Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Project: ALF Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 21, 2023

The 1986-87 broadcast television season is understandably not that well remembered today, but it did introduce at least a few shows which have attained a certain renown, including such stalwarts as L.A. Law, Designing Women, and a series which attained renown for offering one of the television's most iconic stars in one of the biggest tv flops of all time, Life with Lucy. The mid season, which might charitably be extended to early spring 1987, actually saw the first foray into broadcast tv for Fox, which introduced such shows as Married with Children, but buried within all this trivia are two shows which appealed to a certain cult demographic, the relatively short-lived Max Headroom (itself a mid season entry) and ALF, which became something of a sensation and stuck around for four seasons.

Unfortunately for fans of the series, the last episode of the original broadcast run of ALF was a cliffhanger with an actual "To Be Continued" tag at the end, which left viewers, well, hanging, since ALF (Paul Fusco) had been abducted by the United States military. NBC reneged on an initial offer to have a made for tv movie resolve the ending, but several years after the series had been cancelled, ABC stepped up to the plate (and/or spaceship) and greenlit Project: ALF, which Paul Fusco states in an enjoyable commentary track on this disc was intended as a so- called "back door pilot" for a new ALF series which would see the rascally alien interacting with soldier types and becoming a kind of furry Melmackian version of the old Phil Silvers standard Sgt. Bilko. That never happened (perhaps thankfully), but this one off is actually surprisingly spry and more often than not snarkily humorous.

While there are certainly "standard sitcom" characters and situations informing this feature, it maintains a briskness that helps it to elide some of its triter aspects, and the supporting cast is frequently wonderful, including Martin Sheen as a scheming colonel and Miguel Ferrer as a former NASA scientist who, in a plot development that seems somewhat prescient given current news developments, has been silenced by the government for insisting there are extraterrestrial visitors among us. The film also has a nice little cameo for Ray Walston, who of course essayed a different extraterrestrial visitor in My Favorite Martian.

Project: ALF Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Project: ALF is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Liberation Hall with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a decent looking transfer that can't quite escape the general quality context of "made for television" entries, but in more brightly lit moments in particular, the palette is really nicely suffused and really rather vibrant, with generally nice detail levels. There are some noticeable variances in suffusion and densities, not necessarily related to things like opticals, and at some moments things can look a bit wan and slightly desaturated. There are minor signs of damage on tap, but nothing of any major import. Grain resolves naturally. My score is 3.75.

Project: ALF Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Project: ALF features a spry LCPM 2.0 track that offers secure support for an at times bombastic score by Mark Snow and some silly sound effects, especially in the first part of the film when ALF is being subjected to several lab experiments. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Project: ALF Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Photo Gallery (HD; 3:11)


• Text Biographies are offered for the following people:

  Ken Kaufman

  
  

  Dick Lowry

  
  

  Tom Patchett

  
  

  Paul Fusco

  
  

  Martin Sheen

  
  

  Jensen Daggett

• Robocop TV Series Trailer (SD; 1:09)


• Paul Fusco Commentary is moderated by Jonathan Gross and is accessible under the Setup Menu.

Project: ALF Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"New, improved" versions of ALF have been announced in the years since the series and this made for television film came out, and in fact one of those announcements is relatively recent, so fans of the irascible alien may have more adventures in store. Fans of the series should certainly get a kick out of this, and in fact I, who never really watched the original series that much, had several hearty laughs watching this enterprise. Technical merits are generally solid, and at least for longtime fans, Project: ALF comes Recommended.