UNSOLVED MYSTERIES: UFO’s

Unsolved Mysteries: UFO's

Starring: Robert Stack

DVD Special Features: Introduction by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, Audio Commentary for Select Episodes by Series Producers/Creators/Directors, Motion Menus, A Special Tribute to Robert Stack, 5.1 Surround Sound, Original 4:3 Full Screen Format, Behind the Scenes – The 150th Solve
Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Number of Discs: 4

Episode Listing

Disc 1:
Bentwaters UFO
Allagash Abductions
Crop Circles
Phoenix UFO
Nazca Lines
Mexico UFO
Vancouver Lights

Disc 2:
Roswell
Roswell/Area 51 Connection
Hudson Valley UFO
Belgian UFO
Falcon Lake UFO
UFO Healing

Disc 3:
Austrailian UFO
Missing Time
Socorro Close Encounter
Kecksburg UFO
Texas UFO
Face On Mars

Disc 4:
Men In Black
Canadian UFO
Wheatfields Visitations
Life On Mars
Interceptors
The Blob
UFO Odyssey

Movie: * * * (Guest review by Harrison Cheung, Movie Gurus)
Disc: * * *

Would it surprise you to know that Unsolved Mysteries is one of the longest running television series of all time? From 1987 until his death in 2003, Robert Stack (probably best known as the original Eliot Ness in the 1950s TV series, The Untouchables) hosted this show that explored the paranormal – one part documentary, one part investigative report, and another part re-enactment drama. Although the show continues on and has added murder investigation to its genre coverage, a number of Unsolved Mysteries segments, which were hosted by Robert Stack, are now available on DVD, grouped by paranormal genre.

Two box sets – The UFO Files and Scariest Ghost Stories – are now available with a third box set – Miracles – coming in November. Psychics, Bizarre Murders and Legends will be available in 2005. Each DVD contains numerous 10-minute segments, each of which outlining a paranormal event.

The UFO Files – though Unsolved Mysteries has endured since 1987, the producers were savvy enough to update the show making sure that UFO segments had an X-Files-esque feel to them. Robert Stack, clad in a trademark trench coat, introduces each segment with semi-serious gravity, as if he were revealing a government secret to Mulder and Sculley.

Each UFO segment plays like a mini-documentary. There are interviews with the eyewitnesses, analysis from experts in the field, some occasional footage and a re-enactment drama with low-budget special effects. The overall effect is quite earnest – the audience will be intrigued by the interviews and the sightings with photographic evidence are always fascinating. Adding to the feeling of an unbiased documentary, the experts – both sceptics and believers – explain their positions while witnesses are run through lie detector tests or are corroborated with the local police chief or reverend. The end result is that the viewer is left with compelling evidence, credible witnesses but asked to draw their own conclusions.

WORTH IT? Absolutely! The UFO Files works well as a great starting point for library research as all segments are based on celebrated cases of UFO sightings or encounters.

RECOMMENDATION: If you want a briskly paced video overview of some interesting UFO cases, The UFO Files is a must-see.

(Harrison Cheung is a regular contributor to Movie Gurus. Reviews of several regular contributors to The Sci-Fi Page appear on the site - go there now!)