Search - The Alien Files: UFOs Under Investigation on DVD

Utterly unscientific garbage

S. Johnson | 07/05/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Do not waste your money on this two-bit slam against any legitimate investigation into UFOs. Although it occassionally presents a few respected scientists and dedicated investigators, it quickly dismisses their statements and resorts to wholly unfounded skepticism discounting all as cranks, hoaxers, and even mentally ill cultists. This includes Project Blue Book's Dr. Hynek and many other highly respectable authors and scientists who are pegged as idiots. Just who is behind this release of hogwash and why they feel it necessary to attempt to dissuade the public from taking UFOs seriously is the real question. But you will not get any clues from this cheapo trashy production. I cannot even bear to bother with finishing watching the entire set of five discs. It is dull and repetitive tripe. Much like a Nightly News War on Terror propaganda piece."

Mystery Solved

S. Ring | Rocky Mountains | 06/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here's recommendation #1.

Though I don't have a lot of interested in UFO phenomenon, being almost militantly skeptical on the subject, the box for The Alien Files looked interesting enough for me to pick up. On closer examination I saw the "Madacy Home Video" label and started to have doubts. Madacy is one of those companies that, from time to time, bundles poor-quality public-domain titles together. And I'd never heard of this series. The cover had few details. Still, the package looked slick, and I found a good deal on it, so I snatched it up. I figured that it would annoy me, give me a headache with its banality, or be way out in left field and childishly credulous. So many of those UFO documentaries I see on television, if not intolerably dry and inconsequential, are like "There might be extraterrestrials zipping around in flying saucers! Isn't that cool?" This series really defied my expectations. I am truly impressed. Mind you, some will find it all to be much too talky. The Alien Files is almost free of the expected cheesy reenactments with idealized actors (or, worse, un-idealized non-actors) and crude CGI spacecraft. There isn't the oily, off-putting, UFO-nut slant to it, either. In fact, the phenomenon is scrutinized in quite a sober, skeptical manner. The camerawork and special effects aren't flashy. It doesn't gaily browse through Roswell souvenir shops, or interview Hollywood special-effects experts or professional trekkies to give color to their presentation. Instead, The Alien Files spends almost all it's time talking to physicists, scientific investigators and other solid authorities who pick apart cases one by one in ten different episodes covering the various aspects of Ufology. It isn't padded out with the all-too-familiar film-clips you see in other UFO documentaries, and it doesn't waste much time with cases that simply aren't to be taken seriously. The series seeks a scientific framework for the phenomenon, rather than to simply debunk it. But again, it is mostly just a lot of old guys talking, so if you were expecting ten-hour commercial for the X-Files, be forewarned."

An Excellent And Very Hardcore UFO Documentary Series

Wickerman1972 | Ohio, USA | 12/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Judging by the negativity of the few reviews posted about this documentary set it is quite obvious to me that some viewers aren't getting what it is about. First of all it is most certainly not an exercise in debunkery as some have claimed. In fact, none of the usual suspects from CSI (The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) even make an appearance. Instead it is populated with an endless torrent of many of the finest minds on the ufological scene.

I think the problem here is that some are viewing things too narrowly. They want a production that 100% validates every belief they have, valid or not, or nothing at all. Sure, you'll get foolishness like that from believe-anything and investigate-nothing propagandists like Wendel Stevens, Robert Dean, or Jim Marrs by the truckload but their nonsense is a detriment to the field, not a help. It is because the UFO subject is peppered with so much lunacy that productions like this are necessary. Serious and competent UFO researchers are forced to spend half of their time or more exposing the inaccuracies of the myths perpetuated by their less critical subordinates if they ever hope to be taken at all seriously by the academic and scientific communities at large. It is obvious to me that this is exactly what this series sets out to do.

This series separates the wheat from the chaff, the genuine from the absurd. Perhaps many of you are not often exposed to hardcore ufology and instead are more accustomed to the sensationalistic approach you get on television and especially on many outlandish websites. With the bulk of television documentaries on the subject the tone is usually either totally in favor of the extraterrestrial theory or totally against it. Few delve into complex discussions on the phenomenon, everything is aliens from space or nothing at all. But the debate that happens on the ground is much more complex than that and this series captures that perfectly.

When watching this I very much got the impression that it captured the tone of what goes on in monthly ufological journals like the MUFON Journal and International UFO Reporter better than anything I`d seen before. If you've ever read journals like these you'd know that not everything that gets printed in them is a screaming endorsement of "They're here!" No, the research presented in them is very meticulous, very serious, and as scientific as possible. In fact, most of the entries are written by scientists. And many of the articles deal in the negative, meaning that there is just as much attention given to pointing out what isn't real as what is...just like this excellent documentary series!

The ultimate goal should always be to seek truth in its purest form, not propagate a myth just because you emotionally want it to be true. In a perfect world UFO cases would always be investigated meticulously and then the results of that research presented to the public in an honest and open-minded way. If a particular case leans in the direction of possible alien contact then say so, and if it appears to be a misidentification of a weather balloon, planet, or some other prosaic thing then report that as well. DO NOT COME IN WITH ANY PARTICULAR AXE TO GRIND. It seems to me that this documentary does exactly that and is one of the finest I've ever seen because of it.

Some time is spent on the negative side of the fence in this presentation (Perhaps a bit more than usual) but those instances are handled appropriately. There are no glaring and outrageous examples of psychological denial here like you get from the likes of Phil Klass or James Magaha. Aside from a rare moment or two where I didn't agree (Opinions are going to vary on just about anything but the one episode of this series that I had some pretty substantial problems with is the one dealing with abductions. I feel that a lot of good evidence was ignored and that the Betty and Barney Hill case in particular was not given fair treatment.) I found this program to be skeptical when it should be. In other words when a case got bad treatment it was because it was a bad case that deserved it. You may ask yourself, "Why even bother with the bad cases?" Because there is so much nonsense out there that those involved with this series probably wanted to set a lot of things straight, to expose the nonsense plaguing this field for what it is.

Don't listen to the naysayers. This is an excellent DVD set, one of the finest productions I've seen on the subject of UFOs and that is coming from someone who is convinced that SOME (Those who read Stanton Friedman will know why I capitalized some) UFO cases represent visitation from a non-human intelligence."

Should you buy this?

P. Rolfe | Smugglers Cove tortola | 06/29/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"That depends on what your looking for. This is 10rs long, in 1hr parts.
What the Collection does is , make fun of UFO believers, plain and simple.
1st they place a UFO believer on, and he talks about his story with goofy music in the background, then they place a debunker on with serious music in the background and then they even have the narrator explains how foolish UFO believers are. To me, its not taken seriously enough. If you want to make a documentary about hating , debunking, or making fun of UFO believers then at least make that known with the title. Something like , UFO Nuts! or UFOs are fake! Or even Debunking UFOs! Lets us all know your against them before we buy it. I gave it 1 star because of the fact it wasnt taken seriously at all. I would have been ok with there view point if they did it in a serious manner and had respect for everyone in the documentary.
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