|
Imserba Webstore - The X-Files: Pusher/Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"
|
List Price: $5.99
Our Price: $6.77
Your Save: $ ( % )
Availability:
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Directed By: Richard Compton, James A. Contner, Allen Coulter, Tucker Gates, Ralph Hemecker
|
Average Customer Rating: 
|
|
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304907627
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 6304907621
Label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: 1998-05-05
Running Time: 45
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1993-09-10
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Bleepin' Must-See Episode for X-Files Fans!
Comment: First off, I'll mention the "other" episode on this tape, "Pusher", by saying that it's an above-average episode. It's the story of a man with a terminal brain tumor, and the tumor has given him the ability to force his will onto other people. He's using this power to get other people to injure or kill themselves, and Mulder and Scully are sent to stop him. The climax is a doozy, as the man forces Mulder to play a deadly game of Russian roullette. But the OTHER episode - "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" is my all-time favorite episode of the X-Files (and, as I've learned, it's often the favorite episode of other X-Files fans as well). The plot is rather complicated, but I'll try to simplify it: Charles Nelson Reilly (who some may remember was a regular on the classic "Match Game" game show in the seventies) is wonderful as Jose Chung, a famous writer who's out to make a quick buck by writing a "non-fiction science fiction" book about a supposed UFO abduction and series of UFO sightings in Klass County, Washington State. (In one of the episode's many small jokes, the fictional "Klass" County is a swipe at the real-life Phillip Klass, America's leading debunker and critic of UFO sightings - the real-life "Ciggarette-Smoking Man"). Mulder, fearing that Chung is only going to ridicule the witnesses and ruin the sighting's credibility, refuses to talk with him, but Scully - who's a great admirer of Chung's novels - does agree to tell her side of the story to him. Unfortunately for her, Chung has already gotten umpteen versions of the Klass County sightings from various people in the county. And, of course, their stories are all hilariously different. One version comes from a ... teenage couple who claim they were abducted by aliens who smoked ciggarettes, then admitted they had sex in the car, "only don't tell her dad, he'll kill me". Another version comes from a geeky high-school loser who's into Dungeons and Dragons and who combs the woods looking for UFOs at night. Lo and behold, he finally finds a dead alien, only to accuse Scully and Mulder (whom he thinks is an android) of roughing him up and covering up the evidence (which Scully, of course, says never happened). He then describes being beaten up by two sinister "men in black" (one being Jesse Ventura, the other is "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek)! Then we go to another loser - a power-company lineman who claims he saw the rumored UFO abduction and was then given an "important" cosmic message from a huge alien. This revelation leads him to write down his experiences in a book in his garage - until the aforementioned "men in black" burst into his garage and threaten him - Ventura: "Did you know that a former President of your country - James Earl Carter - claimed to have seen a UFO?" Man (clutching his book): "I'm a Republican"! And, there's also the constantly grouchy local policeman who cusses like a sailor (and since Scully's telling the story, she hilariously "bleeps" out his profanity) - policeman: "Yeah, that's a bleepin' dead alien all right"! Along the way there are some of the "X-Files" most famous scenes - one of the best are the conflicting stories of Mulder and a bewildered cook at a local diner - Mulder remembers sitting in the diner late at night and questioning the "human" pilot of the suspected UFO until the military comes and takes him. The cook doesn't remember any of that, but he does remember Mulder all alone in the diner, eating slice after slice of sweet potato pie and asking bizarre questions to the cook - "Have you ever been probed by aliens?". Unlike most "X-Files episodes which concentrate almost solely on horror or dark humor or surrealism, this single episode combines all three genres into a brilliant, if bizarre, fifty minutes of entertainment.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If there were more stars, I'd use them
Comment: Both episodes on this tape are worth watching over and over (I should know). If you're not a regular fan of the show and are looking for something that stands alone, this is the tape for you. "Pusher" is a phenomenal look at an interesting idea. It is wonderfully acted, and Anderson and Duchovny shine in their very "emotional but not REALLY" way. "Jose Chung's..." is one of the series most self-aware episodes, but it still manages to convey a deeper meaning about how people are "all... alone." BUY THIS :)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Reality in Jeopardy
Comment: Although the "Pusher" episode left little impression on me, I give this video recording five stars for the latter episode alone. Written by Darin Morgan, known for funny and intellectually subtle "X-Files" scripts (as well as for playing the infamous "Flukeman"), "Jose Chung's from Outer Space" ranks as one of the best episodes in the series. Charles Nelson Reilly portrays perfectly the eccentric Chung, who interviews Scully for a "non-fiction science fiction" book about an alien abuction and crash of an extraterrestrial craft that may or may not have occurred near a small town. Various characters give their own accounts of what occurred, including a teenage couple supposedly abducted by "grays"; an electrical worker threatened by a double-talking "man in black" (played by a pre-gubernatorial Jesse Ventura); and a loser obsessed with conspiracy theories and role-playing games who perceives Mulder and Scully as brutal co-conspirators trying to cover up the crash.Comparisons to "Rashomon" seem quite obvious, but Morgan does not confine this episode to that evident allusion. In-jokes about the show and popular culture in general abound, including allusions to the infamous "Alien Autopsy" video. Also, Morgan gives a cyclopian alien the moniker "Lord Kinbote," alluding to the unreliable narrator of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire." I read somewhere that Morgan considers Nabokov one of his favorite writers. How appropriate, considering Nabokov's own penchant for unreliable narrators (like Humbert in "Lolita") who distort and misperceive reality, and for throwing a variety of allusions (obvious and arcane) into his novels. Whether you understand everything in this episode or not, Morgan's little gem provides a well-done change of pace from the usual "X-Files" episode.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best X-Files ever - needs a 6th star
Comment: Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" is my all-time favorite X-F episode, beating out War of the Copraphages and Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. Yes, I'm a Darin Morgan fan. JCFOS throws in everything but the kitchen sink but, as in a great novel, all begins to make sense upon repeated study. I can't believe anything this good ever made it onto network television! Thank you to everyone associated with its creation......
Customer Rating:
Summary: Among the series best...
Comment: "Pusher" is close to flawless in terms of plot, characterizations, and execution. It's an X-Files classic. "Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"" is also a classic, but I believe you have to be a regular viewer of the show to understand it all. In "JCFOS" Mulder and Scully are much of the time the antagonists of the story, so the viewers see a different perspective of them than usually seen. It's interesting, and highly entertaining. I'm getting the urge to go watch it now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
