Alien Quadrilogy for £13

[JamesTC]

Can you ask for a better deal?

Topic

[Daff]

You could get it at hmv for a tenner, so yes

[p2p_productions]

?50-70 for mine. Can’t remember now.

[Daff]

I remember paying ?30 for Legacy and thinking I’d got a bargain. Sometimes I hate the depreciation on DVD’s, I’ve got ?1000’s worth at cost price, but only ?100’s at current value.

[JamesTC]

I had a look around after seeing it at ASDA for ?10, it wasn’t there anymore, still you have to say a nine disc set for ?13, not that bad.

[p2p_productions]

>still you have to say a nine disc set for ?13, not that bad.

Agreed. And for a truly fantastic DVD set too. Just unfortunate that The Making of Alien? was (allegedly) cut so heavily by The Powers That Be (30 mins or so). Even the title was different – I believe it was originally to be called “Rape and Wreckage”.

[Pete Part Three]

>Can you ask for a better deal?

They could pay me a tenner for sitting through Alien Resurrection.

[p2p_productions]

>They could pay me a tenner for sitting through Alien Resurrection.

The ? draft script for Resurrection I’ve got is amazing. The story was so clearly defined, and the ending far superior. Shame those involved in making the film didn’t read it.

[Andrew]

I never thought Whedon’s drafts were suitable. Jokes about WallMart and calling the computer Father? Fine for most of the areas he writes, but the Alien franchise ain’t really the place for primitive satire and self-referential nods.

[p2p_productions]

>the Alien franchise ain?t really the place for primitive satire and self-referential nods.

Well, one thing the Alien franchise was certainly built around is change. Whedon’s Resurrection was in parts, vastly different to what had come before, whilst still in keeping with the basic elements that made the previous installments so compelling – not to mention, furthering the notions of family and motherhood to increasingly bizarre new levels.

Overall, I still think the script had potential. The biggest issue, I think, with that film is the execution of the material. Granted, a script may be the foundation from which any movie is based, but in the right hands, I’m confident they’d have been on to a real winner.

[Nakrophile]

Paid about triple that for mine. Oh well, worth every penny.

Resurrection I don’t mind too much even though it’s isn’t that good. The best bits are the relationship between Ripley and Call.

[Pete Part Three]

I’m going to have to go and watch Aliens now. Oh well.

[Ridley]

I’d like to see Aliens Vs. Predator: Eternal adapted into a movie. Especially with the ending of Requiem.

[p2p_productions]

Aliens: Labyrinth is pretty good too.

[peas_and_corn]

Alien VS Terminator is to go into pre-production next year.

[Tarka Dal]

You’re kidding right?

Whilst I see Andrew’s point about Whedon’s humour after being subjected to AVP2 at the weekend I can’t help but think of Whedon’s Alien as some kind of oasis.

[JamesTC]

When I saw it a few years ago I quite liked Alien 3, certainly the worst of the four but still enjoyable. I will watch it again tonight, I hope I still enjoy it as much as I did.

[Pete Part Three]

I think I’d rather watch 3 than Resurrection. I’d also rather watch either of the AVP movies than Predator 2.

[JamesTC]

Why are they making AVP films? Why not make Alien 5. Maybe it is tha fact that I didn’t like Predator that makes me dislike them, or that fact that they are shit.

Watching Aliens yesterday, I kept expecting to hear Sarah Connor, now I want to watch Terminator.

[Andrew]

> after being subjected to AVP2 at the weekend I can?t help but think of Whedon?s Alien as some kind of oasis.

Fair point.

Thing is, I actually find the first AvP to be a better Alien movie than Resurrection. And that Paul WS Anderson somehow did better with it – albeit marginally – than a writer (Whedon) and director (Junet) I bloody love

> Alien 3, certainly the worst of the four but still enjoyable.

I massively contest this.

[TheLeen]

I may be the only person in the world, but I really like Alien 4.

[JamesTC]

Well like Alien 3 I found Ressurection enjoyable too.

[Ridley]

Whedon: Uh…you know, it wasn?t a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending, it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines…mostly…but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There?s actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they?d changed the script…but it wasn?t so much that they?d changed the script; it?s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable. (Pauses) Good times. (Pauses again) Well, I really must go…

[JamesTC]

Alien 3 is still a great film, infact it has gone up in my estimation on watching it 5 or 6 years on. Paul McGann was fantastic as Golic despite me imagining him shouting out Grace or Charley every few minutes.

[si]

I have never seen any of the Alien movies. Am I a freak?

[JamesTC]

You can get all 4 for ?13 you know.

[Tarka Dal]

> I have never seen any of the Alien movies. Am I a freak?

Yes but not for that reason.

[si]

I refer you to http://www.ganymede.tv/forum/2009/03/watchmen-film#comment-147032 .

[Tarka Dal]

Mine was not the greatest insult the world, it was just a tribute ;-)

[Nakrophile]

Alien 3 is only slightly not as good as the first two. It gets so much better with time.

And regarding Alien 5, didn’t both Ridley Scott and James Cameron say they would sort of combine their talents for it, and Fox went with AVP in stead? I think that is roughly accurate, and it is fail.

[Dave]

>And regarding Alien 5, didn?t both Ridley Scott and James Cameron say they would sort of combine their talents for it, and Fox went with AVP in stead? I think that is roughly accurate, and it is fail.

Yes.

The reason is unfortunately money. Scott, Cameron & Weaver are expensive, PTA and his monoexpression cast are cheap. Weaver got paid more for the fourth film than the first one cost to make.

[Nakrophile]

Yeah I guessed that is was probably money. Doesn’t stop it being fail though. Plus I bet there’s another AVP and more fail. If they must persist they may as well just have colonial marines storming the Alien’s home world which is also under siege by Preds. Fuck, just do it as a cartoon even. Or something.

[JamesTC]

Ball to the money, Fox should know the two guys who made two of the best films ever together would make a bloody fantastic film.

[Ridley]

Plus I bet there?s another AVP and more fail. If they must persist they may as well just have colonial marines storming the Alien?s home world which is also under siege by Preds. Fuck, just do it as a cartoon even. Or something.

[pfm]

It still makes me laugh and cry simultaneously – sometimes until blood comes – that Ridley Scott was interested in directing a final Alien movie, to round off what he started, with James Cameron possibly producing, and the studio wasn’t interested. Maybe if both Scott and Sigourney Weaver were a little younger I think there would still be a chance of seeing it, but FFS he’d be getting towards 80 by the time Alien 5 became a viable option again, he’s got so many projects in the pipeline, and he did say if they went ahead with AvP franchise then that would be it, finito.

[Andrew]

Thing is, the Alien franchise – for all its cultural influence and blockbuster marketing – is a low budget beast. Relatively speaking, I mean. The guys who made Alien and Aliens were young filmmakers with not just vision, but also low-cost credentials. These days, neither Scott nor Cameron seem able to work that grungy, low-tech way.

Which means Fox would have to turn the film from a $60 million little earner into a $250 million epic. I’d love to see it done, but it’s just not how that franchise is seen.

[Bob Loblaw]

?7.99
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/125722/Alien-Quadrilogy-Box-Set/Product.html

[Danny Stephenson]

That’s a joke! ?7.99 for 9 discs!!

[JamesTC]

It is ?59.99 now, I guess more people started buying it.

[Tarka Dal]

> Which means Fox would have to turn the film from a $60 million little earner into a $250 million epic. I?d love to see it done, but it?s just not how that franchise is seen.

It’s not a franchise that has ever been spectacularly profitable either is it? I mean it’s witnessed two fantastic, iconic pieces of cinema, but since Aliens is failed to do much business.

[Andrew]

Indeed. It makes its money back at the small-time level, but there’s nothing in the books that would suggest profitability from a more costly movie.

[Muzzy]

> It is ?59.99 now, I guess more people started buying it

They put it in a one day only April Fools Day sale. ?7.99 is such a ridiculous price for the set it makes sense they can only afford to offer such a deal for a very limited amount of time!

[ChrisM]

I’m sure it was going cheaper than 59.99 at Play though. Before the Apri 1st drop I mean.

[Tarka Dal]

> Indeed. It makes its money back at the small-time level, but there?s nothing in the books that would suggest profitability from a more costly movie.

Speaking of Alien & Dwarf (well on a RD forum) can someone check something for me…

http://www.posterplanet.net/aliendoorposter.htm

Now go and look at the Low ship in Demons N’ Angels. Specifically the Lows sleeping quarters. Can anyone spot the same poster in that scene?

I bought said poster for a friend years ago and he’s convinced it’s in there, but I’m not certain it’s the same one.

[Andrew]

It’s the same photo – I had that poster too – but I remember it being flipped. The poster I had, purchased years after Series V, was the mirror of the one in the show.

[Tarka Dal]

Awesome. Flipped or not that’s kinda cool. Thank you.

[Author]

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