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Alien: The Director's Cut
20th Century Fox Film Corporation


8.5

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 33 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for sci-fi violence/gore and language

Starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto

For the first time in nearly a quarter-century, Alien returns to the big screen with a digitally remastered special edition of director Ridley Scott's science fiction/horror classic. (Fox)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Horror \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Dan O'Bannon (also story) Ronald Shusett (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Ridley Scott
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: October 29, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	116 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

Best Visual Effects, 52nd Annual Academy Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

This is the breakout role for Sigourney (née Susan) Weaver, whose iconic presence still propels this ride beyond the scores of substandard imitations that followed. Why see it on the big screen? Because it's bloody brilliant.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Feels like a streamlined improvement on the original.

100

Empire Chris Hewitt

With the visuals and soundtrack given a wax and polish job for the big screen, Scott’s masterful use of shadows, framing and sound has never been more terrifying. No matter how many times you’ve seen this, you’ll still be hiding behind your fingers at every conceivable juncture.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Pay attention to the enhanced detail audible in a new six-track sound mix, which may be the most important cleaning job of all; silence and Jerry Goldsmith's score have never twined so hauntingly.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

This edition -- clean and tight as Scott would have it -- presents a strong case for Alien as both the greatest horror film and the greatest science-fiction film ever made.

100

Slate Michael Agger

The scariest movie in history is actually a bit shy. The subtle, romantic score by Jerry Goldsmith is what keeps the tension at a simmer.

100

Film Threat Kevin Carr

This is a five star film because it is one of the most perfect science fiction thrillers of all time.

100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

The best thriller of 2003 was made in 1979.

100

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I recognize how few horror movies I've seen before or since that ever manage to capture such a tangible feeling of menace.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Watching it again reminded me how remarkably the sound engineers did their jobs. Listen to the subtly amplified heartbeat - Ripley's? the ship's? - that pulses under the soundtrack through the last 15 minutes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A landmark film, the unnecessary tinkering has not perceptibly harmed its overall effectiveness and it's a special Halloween treat to see it digitally spruced up and on the big screen for the first time in 25 years.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Despite years of imitators, sequels (some great, some not so), and edited-for-television broadcasts, Alien has lost none of its power, and the big screen only intensifies its impact.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Twenty-four years later -- digitally spruced up, with some scenes shaved and others padded with previously cut material -- Scott's film still shreds nerves.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Alien, even with some scene tinkering that has left this "director's cut" one minute shorter than its original release, is still one of the creepiest, scariest, most shocking films ever.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

What's most unusual about the original 24 years later, though, is its elegant minimalism.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An old nightmare, made shiny new.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Mostly it's worth seeing Alien, which established Scott as an A-list director, in a theater because his brilliant and often expansive visuals have always worked better on a big screen than on video.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The most important features of this "new" version are the digital cleaning of the print and the re-mastering of the sound. There are a few added scenes, but they are mostly insignificant and have been previously seen (at least by fans of the movie) on the laserdisc or DVD releases.

TV Guide Ken Fox

And while this director's cut doesn't really differ all that much from the original 1979 release, it contains a few minutes of never-before seen footage, including one serious bitch slap and an entire scene in which Ripley stumbles upon a few not-quite-dead crew members whose terrible fates foreshadow James Cameron's 1986 sequel.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The overall effect is about the same -- slow start, then escalating suspense and violence. Today's shock-movie fans will enjoy shrieking at it, and others should skip it. In space, no one can hear you ask for your money back.

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

Unfortunately, fulfilling an apparent need to assert absolute control over his early successes no matter the cost, the director has gone ahead and loused up his 1979 masterpiece of gothic sci-fi horror.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is no restoration but a revision...If there's a difference in overall quality, I'm unaware of it. Dave Kehr calls this 1979 feature "an empty-headed horror movie with nothing to recommend it beyond the disco-inspired art direction and some handsome if gimmicky cinematography.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Timbuck 2 gave it a0:
This movie can never bee made into a decent film, it will always be pathatic and nothing but fake gore, annoying script and stupid scares...awful in every way...no match for "The Descent".

howie h. gave it a10:
Excellent, stylish, suspenseful flick.

Roman S. gave it a10:
All-time fave (if not the second part) and I never got tired watching it over and over again (after having bought an Alien Quadrilogy box set).

Ray X. gave it a10:
A great sci-fi suspense flick. I remember seeing it the first time and being scared in my seat not when the alien popped out but in the following 20 minutes or so when you didn't know where it was in the ship.

Dan C. gave it a 10:
One of the most suspenseful films of all time!

Pat C. gave it a 9:
The slaughterfest that occurs two-thirds of the way through is literal overkill, but the hot-wiring of the science officer is one of the wierdest other-worldly things ever put on film. The plot line development from the beginning to the establishment of the alien out of control on the spaceship is a finely honed masterpiece of editorial pacing and actualization. So, except for digressing into milking the fright of the audience, this movie is 2 hours of non-stop worship and praise of the audience's attention. As for the director's cut, it may improve or degrade the original release, which as presented should be memorialized here without consideration of later touch-ups or blemishes.

Charles H. gave it a 10:
One of the best horror/sci-fi films of all. Too bad the majority of entries in these genres (including the Alien sequels after Aliens) aren't as good. As for all of the crying about Mr. Scott's editing changes, the original theatrical version is included on the DVD.

Alien: The Director's Cut 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Alien: The Director's Cut
20th Century Fox Film Corporation