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Alien Quadrilogy

Alien Quadrilogy

List Price: $99.98
Your Price: $74.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Monumental DVD Release For A Deserving Series!
Review: The "Alien" movies are an epic piece in the history of science fiction cinema, and this is a most amazing and gorgeous DVD release. There are two versions of each film, and hours and hours of extras. This is enough to keep you busy for a long time. It is worth the money!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Dude, this DVD set is awesome!!!!!!!!!
Review: Wow, I can't believe how many hours of features this DVD set has. It's crazy. 50 hours of features. The movies are great, with my favorite being the second and my least favorite is the fourth. Here is a description of the discs and the features and the version i prefer:

Alien (Discs 1 and 2) Directed by Ridley Scott

Disc 1
Theatrical Version (1hr. 57 minutes)
Director's Cut (1hr. 56 minutes)
Version I prefer: Theatrical Version

Theatrical Version Menu:

Play Movie
Scene Selection
Set up
Special Features
-Deleted Scenes (You will see these scenes in the Director's Cut)
-Audio Commentary

Director's Cut Menu

Play movie
Scene Selection
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Scene Marker
-Audio Commentary

Disc 2 (Special Features)
- Pre Production
- Production
- Post Production
- Deleted Scripted Scenes

Aliens (Disc 3 and 4) Directed by James Cameron

Disc 3

Theatrical Version (2hr. 17 min)
Special Edition (2hr. 34 min.)

Version I prefer: Special Edition

Theatrical Version Menu

Play Movie
Scene Selection
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Scenes (You Will see these scenes in the Special Edition)
-Audio Commentary

Special Edition Menu

Play Movie
Scene Selection
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Footage Marker
-Audio Commentary

Disc 4 (Special Features)

Pre Production
Production
Post Production

Alien 3 (Disc 5 and 6)

Disc 5

Theatrical Version (1hr. 54 minutes)
Special Edition (2hr. 24 minutes)
Version I prefer: Special Edition

Theatrical Version Menu

Play Movie
Scene Selections
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Scenes (You can see these scenes in the Special Edition)
-Audio Commentary

Special Edition Menu

Play Movie
Scene Selections
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Footage Marker
-Audio Commentary

Disc 6- Special Features

Pre Production
Production
Post Production

Alien Resurrection (Discs 7 and 8)

Disc 7

Theatrical Version (1hr. 49 minutes)
Special Edition (1hr. 56 minutes)
Version I prefer: Special Edition

Theatrical Version Menu

Play Movie
Scene Selection
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Scenes (You will see these scenes in the Special Edition)
-Audio Commentary

Special Edition Menu

Play Movie
Scene Selections
Set Up
Special Features
-Deleted Scene Marker
-Audio Commentary

Disc 8

Pre Production
Production
Post Production

Disc 9 (Bonus Features

Alien- Teaser and Theatrical Trailers

Aliens- Special Edition Archives, Teasers, TV spots and Theatrical Trailers

Alien 3- TV spots and trailers

Alien Resurrection- Trailers and teasers

So, there you have it, the complete decscription of this awesome box set. Here are my personal reviews of the films:

Alien **** (out of five)
This is a great movie, yet not the best of the quadrilogy. The least most intense movie of the four movies, although the director's cut contains a bit more violence and a bit more profanity.

Aliens ****1/2
The best of the quadrilogy, this is one of James Cameron's best. More intense than the first movie and the special edition contains more violence and language than the theatrical version. Unbelieveably, there is not one gun used or fired (except flamethrowers)

Alien 3 ***
This is an OK movie, with OK action. This is probably the most intense out of all four of the movies, with a lot of violence, blood, and strong language. The special edition is even more violent and gorier than the theatrical version, and contains a lot more profanity.

Alien Resurrection **
This is a poor movie, and is kind of an insult to the quadrilogy. This is more intense than Alien and Aliens, but not as intense as Alien 3. Still, this movie is violent, gross, gory, contains a lot of profanity, and the special edition is even more violent and bloody than the theatrical version.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: STUPENDOUS
Review: I'm bleary-eyed but exhilarated after watching over 50 hours of the stupendous ALIEN QUADRILOGY (Fox). A steal at even the suggested retail price, this extraordinary 9 disc set is a crowning achievement in the art of DVD authoring, assembly and presentation.

Encountering Swiss artist Giger's "mechorganic" demon in dark, labyrinthine, quarters far, far from home or help can still jolt our deepest fears of the unknown.

All four titles in the series are presented in both theatrical and or extended versions. Besides commentaries, there's a huge treasure trove preproduction, production and postproduction extras.

Although the sequels don't have the freshness Ridley Scott's 1979 ALIEN that began the series, Weaver delivers increasingly nuanced and intense performances as the storyline evolves.

I especially enjoyed the much longer (over 40 minutes) restored work print of ALIEN 3. Space does not allow for even the most simplistic listing of all the extras. You'll be astounded, it's graduate level film school in a box. Highest recommendation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Set, But I Had Some Problems
Review: I appreciate the set very much, but I'll leave it to others to express opinions on the 4 movies.

I regret that my relatively new, near-top-of-the-line Pioneer player encounters a fatal error at the layer change in both versions of Alien. I find it interesting that the layer change is at the same point in the dialogue in both versions, which ends up being in different chapters and times because of the different elements of the 2 versions of the movie.

I could get around the problem by pressing fast forward (scan) just before the layer change (after identifying it) and bypassing the "change." This is weird, too: why should the player be able to "skip" the layer change and continue successfully if I scan, but it can't survive the layer change as it exists on the disc (#1 of 9)?

As usual with a layer change, there's a brief freeze, with "SEARCH" displayed on my DVD player. Only instead of the movie continuing, at that point I get a blue (i.e., no-disc-playing) screen that simply says DVD in the upper left. Restarting the disc is necessary. This is a real drag.

Further, disc #4 (the supplemental disc for Aliens) has problems in following the navigation option of going by Pre-Production, Production & Post-Production organization. The menu broke up digitally after the first level, with some submenus being black and causing me to guess what I was selecting. Eventually I stumbled into "nexting" between elements and ended up watching everything. Still, out of 9 discs, 2 have problems. I didn't ask to exchange the set because I don't have time to watch the 9 discs all over again (yes, I watched every single item, including still frames, except for some of the original screenplays). And, as I said, I can see all the material now that I've learned the tricks of how to do it.

I'm glad I have the set and glad I watched it all. I just wish I had the peace of mind knowing that all the discs are in perfect condition.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Four Disk set for medicore movies.....
Review: Well, all these movies have in commen is that Sigourney appeared in all four movies, and that they were all land locked shoots. They were filming planet and spaceship exteriors, but they did them all on sound stages. Three times at Pinewood Studios in England and once on stages at 20th Century Fox. That made for very stressful work because of the often confined spaces that the actors were in. Often working with movie budgets that were quite tight. So the visual effects and the alien creature effects were done with what money they could spare for them. In a couple of the movies, you can actually see the wires used to operate the puppet aliens, and later they used cgi aliens, which looked a lot like they were done with cheap computers. These are the most over-rated movies ever done.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent with a little mistake on Spanish Audio Track
Review: The DVD Collection is really outstanding and I don't want to spend your time reading the same comments that other users put on Amazon.
The only additional comment is related with the Spanish Audio Track that has a problem: On the extended versions, you can hear spanish UNTIL there is the extended minutes where automatically the DVD sounds in English Subtitled to Spanish. When the extended minutes are over, the DVD returns automatically to Spanish Audio Track without Subtitles.
Enjoy it, with Spanish and English/Spanish (in some minutes).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 5 stars for the content
Review: Like so many others, I grew up watching these movies and I've never been disappointed. I even love (and I mean LOVE) Alien Resurrection. I don't really understand why so many people hate it. It was filled with awesome actors, original concepts, and Sigourney Weaver was at her best. When this boxed set came out, I excitedly ran out to get it. However, after getting it, I'd wished I'd bought the special editions of each movie separately. I'm going to get into the issue of how the boxed set folds out for what seems like forever because that's already been said. My big complaint is that my set didn't hold onto the discs well at all. I have to fold it very slowly and carefully so the discs don't fall out of their places and get hurt. I finally had to put a rubber band around it to hold the disc for Alien 3 because it won't hold at all. This seems to be common for Fox boxed sets. I've been buying all of the Buffy and Angel seasons as they come out, and they have the same fold-out style and the occasional disc is always wanting to fall out and roll across the table as I open it (sometimes when closing it). The movies and content of these DVDs are fantastic, however, regardless of the packaging. The one pro with the box set is the little bit of extra space you save on the shelf, and since I don't watch the movies but when I'm in the mood for a marathon, I can deal with the sloppy package.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Please get the nomenclature right, Hollywood
Review: This is all good stuff of course, but what the hellis a quadrilogy- there's no such term. The correct term for a four-part work of art is a TETRALOGY. If people can cope with trilogy, Hollywood, they can cope with Tetralogy. Now let's hope Ridely Scott gets to make another Alien film...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In your living room.....Scream all you want
Review: ALIEN QUADRILOGY is the most definitive, exhaustingly researched, jam packaged box of ALIEN movies that could ever be assembled. Hopefully if a fifth one is released, it too can blend right in. In the box there are four movies and each movie gets two discs. One with an original theatrical version and the other a "directors" or "special" edition with added footage. The second disc for each movie is jam packed with documenteries, script drafts, screen tests, story boards, photo galleries i.e. THE WORKS. A ninth disc carries what wouldn't fit on the other discs in terms of content. All of the movies get a facial treatment in the way of remastered picture and sound quality. (ALIEN in particular stunned me with its bright and clear picture. The whites are bright, and the blacks are dark.)

ALIEN, my favorite in the series. Why I like this one the most is it has the best cast, best pacing and the methods that the crew use are more in a mind of science instead of brute force to get rid of the creature. The 2003 special edition has a few added scenes which are alternate takes for the most part of deleted scenes on the out of print Alien DVD (viewable on the ninth disc). None of the scenes added really add much save for the infamous "lost scene" and some original scenes are even taken out. At the very least Dallas's line "I don't trust anybody" is gone. Damn that line is old and boring! Of all of the non theatrical versions, this one is probably the worst and ranks in "Star Wars" quality of Special Editions, in other words you'll long for the original after watching it, because not all that much added was all that special.

ALIENS is a pure combat movie by James Cameron and is probably the most popular of the 4 movies. The special ediiton here has been around for awhile and for the first time the original version is here on DVD as well. The Special Ediiton this time is clearly the better film because it seamlessly adds to the story without compromise or distraction and is a basis for how extended special editions should be done.

ALIEN 3 is the [an illegitimate child] child of the four. Now famous director David Fincher (the skunk wouldn't even do a commentary and reportadly walked out before the movie was done) had problems with changing scripts, changing storys in other words nothing worked the way it should have and turned into a mess. The Special Edition here is supremely better then the original with a story that makes a little more sense and shows that with some work, bad or underappreciated movies can get a second chance. You'll never watch the theatrical version again after this one.

ALIEN RESURECTION wasn't all that great when I first saw it. After watching it again, it's improved marginally. What started out showing the thought and splendor of the first movie unfortunatly turns into "more of the same" by the end. The special edition doesn't add a whole lot but what is there is worth seeing.

Before there was two great and two lousy ALIEN movies. There are still two great ones, 3 gets promoted to "decent" and Reserection, well is less lousy. Get them all in this great set.

By the way in case you were wondering in regards to other viewers on Amazon, none of my discs are scratched and play without a hitch.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Movies, Incredibly Horrible Packaging
Review: I thorougly enjoyed the first three Alien movies and eagerly awaited the release of this set. I think the movies are great. However, the set is the worst packaged DVD collection I have ever owned. The individual plastic cases which secure each movie to the cardboard backing frequently come loose and must be reattached. In addition, to take a movie out of the set, it must be unfolded to what seems like a length of six feet. Come on Fox, get it right. I would return these disks and buy the movies individually if I could.


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