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I received The Alien Anthology Blu-Ray Boxset in the Alien Egg featuring The Guardian. I was slightly hesitant at first to order it because of the rumor started by an Amazon.com member that the limitation of 5,000 was untrue. People cancelled their pre-orders and left a few hundred in circulation. As it turns out, Comic-Con (SideShow Collectibles) and Fox guarantee the limitation is 5,000 per regional zone, which probably accounts on the high price it's selling for now on other sites.
Regardless of the unwarranted rumor, I received 2392 of 5,000. If you enjoy the Alien franchise, the egg is well worth the cost. I have a series of limited edition Alien figures despite not having the room to display them, but the prices increase yearly. The BR Anthology features MU-TH-UR Mode (yes, there are people asking what MU-TH-UR stands for, but if you've seen the first film it's an easy answer). If you like BTS materials, this is up your alley.
Merry Christmas to me!Â
Father Bowdern
I checked out the first two “Alien” movies from the library earlier today. I am very excited to watch them both. I have never seen them before but from everything I've read, it sounds like they are very good!
horror,
I think you'll really enjoy the first two Alien films. Three and four are kind of a bust because they were so dedicated to the franchise that the scripts were too far-fetched even for an Alien spinoff. However, the special effects are incredible thanks to the oversized budgets. BTW, Sigourney Weaver actually made that basketball swish shot behind her head on the very first take!Father Bowdern
I got the standard version of Alien Anthology on blu-ray, and wow….the extra special features were well worth justifying getting it, even though I already had Alien Quadrilogy on DVD.
The first two films are landmarks. Alien 3 had to grow on me, but I do enjoy it.  Alien Resurrection….well…I was disappointed severely with that film (as were, obviously, a lot of ALIEN fans). However, it does have a few redeeming qualities.
And if you look at Alien Resurrection, you can kinda see it as a blue-print for a show called “Firefly”. (Not surprising, since the story for Alien Resurrection is penned by Firefly creator Joss Whedon.)  Especially in terms of the crew of the Betty.  Johner, (Ron Perlman) is easily a pre-vis of Jayne (Adam Baldwin) in Firefly.  Call (Winona Ryder) is a mix of what would be the characters of Kaylee (the oh so yummy Jewel Staite) and River (the also oh so yummy Summer Glau). Captain Elgyn (Michael Wincott) is sort of a blueprint for Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion).
I have yet to fully explore the special features in the anthology, but I am anxious to do so. 🙂
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The only Alien movie I never got to see on the big screen was the original….and I never did get to catch it's “director's cut” rerelease on Halloween a few years ago.
Steve, I saw Alien in theaters when I was young and it scared the shit of out. I was a teenager and my dad took me (just like he did to see The Exorcist). I kept thinking the facehugger or chestburster was lurking in my bedroom. For the little cash it took to make the film back then, Alien was yet another brilliant film with a great crew and helmer.
Father Bowdern
Agreed, Father.
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Although Alien did not scare me, it was a well made film, (holding up quite well against all the CGI rage these days) and remains one of my faves to this day. One of the things I loved about the movie was the casual dialogue between the crewmembers during their little sit downs at the dinner table. So naturalistic and casual, you'd think they were actually conversing and bullshitting, and not just citing dialogue. It was that way through much of the film. I hate it when dialogue sounds forced.  The more I believe that these are real people, and not just characters, the more I enjoy the movie.
That's why I loved The Exorcist as well. 🙂
Steve, that's one of my favorite scenes in Alien. There is a part of the documentary where they show Parker and Brett in the engineering hole exchanging lines with each other and Sigourney over the intercom. I do think that Ridley Scott was very clever in using actual dialogue like that in the film. I also like how he filmed the real reactions of the cast when the chestburster busts out of Kane's chest.
If you check out the documentaries, there's one featuring the chestbursters used in the film Aliens. You will see one without arms. It was painted black for the film to contrast against Sigourney's latex stomach when it almost busts out during the nightmare sequence. Below is the picture of that chestburster used in the film. It is probably the one piece I've displayed in my office that gets the questions.
Father Bowdern
Nice!!!! :)Â Â I like your office.
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It was funny, too, when Veronica Cartright talked about the infamous chestburster scene in ALIEN. She said that the producers told her everyone would get splashed just a little bit in the scene for added realism….and then the next thing you know, when the chestburster breaks through, she literally gets DOUSED in blood. The reaction you see from her is genuine…as is everyone else's reaction….not only to her, but to the fact of the chestburster itself.
Reactions all throughout the movie are genuine, because the actors were kept in the dark about the nature and appearance of the alien….and that is a tough feat.
Steve, you'd think I'd take a better picture, but I just moved when I snapped that shot in my office.
I love the fact that Veronica slipped in the fake blood and her feet are the only things showing (edited for the movie, of course). That would have been a great production to be on because of Ridley Scott's brilliant choices in hiding the actual setups from the actors prior to shooting.
Father Bowdern
It was kind of the same thing for The Exorcist.  When Regan hurls bile all over Fr. Karras. They told him that he was just barely gonna get hit…maybe low in the chest…and then they splattered him with it full on in the face. It completely disgusted and angered him…the reaction you saw on the screen was a genuine reaction…and they kept it.
Talk about being a good sport. 🙂
Father Bowdern said:
horror,
I think you'll really enjoy the first two Alien films. Three and four are kind of a bust because they were so dedicated to the franchise that the scripts were too far-fetched even for an Alien spinoff. However, the special effects are incredible thanks to the oversized budgets. BTW, Sigourney Weaver actually made that basketball swish shot behind her head on the very first take!Father Bowdern
I finished watching the first “Alien” the night before last and I really liked it. Some parts really surprised me like the scene where the alien burst out of Kane's chest. I was glad when Ripley survived because Ripley was my favorite character. I was also glad when the cat survived in the end because I am a huge fan of cats. The movie was really good. I am glad I watched it. I may watch the second this weekend. I haven't decided for sure yet.
Glad to hear you liked Alien … now watch James Cameron's action-adventure Aliens to see how different it is. Pretty incredible.
Father Bowdern
Aye, the second movie was considerably different from the first….a sci-fi actioner, whereas the first was sheer horror. But, ALIENS did an incredible job of maintaining the continuity and intensity of the first film.
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It was also interesting to note the difference in hardware (firepower) between the two movies.
In ALIEN, the crew carried laser pistols and flamethrowers.  In ALIENS, the Marines carried projectile pulse rifles that fired 10mm explosive tipped shells. (The novel of ALIENS says they are “phased plasma pulse rifles”, which makes me think of the plasma rifles from the first two Terminator movies.)
Of course, I think it's safe to say that the laser pistols in ALIEN (of which we only saw one, Kane brandished it when he was investigating the egg chamber) was not a “blaster” type laser, but a scoring/burning laser that would require some dwell time to actually do damage to a target.
They went from lasers to automatic rifles. 🙂
Yea, Sof! It's really great! Did you get the egg? I just threw out everything in my desk's hutch, added some really cool “change your mood” LED lights for a few of my Alien figurines. Both cabinets are on purple LED now and the eggs, queen, chestburster, etc. look very interesting. I'll try to take a picture after I grade a few things.
XXOO,
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Father Bowdern
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