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Contest: Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection

Win one of two copies of Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection DVD set. This is a 3 disc set.

This contest runs from April 21st, 2008 to May 5th, 2008.

To enter this contest, send an email to contest at fanboysmackdown dot com

Put the word “Alien Nation” in the subject line.

Please include your name and mailing address in the body of the email. Two winners will be chosen at random from all entries to win the movie collection.

Continuing where the television series left off, Matt Sikes and George Francisco are an unlikely team of detectives who solve crime and moderate human and alien Newcomer activity in this collection of Alien Nation movies that debuted on television. The collection features the following five films: Alien Nation: Dark Horizon (1994), Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995), Alien Nation: Millennium (1996), Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996) and Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997).

DVD Features

Specs:Audio: English & Spanish: Stereo
Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English & Spanish

Disc 1
“ALIEN NATION: DARK HORIZON” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: Dark Horizon
Gag Reel

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Alien Nation Cast Reunion 2001
Production & Publicity Stills
Behind the Scenes

Disc 2 Side A
“ALIEN NATION: BODY AND SOUL” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: Body and Soul
Gag Reel

STILL GALLERIES:
Production Stills
Kenny’s Personal Album
Concept Art
Alien Nation Cast Reunion 2006

Disc 2 Side B
“ALIEN NATION: MILLENNIUM” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: Millennium

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Production Stills
Concept Art

STORYBOARDS:
Alien Jungle Opening
Volcanic Landscape
Alien Jungle #2
Steel Mill Finale
New Year’s Eve

Disc 3 Side A
“ALIEN NATION: THE ENEMY WITHIN” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: The Enemy Within

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Production Stills
Concept Art

Disc 3 Side B
“ALIEN NATION: THE UDARA LEGACY” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
A Family Gathering: The Director and Actors Look Back on Alien Nation

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Production Stills
Concept Art

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: 88 Minutes

As our story starts, it’s 1997 and the place is Seattle, Washington. A man named Jon Forster has been arrested for serial killings (as the Seattle Slayer) and is being sent to jail by the damning testimony put together by FBI forensic psychologist Jack Gramm. As Forster is found guilty, he looks over to Gramm in the courtroom and mouthes the words “Tick tock, Doc.” 9 years later, on the day that Forster is to be put to death, a new crime with the same M.O. as the Settle Slayer is committed, and Jack Gramm receives a phone call telling him that he has only 88 minutes left to live, ending with the words “Tick tock, Doc.” Now Jack Gramm must put together the pieces and keep himself alive over this short, but significant to Gramm, period of time.

88 Minutes is a new thriller from director Jon Avnet starring Al Pacino in the role of Dr. Jack Gramm, and it’s premise is pretty good, but it’s execution is pretty preposterous and almost laughable in a lot of places, but for me anyway still watchable just for Al Pacino, doing the stuff that Al Pacino does best, but keep in mind, that is not a recommendation for the fim.

What it suffers from is the same thing that a lot of Hollywood thrillers suffer from today, and that’s being overly plotted to death to give out the guise of complexity, when what it boils down to is just being ridiculous and coincidental in how everything falls into place. The majority of the film runs in a bit of pseudo-real time, though there’s nothing on-screen that indicates that, you’re just reminded of it by phone calls and other means as the story unfolds. Now this isn’t a bad way to do this at all, but here it just feels that the pacing is almost casual in how stuff unfolds, and at least in my eyes, if you’re going to do something like this, things should seem just a little more frantic than how they play on-screen.

Jack Gramm, not only works for the FBI but is also a successful college professor who teaches forensic psychology, and his students are also drawn into the events on-screen. This sets up a number of the coincedences and red herrings here that really plays into the implausibility of things, and yet oddly, I still had fun with this.

And most of that fun comes with Al Pacino. Now I’m sure that many will see this and just not think this is great work from him and in more than all likelihood, 88 Minutes is Al Pacino cashing a paycheck, but he still throws himself into this, but more as Al Pacino rather than playing a real character (and maybe it’s not entirely for the paycheck either, as another movie, Righteous Kill from director Jon Avnet is coming, teaming Pacino and Robert DeNiro together again, but I digress…). And I’m a Pacino fan so for that, it’s fun for me anyway. Pacino’s backed up with some pretty good players here including Neal MacDonough as Forster, Amy Brenneman, Leelee Sobieski, Alicia Witt, Deborah Kara Unger and William Forsythe, with MacDonough being the best of the bunch, and Amy Brenneman playing the hardest working assistant ever seen on-screen (to me, her part is almost a running gag here, the moment Jack needs anything he calls here and it comes up right away). It’s a good cast overall, it just needs a better movie to be in.

Like I said, I cannot recommend this, though if you appreciate the aspects of the character that Al Pacino has become (and a lot of that is due to an incredible impression of Pacino that comedian Craig Gass has done, made popular on The Howard Stern Show), then you might have some fun with this like I did, though I’d expect that most won’t. The biggest saving grace for me anyway is that I got to see it for free, having gotten “movie money” for this in recently buying a Special Edition DVD package for an earlier and far, far better Al Pacino film, “… And Justice For All”. Unless you did what I did, I really cannot say to make the trip to a theatre to see this, just wait for a cable run of the film. Hopefully, Avnet and Pacino will score better when Righteous Kill premieres later in the year.