[.ca] Alien

From Amazon.co.uk:
By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi with Alien that, despite the passage of years and countless inferior imitations, remains shockingly fresh even after repeated viewing. Scott's legendary obsession with detail ensures that the setting is thoroughly conceived, while the Gothic production design and Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully unsettling score produce a sense of disquiet from the outset: everything about the spaceship Nostromo--from Tupperware to toolboxes-seems oddly familiar yet disconcertingly ... well, alien. Nothing much to speak of happens for at least the first 30 minutes, and that in a way is the secret of the film's success: the audience has been nervously peering round every corner for so long that by the time the eponymous beast claims its first victim, the release of pent-up anxiety is all the more effective. Although Sigourney Weaver ultimately takes centre-stage, the ensemble cast is uniformly excellent. The remarkably low-tech effects still look good (better in many places than the CGI of the sequels), while the nightmarish quality of H.R. Giger's bio-mechanical creature and set design is enhanced by camerawork that tantalises by what it doesn't reveal. On the DVD: The director, audibly pausing to puff on his cigar at regular intervals, provides an insightful commentary which, in tandem with superior sound and picture, sheds light into some previously unexplored dark recesses of this much-analysed, much-discussed movie (why the crew eat muesli, for example, or where the "rain" in the engine room is coming from). Deleted scenes include the famous "cocoon" sequence, the completion of the creature's insect-like life-cycle for which cinema audiences had to wait until 1986 and James Cameron's Aliens. Isolated audio tracks, a picture gallery of production artwork and a "making of" documentary complete a highly attractive DVD package. --Mark Walker

Amazon.com Essential Video:
A landmark of science fiction and horror, Alien arrived in 1979 between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as a stylishly malevolent alternative to George Lucas's space fantasy. Partially inspired by 1958's It! The Terror from Beyond Space, this instant classic set a tone of its own, offering richly detailed sets, ominous atmosphere, relentless suspense, and a flawless ensemble cast as the crew of the space freighter Nostromo, who fall prey to a vicious creature (designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger) that had gestated inside one of the ill-fated crew members. In a star-making role, Sigourney Weaver excels as sole survivor Ripley, becoming the screen's most popular heroine in a lucrative movie franchise. To measure the film's success, one need only recall the many images that have been burned into our collective psyche, including the "facehugger," the "chestburster," and Ripley's climactic encounter with the full-grown monster. Impeccably directed by Ridley Scott, Alien is one of the cinema's most unforgettable nightmares. --Jeff Shannon

THE MASTERPIECE THAT STARTED IT ALL:
Definitely the best, or one of the best, horror/sci-fi films ever made that set the standard high in every category (yep, the acting, too!)

Starts slow, but gets much better:
The first half hour or so of this movie was a bit slow, and I honestly had a hard time not falling asleep. It got a lot better though and kept me on the edge of my seat. I would recommend this movie if you like science fiction or suspense.

Do you have a strong heart?:
Without a doubt, the best horror film I have ever seen and close to the best science fiction movie I've seen. It scared the daylights out of me. Everything about it was designed to keep your blood pressure up. As one other reviewer suggested, it is not an action film. Its best sequences are the quiet periods before the alien storm, those moments pregnant with expectation and fear: the cat hissing, the breath of fetid air, the creak of piping in the ship, the drip drip of water quietly echoing throught the holds - or is that saliva? The monster is the perfection of evil; the sets fit the atmosphere and only add to the creature's menace; the original premise is believable if one's imagination is allowed to stretch. If you want to scare your kids, get it. Don't show it to your grandparents, though. Could be dangerous.

A terrifying and spectacular sci-fi horror classic.:
Although it took some time for me to appreciate it, today I can easily agree with many that 1979's "Alien" is one of the greatest science fiction/ horror movies that has ever been made. A team on board a deep space ship called Nostromo is returning to earth after a deep sleep but then while returning to Earth, receives a mysterious distress signal on a distant planet and are sent in to investigate the source of the signal. During that time, one of them discovers large objects with movement within them. It turns out that these 'objects' are actually organic alien eggs and when one of them hatches, one of the crew is attacked and is brought back to the ship to have the 'alien' removed but the 'blood' of this alien is in fact a super strong molecular acid that eats through almost anything it touches. Even worse, the crew are being hunted and killed one by one by an extremely dangerous alien creature and now they must try to destroy the creature and escape with their lives before it's too late. While nowhere near as action-packed as it's 1986 sequel "Aliens", this movie however is equally intense as the sequel but in a totally different way. While the sequel benefits from it's tons of action sequences, "Alien" is every bit as intense by it's extremely suspenseful tone and while it may be slow at times, when the intense parts come, they'll make you jump right out of your seat. This movie does not rely so much on action for intensity as it does on immense suspense, tension, and disturbingly quiet tone and then the alien jumps right out into the screen! While "Alien" is slow-paced a lot of the time the pace leads up to terrifying confrontations with the creature as it kills the crew members one by one. Perhaps it's most famous scene of all time is the frighteningly vile scene where one of the crew members who was previously attacked by the 'baby' alien goes into violent convulsions and culminating when a 'baby' alien bursts right out of the mans chest killing him instantly. That scene is perhaps the most famous sci-fi horror scenes ever filmed. I had nightmares for many years after seeing that and even now with a stomach made of titanium steel, I still get very queasy at that scene but it is one of the most original sequences ever filmed to this day. Ridley Scott's directing is absolutely phenomenal. Being that this was a low budget movie of only 11 Million dollars, Scott and the crew have used the limited resources to create a really stunningly beautiful yet terrifying epic that has been virtually unrivalled to this day. The sets are incredible and the special effects are really awesome. Even then the film shows it's age in some places such as some extremely dated special effects, a few of which are ancient even by early 1980s standards but overall, this film is one of the greatest examples of using the limited budget to an efficient degree and the result is not only a terrifying Sci-Fi horror movie but also one of the greatest landmark achievements in these two genres. The cast is absolutely spectacular. The career of a then unknown Sigourney Weaver would literally take off right through the roof with her playing the main protagonist character Ellen Ripley. Ripley's character is one of the best woman protagonists that I've ever seen in any movie especially towards the latter half of this movie. It was this that made Weaver into a superstar. She's even better in the 1986 James Cameron directed sequel "Aliens". Perhaps another favorite 'actor' of mines in this movie surprisingly enough is the cat Jones. I absolutely love the scenes where he like hisses at the guy in the storage unit and literally walks away when the alien grabs him and makes a meal out of him. This "Collector's Edition" two disk set is a massive treat. The first disc alone is a vast improvement on both the VHS and the 1999 "Special Edition" DVD. The picture and sound quality of the original movie was not all that great but this "Collector's Edition" gives this movie a much needed clean-up job on a phenomenal classic and the picture quality is now crystal clear and the sound quality is also vastly improved too and I no longer have to turn the volume up to eardrum bursting levels to hear the movie clearly enough. The first disc contains the original theatrical version untouched for the 'purists' who don't want anything done to it. Disc One also comes with the "Director's Cut" edition where some footage that Scott didn't feel to happy with is removed but is replaced with some newly incorporated footage that wasn't on the original. The result is the movie being only a minute longer but gives the movie a different light. The second disc contains an excellent 'making of' documentary and you can witness some ego battles between some of the members of the cast especially between Yaphet Kotto and the actor who played the 'Alien' and how they edited it to make their tensions work in the movie itself. It also has tons of other amazing extras that I don't want to point out, out of fear of spoiling the fun of this DVD. Most horror movies to me are nothing but vile gore fests with little to no plot behind them but "Alien" is one of the best horror movies of all time. It was groundbreaking back in 1979 when it was released and now 25 years later (at the time of writing this review), it is an absolutely classic today. I strongly recommend that you buy this today and get this DVD. This is one of the most smartly assembled DVDs that I've had in recent years and it is on the border of being flawless.

In my opinion the greatest horror ever made:
Alien has offered a sense of terror that isn't often attained with regular horror films. The Shining, Jaws, Psycho and The Exorcist are all fine examples of what horror can do, but I think that Alien even goes a tier above them. It is very well executed, and because it relies on shocks and suspense as oppose to just gore it stands the test of time much better then any of its sequels. I think part of what makes Alien so great is the intense sense of claustrophobia that accompanies the film. Everything is full of metal and smoke, and we tend to feel cramped and stuck. This sense deepens when we are introduced to the Alien through one of the best executed scenes I think of any horror film. The tagline "in space nobody can hear you scream" seems to carry through very truly, and when we see Veronica Cartwright's reactions we get a sense that we would be just like her in that situation. Alien is often passed off as 'just another monster movie', but I think that this is pretty unfair, as Alien is just as classy and well executed as any of the above mentioned films. There is so much I could write about Alien as it happens to be one of my all time favorites, but I think I will leave it at that. See it late at night with the lights turned off, and make sure you check your blood pressure. It never fails to scare a willing viewer. 9/10.