes take away some of the Aliens’ badassness (yes, that is a word) in my view, eg. Aliens running away from the turrets , while other scenes take away some of the suspense, eg. seeing Newt’s dad with a face hugger on him, now we know exactly what hapenned to the colony.
I’m with you on the latter, as is James Cameron. In the commentary he observes that when he was told to trim the running time by a significant length, he opted to remove that entire sequence, and was happier with it gone.
In regards to the former, I’ll put it inside a spoiler tag, 'cos you did too.I don’t necessarily see a problem with the aliens retreating from the sentry guns. Rather, I saw it as an indication that they were more dangerous than before – they were able to demonstrate a rudimentary amount of problem-solving. I’d hesitate to say ‘intelligence’, but it was another indication of a hive mentality as opposed to J. Random Monster that just attacks and eats the secondary characters.The Quadrilogy as a whole was a worthwhile purchase for me, even though I already own the Aliens director’s cut (not the recent Collector’s Edition, which is the same version as in the Quadrilogy) and the Alien Legacy set. I got it sometime last year after grousing that I’ve paid for these movies over and over over the decades.
I keep watching Alien: Resurrection, hoping that somehow I missed the genius inherent in the film and I’ll recognize it someday.
I purchased Alien and Alien 3 seperately. Loved them both. I’m skittish about purchasing Aliens as I really think that it was a crappy sequel that opted for more gun play and macho posturing than anything else (also the reason I detested Die Hard 2) Though I doubt I’ll ever get Resurection… that may change but I’d have to buy Star Trek V first as a litness test to how much I need a complete set.
Seeing the colony before hand ruins some of the suspense and is bad[/spoiler]I once had someone tell me that they liked the 4th one the best and that he didn’t really like the first two. I would have thought he was joking if he wasn’t so dead serious. What a :wally
