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ALF
SEASON 1
LIONSGATE PRESENTS
Release Date:
February 1st, 2005
MSRP Price: $59.98
Amazon Price: $44.99
Sam's Club Price: $36.98 (was selling $28.95)
Costco Price: $37.99
25 Season One Episodes
& Unaired Pilot
Format:Full-Screen
Studio: Lions Gate Entertainment
Run Time: 616 hours
Number of Discs - 4
Sound - Dolby Digital 2.0
Las Vegas - Season 1
Rating:
Video - B
Audio - C
Content - B
Extras - C
Overall - C
STARS: Max
Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Elsen, Benji Gregory,
Monday nights were a
unique place in 1986 when ALF (Alien Life Form) jumped onto the
small screen. The live in alien with the Tanner family sort of took
television by storm as Gordon Shumway used, abused and loved his
human family - almost to death.
When the show appeared
in 1985 it was near the end of my military existence but I watched
ALF religiously. It wasn't a favorite or anything like that. The
show never kicked ass or set television on its heels. It was just a
decent funny television show with a unique twist that made it worth
watching. Like most old shows Alf has his followers and enough of
them that he's made a come back with his own talk show.
Lionsgate has made the
effort to kick fans a gift with the new season one boxed set that
contains the entire first season and the unaired pilot. Hell,
there's even some extras worth taking a peak at after this many
years.
PACKAGING
There is something of a trend happening with some of the older
shows, and it's the crappy packaging. Sliders was the first I really
locked in on and ALF falls into this catagory. Lionsgate has gone
with the same fold out as used on the Xena boxed sets where the
there is two discs on a fold out and they overlap. You have to pull
the front one out to get at the second. It's a huge pain in the ass
if its a series you watch often enough.
VIDEO:
What makes this set a piece of shit is that Lionsgate used
Syndicated copies to make their digital masters. I don't know if
they even checked the masters they were given or just didn't care
but it sucks. Why pay for something that isn't the original
material. The video transfer however looks pretty good. It was
shot on video so it doesn't suffer from the standard film transfer
of blur and debris.
AUDIO:
The audio is in Dobly Digital 2.0 and
sounds OK. Nearly everything comes through the surrounds center
channel leaving very little for the left and right speaks to
do.
BONUS FEATURES:
There is very little in the way of bonus features. All you get
is...
SUMMARY:
The fact that syndicated masters were used over the originals makes
this boxed set a no-go from me. I wouldn't waste the money getting a
half-hour series that's been hacked already. The cost for something
like this should be $20.oo or less.
Take a step back and
spend the money on something else that can make you laugh and
smile.
ALF Season 1
Rating:
video/audio/content/extras/overall: B/C/B/C/C
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