5.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Kol is an evil guy about to be executed on a distant spaceship. He manages to escape on a shuttle and make his way to some woods in America. The commander of the spaceship decides to send out The Alienator to execute Kol at all costs. Kol meets up with some teens and Ward Armstrong and together they all try not to get killed by the pursuing Woman of Death - The Alienator.
Starring: Jan-Michael Vincent, John Phillip Law, Ross Hagen, Jesse Dabson, Dyana OrtelliSci-Fi | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Fred Olen Ray's "Alienator" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Shout Factory. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; raw footage from the shooting of the film; and exclusive new audio commentary with Fred Olen Ray. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
A different kind of Terminator
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.84:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Fred Olen Ray's Alienator arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Factory.
The technical presentation is very frustrating. Here's why: It is easy to tell that the entire film was remastered because it looks about very healthy. (It is a shame really that MGM did not use an interpositive of some sort to do a similar remaster for Never Too Young to Die). Also, there are absolutely no traces of the type of annoying digital tinkering that has destroyed so many remasters of good catalog titles. Unfortunately, when the film was transferred at MGM someone royally screwed up the day-for-night timing. So as the director confirms in the audio commentary, there are segments in the beginning where the action should take place at night but it does not. This is an amateurish error of the worst kind that basically makes the fact that the film has a lovely organic appearance irrelevant. (It is not the first such error. The recent remaster of Psychomania similarly changes nighttime footage for daylight footage). Depth, clarity, and the overall color grading are also very convincing. Excluding a few dirt specks that were printed, there are no age-related imperfections to report either. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The audio is stable, very clean, and with a proper range of dynamic nuances. I could tell that some of the explosions were shot without much attention to detail, but considering the fact that production was wrapped in six days this isn't surprising. The dialog is always very easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions to report.
The one and only reason why you might want to consider adding Alienator to your collection should be the exclusive new audio commentary with Fred Olen Ray. I have listened to the director talk about his work and the film industry on various releases and not only is he an incredibly knowledgeable person -- with plenty of great stories to share about a lot of people from the industry that he knows or has worked with -- but my impressions are that he is also a really cool guy. I must mention that he is probably one of the most honest directors around willing to do these types of commentaries as well. Alienator did not work for me, but there are probably people that would have loved to have a solid Blu-ray release of it. Unfortunately, this release isn't it, though Shout Factory clearly had different plans for it. When the film was transferred at MGM someone did an incredibly silly amateurish error, which is pretty sad really because the new remaster is very healthy.
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