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  well hello everyone and welcome to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed welcome everybody to the show glad that you can join me as we jump into this topic that i'm pretty sure you all saw in the thumbnail or the title of this episode but this is the first time or at least the other day it was the first time i watched alien 3 the assembly cut i watched alien 3 and i'm in that real real tight minority that actually enjoyed the theatrical release the theatrical cut of alien 3 now it do i think is better than aliens no alien you No. Is it better than Alien Resurrection? Yeah. Yeah. The theatrical cut and whatever cut you want to make is ten times better than that. But I actually was a fan of Alien 3, which was directed by first-time filmmaker at the time, David Fletcher, who went on to direct, I mean, give us just gem after gem. Fight Club, Seven, The Game. The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons. The list goes on and on. David Fincher is a beast behind the camera, but this was his first go-around as a director of a feature film for a studio, that is, with Alien 3. Initially, it was developed by Rennie Harlan, who at the time, Rennie Harlan was at the top of his game as far as being a director, filmmaker. Especially when it came to action, giving us Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight. All those type of films. Never in consideration for being one of the greatest filmmakers, but he was a very entertaining director. And later on, most recently, he gave us those three Stranger movies. Which was, Jesus, those three collectively. Not only is that the worst trilogy of all time, it's just the worst. Even if you put them all together, it's just bad. All around, everything about that was bad. But we're not talking about strangers. I can go on and tirade about that forever. But he ended up dropping out. Initially, the film was supposed to take place on Earth. Now, we later got that with the Hulu series or the FX series. alien earth uh just this past year which was pretty good i i enjoyed that show but back in 1992 we were going to witness ellen ripley on planet earth with an alien or aliens whatever the case may be and so that would have been super exciting but that didn't come to fruition so we got this theatrical version and i remember 35 yes it's been 35 years since the release of alien 3 and saying it out loud makes my stomach turn because i finally remember going to the theater to see this movie i remember because i was what 13 i was 13 in 1992 and i i remember i couldn't get in uh me and my cousin wanted to go see it and we both were 13 and so what we did my brother went and bought the tickets for us so we could go in to see and he just came and picked us up after the movie and so i remember i remember which theater we was in and everything i remember the conversation we had when we walked out of there you know it was man that was the greatest thing ever you know 13 years old everything was the greatest thing ever and i thought it was cool uh the ending caught me off guard it caught a lot of people off guard you know with the fate of ellen Ripley. at that time and with the the alien bursting out of course we with this spoil is a 35 year old movie people get on uh with her dying at the end of the movie and the the alien bursting out of her chest as she went down into the lava thing and that was like unbelievable it was unbelievable because we we followed her story from alien she survived aliens when she was with a group of marines she survived you know holly tree marines couldn't but she did and all of this and we get to this film and finally she met her in it was it was bold at the time you know and i recognized that at the age of 13 that's a bold move you know to kill off your hero in this franchise but there's a lot of story behind that as well you know uh sigourney reaver that was a condition that was she was it was contractually obligated to whereas she had to die at the end of this movie because she didn't want to play ripley for the rest of her life even though she came back what two more times i think to play ripley uh but it was it was uh very very crazy to uh be a part of that time you know the 90s was a crazy time not crazier than 80s but it was still a crazy time but i enjoyed the movie And as I got older, yeah, I can point out the flaws. I can point out the many plot holes that was in that movie. I mean, gaping plot holes in Alien 3 that I didn't quite understand. I didn't understand how these inmates in this planet prison were capable of discovering the ship. bringing her out of the ship and all this here how characters we assume just died you know throughout the film because we didn't see their demise we didn't see what happened and they just died you know uh the logic behind the alien bursting out of a dog and able to do the things that it does you know it was just a lot of craziness that took place that you know in the 90s we didn't question much we didn't cut question those films we we just was there for popcorn to eat popcorn and be entertained you know that was it we we weren't there for plot details we just wanted to see stuff blow up but nowadays we we need everything flushed out explained and uh make sure it makes logical sense about aliens and so that's where we at as a people But I say all that to say that HBO Max, they secretly, and I say secretly because there was no fanfare or anything like that behind the assembly cut of Alien 3. Now, David Fletcher, Fox, 20th Century Fox at the time before Disney came in and bought him, they asked him to do a... quote-unquote director's cut of alien 3 david fincher historically hates this movie because this wasn't his movie this was not his vision he the studios came in and just ripped the movie apart and wanted it to go this way and this is a whole big discussion you know studios do this to everybody. big time directors first time director it doesn't matter and but what it begs a bigger question should the studio be involved with the development of a story now if you want to uh have your input that's fine you want to give notes that's fine i mean you're the money people you know they don't want to give the money financing this thing so they do have some remnants of power there but but i mean you hire somebody for their vision let them execute their vision well this didn't happen for david fincher so they asked him to come in after the film was finished and all this here for the dvd commentary for the special edition and all this here give us your cut of the film he refused said no and so what happened was how we get the assembly cut he had notes for the editing editing team he had notes of what what shots he wanted and uh you know what moments he wants to linger on and stuff like that basically his vision to a degree this isn't his director's cut this isn't the ultimate uh david fincher edition of alien 3 uh there's still stuff that's not a part of his initial vision but this is the closest we get to what he was attempting to do back in 1992. And so... yeah on the dvd i didn't own the dvd i think i had the regular one because i had the whole box set of alien movies oh i said hey but i still have them tucked off in a in my garage somewhere all my dvds but it was just the normal dvds it wasn't the special edition or nothing like that and so i never saw the assembly cut and so when hbo max dumped this on hbo max i was like wait there's another cut and i'm not a big fan of director's cuts it drives me insane and you know who killed me with that was wrigley scott you know how many director's cuts of blade runner there are there there are like five different cuts of blade runner which one is it wrigley which one man is it is it the theatrical is it your ultimate edition is it your uh uh director's Good. ultimate director's cut or the final director's cut there are so many additions to uh blade runner i don't even know what it is it is so chopped up they're all different they're all different it is crazy you know i think at least this is my feeling once you get it down once you get it in a can you send it off get edited you go over it you go over the editing process with your editor and this is it this is lockdown this is the one we're going to release this is what i want everybody to see that's it that's the end of it now zach snyder is a different animal that's a different beast because we're talking about him being removed off of a movie and we're talking about justice lee and that movie was nowhere near what he wanted the color palette the design of the villain the ending what is set up flushing out characters and uh it was a mess so when we got zack snyder's justice lead on hbo max oddly enough a few years ago completely different movie same day with his uh uh batman v superman uh dawn of justice that was two different movies you know you had the ultimate edition which was his and then you had the theatrical cut theatrical cut not all that great the ultimate edition still not all that great but they did flush out more of the characters some of the motivations of some uh supporting characters and it kind of made sense wrapped filled in some of the plot holes they still had a million a million and one others, but it filled in a few locks. but when it comes to alien 3 alien 3 especially after you watch the assembly cut it makes you scratch your head and wonder what the studio was thinking i mean what what why why did you mess with this because the assembly cut is a far superior film than the theatrical cut i mean leaps and bounds better it feels like a different movie even though the movie hits the same beats throughout there's no big plot deviations you know it doesn't go in a different direction for certain characters their motivations or their feelings well one one they do one they do and it was for the better and that's why i'm like what why why just leave that on the cutting room floor that is so silly man it feels this is the first cut of a film that i watched and it literally filled in more plot holes than any other film i mean almost filled them all up it's that good of a cut and david flincher deserves way more credit for this film than what he's ever gotten or what he gives himself because he really if the bones of his greatness was in this movie we we were just on the uh precipice of his phenomenal run as a filmmaker here it was there it was there the whole time now this cut is sometimes referred to as the special edition and whatever edition they want to put on it but it's all the same thing uh the assembly cut and the reason i brought up the hbo max of it all and i hate that i did this so late but i didn't discover it. until so late, is about to leave HBO Max. at least the time of this recording i think it leaves in a couple of days and uh i don't know i don't know how long it was on hbo max but i'm pretty sure uh you can find it somewhere you know they got all these screaming services and whatnot it's there i'm pretty sure if you don't find it find it on max before it makes its uh exit is somewhere you can find the assembly cut or the special edition however yeah wherever you type in the search just just search a different cut i don't know director's cut whatever but it has 30 more roughly 30 minutes of extra footage than the theatrical version and it like i stated before it vastly improves the pacing of the film it fix some major narrative plot holes and it flushes out the the supporting characters and that was another great thing it it flushed out these inmates you know all we got in the theatrical version was uh they they were sentenced to life on this planet no escape no weapons no nothing they they found god they they walk around and they just pray all the time but they're vicious criminals murderers rapists and uh uh pedophiles whatever those scum is of the scum lowest of the low and so they're all on this planet and they found God and that was the end of that they were all born again Christians and they died that was pretty much it there was no motivating factors there there was no skepticism there everybody was just drinking the Jesus juice and so now in this assembly cut we get some conflict we get some actual extra stuff. central crisis going on between these supporting characters whereas they're walking around yes they're praying and you know uh worshiping god but they're also doubting they're also uh skeptical you know they're more uh uh as gnostic than they are born again and i respected that i actually enjoyed that more because once the aliens showed up uh you have some that were true believers that was like okay if we we'll fight back but if we die we could we go to heaven but you got the other ones that are like i don't know is it is it so they're fighting this battle within themselves along with this alien that's running around uh uh biting holes in their heads so you got all this conflict going on that was added into this film that we didn't get in a theatrical version. I thought that was just genius. That was a genius move because who does it? Whether you're a Christian or whatever your denomination is, we all have those moments. We all had, and I'm a man of faith. You know, I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. But hey, I'm human too. And I do have those moments of skepticism like anybody else. But thankfully, it doesn't last long, you know, in my world. but i'm not about to preach a sermon to you but anyways one of the biggest changes and i'm putting the air quotes up that i super super enjoyed and one of the main reasons why i feel this film is superior than the theatrical version is the addition of the character golic who is an inmate there on this planet. Now, in the theatrical version... he was in two scenes yeah two maybe two one and a half it's one and a half seats but in the uh assembly cut he has so much more i mean he is essential to the plot of the movie like i said didn't without him the the film could have moved on they edited around it of course for the theatrical version but it left so many plot holes with this just his addition and it was only two more scenes two short little scenes with his character told so much and did so much to enhance the plot of this film it will blow your mind his character is the one that yeah. take he i think he's the first one to encounter the xenomorph the alien um maybe the second one or the second time but either way he witnessed the xenomorph kill somebody he got away he got away they had added another scene where he's sitting in a cafeteria he's he's covered in his his friend's blood or one of the inmates blood that was next to him and everybody thinks he killed him because on earth he was a serial killer he was a killer you know oh he killed he killed the guy all right whatever cool So they put him in this little straitjacket thing. They put him in the medical bay where Ripley and Charles Dance character is. And we see this in the theatrical version where after the inmate is killed and he's covered in blood, they just see the other inmates come in the warden, bring him into the medical bay and slam him on the bed. And he's tied up and he's just freaking out. because the alien is there and this is the iconic scene with uh the alien is on you know right on top of ripley and the tongue come out you know it was in the trailers back then it's the most iconic one of the most iconic shots in the alien franchise history uh but it was right before that we see him freaking out because he sees the xenomorph coming down from the ceiling That's the last time we see that character in the theatrical version. But in this version, he sees it just like in the theatrical version. It comes down. It kills John, John, Charles Dance character. It confronts Ripley and runs off it after taking Charles Dance character up with him. And he's in the bed. He's freaking out almost to the point where. you can see the wheels turning in his head like this thing has spared me twice and he's obsessed with this thing now so he manages to get out of his restraints and at this point there's another extra scene or extra point in the film where they trapped they actually trapped the xenomorph inside of this bay some some uh they said it now it's escaping my mind Should have wrote it down. That's my bad. But they trapped him inside behind his big giant door, awaiting a way to kill it or awaiting the company to come and blah, So they got a guard there, standing guard at the door. And so when Golik escapes out of the medical bay, he walks up to the door because he's feeling that he's been called. You know, this thing is talking to him. Yes. it's god and so to release him and so he's walking he's going there to release the xenomorph and so the guard that was there is they're talking and he slits the guy's throat he kills him and he's he's freaking out because he's like i'm sorry i'm sorry because he's reformed he truly is reformed at least was he was reformed you know he he he turned away from his uh killing ways you know and It was heartbreaking to see him murder a fellow inmate and to see his reaction. The actor who played Golik was just amazing. That's another reason why I'm like, why did they leave this on the cutting room floor? This was amazing. So he opens the door and the xenomorph, of course, kills him and runs off. Now it's free, you know, and that's when we get. to the uh uh what well at least what leads us to our epic final uh third act of the film running through the tunnels and closing the doors behind him scene unbelievable i love that scene i don't in any version but they managed to make it better in this version there was more tension but going back to the golic character of it all that added so much tension to that sequence it added so much weight to the film it's it's mind-boggling that a studio would step in and say nah nah that's too artsy nah nah we're not gonna flush out this character and give him motivation nah people want to come see aliens rip people heads off and that's all we're gonna give them that's basically the notes paraphrase to what they wanted in this movie a completely different movie Even though the movie has the same plot points, Ellen Ripley crashes on the planet, both films have that. Ellen Ripley finds out that she's impregnated with an alien, both films have that. Ellen Ripley dies at the end, both films have that, even though the assembly cut has a twist. But all of them have the same plot points. They hit the mark. But it could have been more. This could have been... still wouldn't have toppled alien or aliens i think it's still uh lands at probably the third maybe fourth i don't know because alien romulus is is a good one is a good alien three is better i i'm willing to say that now uh but it not by much not by much in the assembly cuts is what did it because initially alien romulus was my third favorite Alien film but it got moved out by the assembly cut of Alien 3 but any who's yes another major twist or change Ellen Ripley wasn't discovered in the ship like it was like she was in the theatrical cut in the theatrical cut the portion of the ship that crashed land she's in a cryopod and uh the inmates come out and they discover is her you know to see uh hicks body gone he's dead uh newt is dead both are from aliens and that that created a problem too internally with uh michael bean and the actress who portrays uh newt in the film but more so michael bean who portrayed Hicks. and aliens he was upset still is i've seen an interview uh podcast he was doing recently where he brought it up and understandably so because you got to get into the contractual obligation of it all uh being killed off screen uh between movies you know you don't get a ceremonious exit from that character yeah that that would upset you then none of that changes it was upsetting in the first version of this film and it's upsetting in the assembly cut but uh you had that but in in regards to them finding ripley and they found her in the ship whereas in the assembly cut she washes up on shore like she was uh jettisoned out of the wreckage and she washes up on shore that's how she was discovered makes more sense to me and i mean to say that was the opening and when i started watching it and and that happened i like okay okay i can believe this more it just something never set right with me on how they discovered the ship in the theatrical version of this movie it just logically didn't make sense of course it it wasn't making any sense the way it was uh edited and reshot before the theatrical version and then we get to the coup de grace the final scene now nothing really changes except a lot if that makes any sense uh let me explain i and this is my only flaw with this new version the one change that was me. that i didn't 100 get on board with now it i will say it's a nitpick it is a it doesn't really matter moment you know it still has the same impact moment but it would have had just a little more of an impact if it would have happened but in the same breath logically this version makes sense. The assembly version makes sense. and so let's go through the whole scene because there are a lot of changes that took place in this scene all right after they vanquished the xenomorph you know poured the lid on him he jumped out and they poured the water on him and he exploded because he was extremely uh hot uh the company shows up with who we think is a bishop android with uh lance henderson uh coming back. to reprise the role so we thought but he he assures ripley that he's not an android He just designed. the uh bishop androids which once again doesn't logically make sense because of the chronological nature of it all but you know some things you do have to suspend disbelief and run with fine plus you really don't trust this character because number one he works for the company number two he looks exactly like bishop so there's that he assures ripley that look we're gonna take it out we're gonna kill this thing no one is alive and no one is a lie in all this here both of that both of those versions are exactly the same it stays the same uh uh 85 the character 85 who busts the bishop guy across the side of the head with a monkey wrench uh that's the same this is where the difference come in and they kill 85 this is where it deviates. Bishop stands up and he's holding his head. He's bleeding. His blood is red blood. We know that androids have Milky blood that white substance that comes out of him And so half of his ear is hanging off his head now We do see this in a shot in the theatrical version, but it's kind of stretched out a little longer here And he screams out directly. I'm not an android you see I'm not an android and so Just that little added little token just makes it more. It adds to the seriousness of the situation that they sent this man to come and get Ripley or get this alien, retrieve it for the company, for the Watani Corporation. All that, just with that subtle line. And Lance Henderson's performance here is awesome, man. I love Lance, man. He is an awesome actor, underrated actor. but uh that's the subtle difference there now the subtle difference when we get ripley over this lava pit thing and she falls back but she says a line here that's not in the theatrical version she's she just looks at them and says you're crazy and falls back into the lava in her uh christ crucifixion pose and In the theatrical version, we all know we get that dramatic moment when all of a sudden, boom, the chestburster comes out and Ripley, being Ripley, she musters up the strength. This is why she's falling. Musters up the strength and holds the xenomorph, the queen. Holds it as they both burn up in this lava furnace type situation. All right, Ripley goes into the furnace. She dies. but there's no chest burst there's no xenomorph so it's kind of left a little in biggers you know it's kind of left up like man did did she really have it in her or it just fell a little flat there that's the only knock i have with that because she just died you know she just jumped into the uh the lava pit now once again did it logically make sense that Ripley would catch the xenomorph bursting out of her chest? No. Would she had the time to do this, falling, descending into this lava pit? No. So that made no sense in the first version, but the impact of it all, I got it. I understood it, you know, that she finally defeats this thing that she's been fighting for. three movies she she finally was able to get the real upper hand not just jettison it out into space like she did in the first two movies she jettisoned it into hell they both went into hell together and so that that made sense but it just honestly that never set right with me and i didn't realize it didn't sit right with me until i watched this version now I had my problem with it because it didn't have that moment, but I sat there and let it sit for a second. And I was like, okay, she had to make this sacrifice. She had to do this. And the x-ray showed that it was there. We knew that that seed was planted. We knew that it was actually there. It wasn't an ambiguous ending like did she sacrifice herself for nothing? No, it was actually inside of her. ultimately she took that step now where it flipped is when i really started to dive in logically and uh and wade over it for about an hour after i finished watching it was well and i know a lot of you seen it seen uh the theatrical version probably knew this already probably watched the movie about 20 times and it felt this way but you know i'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so excuse me but with that being said with that impactful moment of the chestburster scene while floating into the lava when you really sit back this is why i always had a problem with it so if she would have turned herself over to this bishop guy and allowed them to do their surgery thing that means they had to go all the way back to their ship and then get prepped and ready to freeze this day or freeze her or have the surgery to remove it or whatever whatever whatever going by the theatrical versions ending they wouldn't have had time to do that the second she got off of that platform the thing was out so that wouldn't have sent with this version that would have made sense so with all that being said this is the definitive version in my eye the uh assembly cut i think this is the version that should have been released this this was the version that i don't know what the studio was smoking or snorting at the time but this was the version that should have hit theaters in 1992 uh david flincher i think gave us the best alien movie he could give under the circumstances the movie overall it still holds up the same to me of course look the the special effects are early 90s special effects it is what it is dated is i i don't know what you know all that is there but that just adds to the joy of it all Charles S. Dutton's performance in this movie, he's truly the star. And it's added upon in the assembly cut, as much as he was great in the theatrical version, in the assembly cut, even though there weren't a lot of changes to his character, there were some subtle things that they did throughout the film. It wasn't like they added one scene extra of Charles S. Dutton's character, but it was just... extra little seconds moments uh or holding a shot at certain moments that's not in a theatrical version that just enhanced his character so much more charles s dunton should have been bigger than what he was i say was like the man's gone i think he's still alive i hope i'm not speaking out of turn yeah i think he's still alive i i think he's still working too if i'm not mistaken i could be wrong. But his performance in Alien 3 was outstanding, man. Outstanding performance. He really was the star. I mean, Sigourney Reaver was great as Ripley, but she was Ripley. I mean, you've seen Alien 1 or Alien. You've seen Aliens. It's the same Ripley, which we enjoy, which we love. One of the most iconic female action stars to ever grace the silver screen. you i'm not taking that away she was great but man the charles s dutton was phenomenal in alien 3 without his performance without his character um i think this movie falls flat because you needed that in this setting for this story to be told you needed that character and he knocked it out depart. This film is a diversive as it may be you know by certain fans some like the movie some love the movie some people think it's the worst aliens film ever i i don't i'm not in that camp i think that this is a key film in the franchise no it's not the best you know and it's far from being the worst but it is definitely a real good addition to this franchise and it gave us some of the greatest moments in film not just alien films but in film iconic the scene as i described earlier where the alien confront ripley and she's crawled up against that wall and you get that shot profiled shot ripley turning her head as the alien gets all the way up on her and access for a french kiss you know with the tongue coming out iconic iconic shot in film that was one of the best shots that's what made me go to the movies to go see this movie that's what got me hyped up to see Alien 3. that shot in the trailer and it was in the movie of course and it's still uh referred to reference to it all the pop culture i've seen a reference to it on the simpsons i've seen i've seen reference to that shot in uh i want to say rick and morty i've seen references to this shot in beaucoup forms of media it is iconic it it all spawned from this movie Another iconic scene has to be the third act. That scene inside of the halls of that little maze runner type situation where they were trying to push or guide the xenomorph into the furnace area so they can kill it. Where he was running after the inmates. The inmates were using themselves as guinea pigs and running and closing the doors behind them. Oh my god, you want one of the most tense. scenes in movie history i i it especially in the uh assembly cut because you know these characters now they're not just cannon fodder they're they're actual characters with backstories with with emotion we got to know them we got to uh cheer for them you know we we hoping they're surviving and it's all that because of this cut but it made it it just added to the excitement into the dread into the tension of that scene bro that that is awesome the fact that xenomorph was running on the ceiling running on the wall and man amazing amazing scene still one of the best shot best uh tone you can get from a horror science fiction type movie i haven't seen that matched yet in 35 years still stings when i say that out loud but this was excellent i i i i'm so happy that i was able to sit down and enjoy this assembly cut it's been so long and it came out in 92 if i'm not mistaken i think like i said it came out with the dvd release so it isn't like this just happened this been happening i'm just doing this show because i just watched it for the first time i'm just experiencing it for the first time and when i hear people bad mouth alien 3 obviously they did not see the assembly cut and even before that i still would make an argument for alien 3 alien 3 was a really good movie it was good no it wasn't on the I think a lot of people watched Aliens and went right into Alien 3 and thought it was going to be the same type of movie. And they got let down. But you know, you should have known better. It wasn't going to be the same type of movie. It was a different movie. Just set in the same universe. And that's fine. Alien 3, the assembly cut. gets upgraded to a b plus uh with the theatrical version getting this it had a c plus but this bumps it up to a b plus uh awesome cut of movie not all director's cuts does that for me sometimes i feel like it's the same thing you know nothing lost nothing gained but if for this particular special edition oh man it improved the movie leaps and bounds man this was awesome it was so i would like to know what did you think of alien 3 the theatrical version and have you ever seen the assembly cut up like i said it's not um i think it's leaving hbo max but look for it look for it wherever wherever these alien movies are being streamed because i'm more than certain it's probably leaving hbo max it'll probably pop up on hulu or uh peacock or something i don't know that all because they They trade movies every month. So seek it out if you haven't seen it. I promise you it is a much, much better film than what the theatrical version was. But let me know. Email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Also, don't forget about YouTube. Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like. this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify our heart radio wherever you are currently listening to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this retro review of alien 3 the assembly cut want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed