The Quadrilogy commentaries are all superb examples of multi-participant tracks - well paced, well edited and assembled with care.
Scott and Weaver are in the same room together so there's a bit of mutual admiration going on, but never so much that it gets cloying. The other participants are each recorded separately.

In many ways, I prefer Scott's solo track from the earlier release but this is still a great commentary. There's not a lot here that can't be gleaned from elsewhere on the two-disc set but that's more a testament to the thoroughness of the documentaries than any sign of lacking in the track itself. Recommended.

Correction : all cast members other than Weaver are also in the room together. There's quite a strange dynamic between them - Harry Dean Stanton sounds a bit out of it. You get the feeling they haven't seen each other in a while.

Ridleys previous commentary was far supperior to this one.
This one just seems to have enthusiasm missing from his previous effort but who can blame him. Im sure its hard enough talking your way through an early work once sometimes. let alone twice.

I think Ridley Scott and Mrs. Weaver are together, but Mr. Scott is also alone at other times. Veronica Cartwright, Tom Skerrit and Harry Dean Stanton seem to be together as well. The rest seem to be alone. The track is nicely breezy and everybody seems to remember the movie fondly. There are some jokes, Mr. Stanton says the funniest one. You hear some nice production stories. The suits weren't very comfortable and a couple of actors almost passed out. The helmet-cam footage was shot by Mr. Scott. He took an 8-mm camera and shot miniature set just like that, and it looked perfect. Mr. Scott here does the same as he did on 'Gladiator' and narrates the movie at times, but because there are many other participants that doesn't happen to often. The track is a good one and if you want to hear the inspiration for the Alien or how they made Ash/robot after he was destroyed, listen to this.

Good, but would have preferred Ridley on one commentary track and the other contributors on a separate track, spoiled it for me. The joint Sigourney and Ridley commentary would have been interesting on its own as well, as not much of it is used.

On a commentary track like this with multiple tracks edited together you always get the good with the bad, the good is that you get no dead spots, the bad is that it gets a bit jumbled. But it's nice to hear from all the principle cast/crew members, and they all contribute with some funny or insightful anecdotes. That said it does have its share of pointless backslapping and selfadmiration, I dont know how many times we are told that someone knew that it would be a classic even before they started filming etc.

It is a wortwhile listen though, and if you're an Alien fan you'll get a bunch of interesting trivia concerning every aspect of the making of the film.

Some of the contributers have quite annoying voices though.

favourite bit: When Harry Dean Stanton reveals that he improvised the reply: Why dont you go fuck yourself, to Ripley, that naturally did'nt get used.

This one is weird even by overedited multi-guest standards...Ridley Scott actually has two superimposed tracks, (another) one standalone and other with Sigourney Weaver, and the two combined don't measure up to the first DVD release commentary (there's even some considerable repetition). The cast is recorded together in the usually laid-back reminiscent way, but Stanton (who sometimes seems to be drunk) may probably have gone overboard with the offbeat humor and seems to have recorded some solo sections too. The most informative parts are the ones with screenwriter Dan O'Bannon and editor Terry Rawlins, but as usual in this kind of commentary, one wonders whether what was edited out of the track wouldn't be better than what remained on it.