The cat in Alien

[akiratubo]

I finally bought Alien and Aliens on DVD today and watched them both.  I think Alien kind of sucks, frankly, and I still do after watching it.  One of my biggest gripes with Alien was the cat.  I always just dismissed him as a plot device, with no real reason to be on the ship (or in the movie) at all.  However, today, I had one serious head-thwacker of a realization about him.

He's on the ship because Ripley brought him.

I can't believe I never realized it before.  She brought him because she's going to be on a ship with a bunch of blue-collar guys, and she wanted another living creature aboard she could be feminine around, and not have to be "one of the guys" all the time.  (Lambert doesn't count because she and Ripley obviously don't get along.)

I think Alien sucks somewhat less now that I've had that (rather obvious) epiphany.

I got the "special edition" DVD.  I can't tell what's special about it, other than a more explicit chest-burster scene.  It's considerably gorier than my old VHS copy.  Other than that, nothing's different except much-higher video quality, of course.  The DVD even preserves a few moments of dialogue dropping to inaudible levels that I always assumed were a defect of my VHS tape.

[Ash]

I got the "special edition" DVD.  I can't tell what's special about it, other than a more explicit chest-burster scene.  It's considerably gorier than my old VHS copy.  Other than that, nothing's different except much-higher video quality, of course.  The DVD even preserves a few moments of dialogue dropping to inaudible levels that I always assumed were a defect of my VHS tape.

There's also a scene near the very end where Ripley stumbles upon Dallas and Brett cocooned and Dallas says, "Kill me" and she torches him. 
That scene was in the book but was edited out of the theatrical release.

Personally, I think Alien is a great film.  It scared the hell out of me when I was a kid and there are still scenes in it that are just as effective today as they were in 1979.

[akiratubo]

There's also a scene near the very end where Ripley stumbles upon Dallas and Brett cocooned and Dallas says, "Kill me" and she torches him. 
That scene was in the book but was edited out of the theatrical release.

That's in the deleted scenes special feature, oddly not inserted into the movie itself.

[ghouck]

Alien was the very first movie I ever saw on a VCR. It was our first, and was top-loading, with a wired remote, and IIRC, cost upwards of $1200.00. It was during dinner that we watched the chest-exploding scene, then backwards, slow, slow backwards, frame-by-frame, half-slow forward, double slow backwards halfway through then back to the beginning. It was quite novel.

[Psycho Circus]

Alien was the very first movie I ever saw on a VCR. It was our first, and was top-loading, with a wired remote, and IIRC, cost upwards of $1200.00. It was during dinner that we watched the chest-exploding scene, then backwards, slow, slow backwards, frame-by-frame, half-slow forward, double slow backwards halfway through then back to the beginning. It was quite novel.

I've got one of these:

I have no idea what year it was made? I was thinking of trying to sell it on Ebay, it's mega heavy tho'.

On the subject of Alien, I got the cat thing straight away and it's a great, great movie. It's my favourite "space-alien" movie as alot of others follow a formula that was overused to death. Those were imaginative, scary creatures. I also prefer the first one to Aliens. 

[akiratubo]

I also prefer the first one to Aliens. 

Dear god, how can you?  Alien is just ... so ... boring.  I could have put it in the "movies you've snoozed through" thread.  There's the chest burster (after damn near an hour of nothing happening!), Dallas in the vents, and Ripley finding the alien on the shuttlecraft.  That's it.  The rest of the movie is just people mumbling at one another.

[Psycho Circus]

I also prefer the first one to Aliens. 

Dear god, how can you?  Alien is just ... so ... boring.  I could have put it in the "movies you've snoozed through" thread.  There's the chest burster (after damn near an hour of nothing happening!), Dallas in the vents, and Ripley finding the alien on the shuttlecraft.  That's it.  The rest of the movie is just people mumbling at one another.

It's classic, there were no other films quite like it at the time; facehuggers, an exploding stomach, milky androids, flamethrowers, a female hero and aliens designed in that way. It creates a claustrophobic atmosphere and builds up to those memorable moments. Plus, the marines really bugged me in the second film. 

[Rev. Powell]

I also prefer the first one to Aliens. 

Dear god, how can you?  Alien is just ... so ... boring.  I could have put it in the "movies you've snoozed through" thread.  There's the chest burster (after damn near an hour of nothing happening!), Dallas in the vents, and Ripley finding the alien on the shuttlecraft.  That's it.  The rest of the movie is just people mumbling at one another.

I'm with Circus.  ALIEN was a horror movie, ALIENS was an action movie, and I prefer horror. 

[ghouck]

I like them both, they're just too different for me to pick one over the other. I have to admit that I first saw Aliens it was in a theater, and I was on LSD. The "They're coming out of the walls" part was pretty intense. For some reason, the title "ALIENS" made me think "Oh, there's TWO aliens". I was wrong. .

[Hammock Rider]

Steve Martin gives a pretty funny review of Alien in his book Cruel Shoes. I can't find a pastable version, so you'll have to check it out for yourself.

[akiratubo]

Plus, the marines really bugged me in the second film.

True that.  They all die except for Hicks, though, so it's all good.

[Jack]

Oh, poo on you guys - those movies are both awesome