Dom Robinson reviews
Alien3
Distributed by
Encore Entertainment
- Cat.no : EE 1090
- Cert : 18
- Running time : 110 mins plus trailers
- Sides 2 (CLV)
- Year : 1992
- Pressing : UK, 1995
- Chapters : 36 (21/12+3)
- Sound : Dolby Surround
- Widescreen : 2.35:1
- Price : £26.99
- Extras : Trailers for all 3 films
Director:
(Fight Club, Seven)
Producers:
Glenn Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill
Screenplay:
David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson
Music:
Cast:
Ripley : Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters, Gorillas in the Mist)
Dillon : Charles S Dutton (No Mercy, Crocodile Dundee II)
Clemens : Charles Dance (White Mischief, TV's "Jewel in the Crown")
Golic : Paul McGann (Doctor Who)
Andrews : Brian Glover (Leon the Pig Farmer)
Bishop : Lance Henriksen (Aliens, No Escape)
David : Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father)
William : Clive Mantle (Holby City, Casualty)
Alien 3:
What can be said of Officer Ellen Ripley? She hasn't had an easy time of it.
Her space flights in the first two films resulted in being followed by an evil
creature who wiped out everyone but herself, and she managed to escape intact,
almost...
At the start of this third film, problems begin again, and part of her escape
pod is jettisoned out and into the orbit of Florina "Fury" 161, and Outer-Veil
Mineral Ore refinery, populated by all-male prisoners of a maximum security
correctional facility.
With the rest of her crew all gone, she is again on her own, and the alien
still hasn't finished its duty, as it works its way through the excellent
cast, mostly made up of British actors including Charles Dance, Brian Glover,
and the new Doctor Who, Paul McGann.
As the cinema trailer says, "The bitch is back!"
To cap it all, there's a major head lice problem and Ripley will have to shave
her head. Sigourney Weaver joked at the time that she did the movie for free,
but was paid $5.5 million just to go bald!
The picture quality of the disc is excellent and definitely on a par with that
of the "Alien" disc. The surround sound is a knock-out and worth the price
alone. Scenes worth checking out include the opening Fox fanfare which starts
in the front two speakers, and towards its climax, spills out into the rears
as a crescendo builds up. You won't want to miss the autopsy scene when Charles
Dance cracks the breastplate of "Newt", and the speakers will have plenty of
action all around towards the end of the film as they try to box the alien in.
Mighty stuff indeed.
The disc is well-chaptered and the side break is perfect, coming right after
Brian Glover's demise at the hands of you-know-who, and one prisoner's perfect
four-letter expression of his thoughts. Perhaps the alien took an aversion to
Glover's advertisements for a certain brand of tea-bag from years gone by...
I once saw a trailer for the film on a German pay-TV channel, ending with
exactly the same scene. You certainly wouldn't find that on UK TV at 5 o'clock
in the afternoon, but it was spot-on.
"Alien 3" was unfairly slated upon its cinematic release, which was a shame as
although it's not the best of the trilogy, it certainly deserves to be judged
on its own merits, and stands up as a good film all on its own. It's a film
worth seeing again now that the director David Fincher has been brought to
the fore with the worldwide success of his Brad Pitt-starrer "Seven".
David Fincher has done a lot of work on music videos and in this, his first
feature film, such style is prevalent from the opening credits with its quick
cutting between white text on black-space background and what is happening
with the ship containing Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop who set sail at the
end of "Aliens", onwards with the dark interoirs of the colony made up of
varying shades of brown.
For anyone who saw the pan-and-scan video, you'll know that it was practically
unwatchable, since David Fincher is one of the few directors who uses a
2.35:1 image to its full capacity.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1996.
The following is a list of all the Alien films reviewed online to date :
2005 DVDfever Dom: Alien Vs Predator Special Edition (DVD)
2001 Adam Duncan: Alien (DVD)
2001 Adam Duncan: Aliens: Special Edition (DVD)
2001 Adam Duncan: Alien 3 (DVD)
1996 DVDfever Dom: Alien (PAL Laserdisc)
1996 DVDfever Dom: Aliens: Special Edition (PAL Laserdisc)
1996 DVDfever Dom: Alien 3 (PAL Laserdisc)
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
