Aliens

The X-Files Revelations

Disc 1:Introduction to Pilot by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzPilot 9/10/1993Introduction to Beyond the Sea by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzBeyond the Sea 1/7/1994Introduction to TheHost by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzThe Host 9/23/1994Introduction to Clyde BruckmansFinal Repose by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzClyde Bruckmans Final Repose 10/13/95Disc 2:Introduction to Memento Mori by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzMemento Mori 2/9/97Introduction to Post Modern Prometheus by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzPost Modern Prometheus 11/30/97Introduction to Bad Blood by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzBad Blood 2/22/98Introduction to Milagro by Chris Carter and Frank SpotnitzMilagro 4/18/99X-Files Movie Teaser trailerWonderCon Talent PanelSystem Requirements:Running Time: 352 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY/FANTASY UPC: 024543531944 Manufacturer No: 2253194

The X-Files Revelations is a two-disc grab bag of eight significant episodes from Fox's iconic sci-fi/horror series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents investigating the paranormal. From season 1, it includes the pilot and "Beyond the Sea," in which Brad Dourif plays a death-row inmate who claims to have psychic visions of a serial killer. In "The Host" (season 2), Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Anderson) pursue a human-sized fluke worm, and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (season 3) features an Emmy-winning Peter Boyle as a man who can see how people will die. "Memento Mori" (season 4) deals with an attempt to save one of the agents from a critical disease, Jerry Springer appears as himself in the black-and-white Frankenstein story "The Post-Modern Prometheus" (season 5), "Bad Blood" (also season 5) is a vampire story, and in "Milagro" (season 6), a writer turns to Scully as his subject as he also becomes a murder suspect.

Released just before the theatrical opening of the second X-Files movie, The X-Files Revelations bills itself as the "essential guide" to that movie. But really it's just a broad sampling of the kind of episodes the series had to offer, with one major omission. By concentrating on the stand-alone "creature feature" episodes, it almost completely ignores the entangling, absorbing, and often-baffling story lines about alien abduction and government conspiracy that the series was known for. Tellingly, only two of the episodes (the pilot and "Memento Mori") also appear in The X-Files Mythology compilation series, which attempted to condense nine seasons of conspiracy themes into 16 discs. The X-Files Revelations has a lot of entertaining episodes, especially "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," and creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz have filmed new introductions explaining why they picked each episode. And fans will also be interested in a 27-minute WonderCon panel from February 2008 with Duchovny, Anderson, Carter, and Spotniz discussing the new movie. But novices shouldn't expect this two-disc set to teach them everything they need to know about The X-Files. --David Horiuchi

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Rennie stars as Klaatu, an advanced alien who comes to earth to put a stop to nuclear proliferation. With him comes his robot Gort. They are forced to use superpowers to get the attention of the scientists.
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: G
Release Date: 2-MAR-2004
Media Type: DVD

A hallmark of the science fiction genre as well as a wry commentary on the political climate of the 1950s, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a sci-fi movie less concerned with special effects than with a social parable. A spacecraft lands in Washington, D.C., carrying a humanoid messenger from another world (Michael Rennie) imparting a warning to the people of Earth to cease their violent behavior. But panic ensues as the messenger lands and is shot by a nervous soldier. His large robot companion destroys the Capitol as the messenger escapes the confines of the hospital. He moves in with a family as a boarder and blends into society to observe the full range of the human experience. Director Robert Wise (West Side Story) not only provides one of the most recognizable icons of the science fiction world in his depiction of the massive robot loyal to his master, but he avoids the obvious camp elements of the story to create a quiet and observant story highlighting both the good and the bad in human nature. --Robert Lane

*Batteries Not Included

Quite possibly the nadir of Steven Spielberg's career as a producer, this piece of sentimental junk from 1987 concerns five little spacecraft which arrive on Earth just in time to help out some New Yorkers getting kicked out of a tenement. The script's goo just sticks to the viewer, and the cast looks silly by trying not to be silly. You get the feeling that Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment was pretty much throwing stuff at the wall to see what would hang there, and they came up with this ridiculous thing. --Tom Keogh

The War of the Worlds (Special Collector's Edition)

After the success of 1950's Destination Moon and 1951's When Worlds Collide, visionary producer George Pal brought the classic H.G. Wells story of a Martian invasion to the big screen, and it instantly became a science fiction classic and winner of the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It's a work of frightening imagination, with its manta-ray spaceships armed with cobra-like probes that shoot a white-hot disintegration ray. As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson play the hero and heroine roles that were de rigueur for movies like this in the '50s, and their encounter with one of the Martians is as creepy today as it was in '53. It finally takes an unseen threat--simple Earth bacteria--to conquer the alien invaders, but not before War of the Worlds has provided a dazzling display of impressive special effects. As memorable for its sound effects as for its spectacular visions of destruction, this is a movie for the ages--the kind of spectacular that inspired little kids such as Steven Spielberg (not to mention Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, whose Independence Day cribs liberally from the plot) and still packs a punch. --Jeff Shannon

H.G. Wells' chilling novel of a Martian invasion of Earth becomes even more frightening in this 1952 film adaptation that's widely regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. An Oscar. winner for Best Special Effects, The War of the Worlds delivers eye-popping thrills, laser-hot action and unrelenting, edge-of-your-seat suspense. No one who has seen the film's depiction of the swan-shaped Martian machines-ticking and hissing menacingly as they cut their path of destruction-will ever forget their ominous impact.

The X-Files - The Complete First Season (Slim Set)

Two FBI agents investigate cases that seem to have paranormal connections.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 31-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD

In the first season of The X-Files, creator Chris Carter was uncertain of the series' future, so each of the episodes is a self-contained suspense story; they do not delve deep into the ongoing X-Files mythology or turn to self-parody and humor as do episodes in later seasons. Yet, these episodes display the elements for which the show would become famous: the cinematic production values and top-notch special effects, the stark lighting of the Vancouver sets, the atmospheric halo of Mark Snow's score, and the clever plots dealing with subjects ranging from the occult, religion, and monsters to urban legends, conspiracy theories, and science fiction. Most importantly, season 1 introduces FBI agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox "Spooky" Mulder (David Duchovny), two of the most attractive government officials around. Scully is the serious-minded medical scientist assigned to join Mulder on the X-Files, a division of the FBI dealing with the paranormal. Mulder is the intuitive thinker with a dry wit, a passionate believer in the existence of paranormal phenomena and one of the few characters on television smart enough to figure out who the bad guy is before the audience does. Their muddled relationship, a deep friendship laced with sexual tension, provides the human heart in a world where the bizarre and horrible lurk in everyday society.

Those unfamiliar with The X-Files often view all the fuss with the same skepticism with which Scully first regards her new partner's ideas. But just as she comes to realize the uncanny accuracy of Mulder's outlandish theories, newcomers to The X-Files who sample a few episodes in this boxed set will likely find themselves riveted to their television late into the night. And undoubtedly, the shadows and creaking noises in the house that evening will seem more menacing than usual. --Eugene Wei

E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (Widescreen Edition)

Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit about a stranded alien and his loving relationship with a fatherless boy (Henry Thomas) struck a chord with audiences everywhere, and it furthered Spielberg's reputation as a director of equally strong commercial sensibilities and classical leanings. Henry Thomas gives a strong, emotional performance as E.T.'s young friend, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore make a solid impression as his siblings, and Dee Wallace is lively as the kids' mother. The special effects almost look a bit quaint now with all the computer advancements that have occurred since, but they also have more heart behind them than a lot of what we see today. --Tom Keogh

Independence Day (Single Disc Widescreen Edition)

In Independence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of missiles against an attack by extraterrestrials. Independence Day is the kind of movie so giddy with its own outrageousness that one doesn't even blink at such howlers in the plot. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a pastiche of conventions from flying-saucer movies from the 1940s and 1950s, replete with icky monsters and bizarre coincidences that create convenient shortcuts in the story. (Such as the way the girlfriend of one of the film's heroes--played by Will Smith--just happens to run across the president's injured wife, who are then both rescued by Smith's character who somehow runs across them in alien-ravaged Los Angeles County.) The movie is just sheer fun, aided by a cast that knows how to balance the retro requirements of the genre with a more contemporary feel. --Tom Keogh

One of the biggest box office hits of all time delivers the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determinded band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind.

Contact

Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster stars in this visionary drama based on Carl Sagan's novel about human kind's first encounter with extraterrestial life directed by another Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis.Running Time: 151 min.System Requirements:Starring: Angela Bassett Jodie Foster John Hurt Rob Lowe Matthew McConaughey David Morse Tom Skerritt and James Woods. Directed By: Robert Zemeckis. Running Time: 150 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 1999 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 085391504122

The opening and closing moments of Robert (Forrest Gump) Zemeckis's Contact astonish viewers with the sort of breathtaking conceptual imagery one hardly ever sees in movies these day--each is an expression of the heroine's lifelong quest (both spiritual and scientific) to explore the meaning of human existence through contact with extraterrestrial life. The movie begins by soaring far out into space, then returns dizzyingly to earth until all the stars in the heavens condense into the sparkle in one little girl's eye. It ends with that same girl as an adult (Jodie Foster)--her search having taken her to places beyond her imagination--turning her gaze inward and seeing the universe in a handful of sand. Contact traces the journey between those two visual epiphanies. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact is exceptionally thoughtful and provocative for a big-budget Hollywood science fiction picture, with elements that recall everything from 2001 to The Right Stuff. Foster's solid performance (and some really incredible alien hardware) keep viewers interested, even when the story skips and meanders, or when the halo around the golden locks of rising-star-of-a-different-kind Matthew McConaughey (as the pure-Hollywood-hokum love interest) reaches Milky Way-level wattage. Ambitious, ambiguous, pretentious, unpredictable--Contact is all of these things and more. Much of it remains open to speculation and interpretation, but whatever conclusions one eventually draws, Contact deserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio filmmaking on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson

The X-Files - The Complete Second Season (Slim Set)

While the first season of The X-Files introduced us to Scully and Mulder, the second season finds the show confidently hitting its stride. Building on its earlier success, the show evolves, and in these 25 episodes, a glimpse is shown of a longer-running story line (which will continue through subsequent seasons) that is woven into the usual stand-alone episodes of the paranormal. These so-called mythology episodes hint at a global conspiracy involving sinister government agents, UFOs, alien abductions, genetic engineering, the ever-lurking Cigarette Smoking Man, and Fox Mulder's father. Season 2 fleshes out Mulder's family history, including the childhood abduction of his sister Samantha, an event that would shape him for life. Actress Gillian Anderson (Scully) became unexpectedly pregnant during season 2, but series creator Chris Carter managed to dance nimbly around her absence and even integrate it into the show. As in season 1, Mulder and Scully are surrounded by a strong supporting cast, which adds a suspicious new agent named Alex Krycek, an informant named X, and a seemingly indestructible alien bounty hunter.

Among the standout episodes are "The Host," "Duane Barry/Ascension," "Humbug," "Dod Kalm," "Colony/End Game," and "Anasazi." These episodes are a powerful reminder that The X-Files, like no other show on television, can span horror, suspense, mystery, romance, drama, and comedy, sometimes all in the same episode, and always with the production values of a major feature film. --Eugene Wei

In this second season box set, Mulder and Scully get glimpses of the global conspiracy as they investigate UFO's, alien abductions, genetic engineering, and ominous government agents.

The Thing (Collector's Edition)

Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay (based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a thrill ride you won't want to miss. --Jeff Shannon