Intensity: 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written/Directed by Ian Nathan
Just in time for Christmas! Or any other reason you can think of for picking this up. Including (and especially), “Oh, man! I need this!” Aliens Expanded is the Aliens documentary to end all Aliens documentaries.
Aliens Expanded: The Players
The crowdfunded Aliens Expanded documentary puts everyone who’s still around back on screen to talk about one of the greatest genre films of all time:
- James Cameron [writer/director of Aliens (1986)]
- Gale Anne Hurd [producer]
- Sigourney Weaver [“Ripley”]
- Lance Henriksen [“Bishop”]
- Michael Biehn [“Corporal Hicks”]
- Jenette Goldstein [“Private Vasquez”]
- William Hope [“Lieutenant Gorman”]
- Paul Reiser [“Burke”]
- Carrie Henn [“Newt”]
- Robert Skotak [visual effects]
- Alec Gillis [creature effects]
- Tom Woodruff Jr. [creature effects]
The list goes on and on. From actors to producers to special effects and sound engineers, Aliens Expanded leaves no stone unturned.
Aliens Expanded: The Breakdown
This is a truly massive documentary. Coming in at 4 hours and 42 minutes Aliens Expanded is not for the faint of bladder. Maybe take a break from the fun now and then so all your blood doesn’t pool in your butt cheeks. There is a trimmed down version (around 100 minutes or so) flying through the skies these days. If you find yourself on a United Airlines flight this month, be sure to look for it.
Truth be told, this is the only Aliens documentary I’ve seen. If you’ve seen others, you should obviously be prepared for some duplication. Anecdotes like James Cameron’s tea cart tantrum and Henriksen’s bag of knives can be found in other docs, but they’re great stories and a retelling is to be expected.
With such a huge amount of information — including genre concepts, artistic choices, and Alien franchise history — Aliens Expanded does its best to present it all more or less coherently. It jumps around a bit at times, but it’s all interesting stuff so an odd transition here or there is easily overlooked.
Summary
Aliens Expanded is the must-see documentary for anyone who loves Aliens (1986). Full stop. If you or someone you know is still quoting lines from that movie or gives it a regular re-watch, Aliens Expanded is the perfect accompaniment you didn’t know you were missing.
Barring certain flights on United Airlines (and possibly other carriers), Aliens Expanded doesn’t appear to be streaming anywhere. However, it’s currently on sale straight from the distributor.
Review by Robert Zilbauer.