[nitpicking hijack] I’m sure you’re aware of this but it’s not clear from your post - Tem Morrison wasn’t famous for that line, it was Lisa Crittenden. [/nitpicking hijack]
Just what I was going to mention. With on exception: during the siege at the fort Duncan (the Brit. officer) gets to command some troops in the field and does a fine job of it. It was nice to see him as more than just a whiney officer 
Personally, I found the alternate ending infinitely more depressing.
He goes back to just before he was born, and strangles himself with the umbilical cord
Does that include that pathetic, forced dreck that they cut out of Mallrats? It amazes me how they can reveal more about the friction between TS and Brandi’s dad just with the characters talking about it than that worthless scene that got cut from the beginning. It seemed to drag on for hours, and the movie was so much better without it.
Likewise with the Clerks outtakes. That “debate” between Dante and Jay about the equivalence between drug dealers and convenience store clerks is the most egregious example. The film is would have lost so much had it kept the characters serving as mouthpieces for Kevin Smith’s pontificating.
Count me in too. The original ending is good in an artistic sense, but the ending in the final version with Soul Asylum in the background makes it seem much more like Dante had actually grown because of what happened that day.
I see, that would fit in with another deleted scene, where the mother tells Evan
that she’d been pregnant three times before having him, which would imply that the others had all been born with the same condition, and had gone back and done the same thing.
chilling
Yes, thank you very much, that’s what I came in here to say. I own the Collector’s Edition DVD, and watched it alone in the director’s cut (not knowing it was, in fact, the director’s cut). Loved it – just the right kind of ending to a seriously complicated situation. Then I told my girlfriend we needed to watch it. Got to the end, and suddenly there’s this whole different ending. I was literally screaming at the screen, “that’s not how it ends!”. Girlfriend considered me a freak, having never seen the DC, and didn’t think it was all that great when I explained it to her…
…you gotta admit, its pretty cool to think that the bad-ass soldiers of the Star Wars universe were actually the Maori Battalion!!! (Not to mention Nathaniel Lees and Rene Naufahu defending Zion at the Matrix, and the real NZ Army running rampage over Mordor!)
:rolleyes:
The ED of ROTK was excellent.
I totally agree. I much preferred the theatrical cut of Blade Runner. I wish someone would release it on DVD.
The director’s cut of Donnie Darko seemed to be a dumbed down version made for people who didn’t want to have to work out what was happening. I may however be deceived because I saw it years after I saw the movie.
Well, it adds in several key pieces of information; I wouldn’t call it “dumbed down,” save for the couple of annoying v.o.s by Frank informing Donnie (and the audience) to “pay attention.” They added in a great scene with the father (totall sloshed), telling Donnie how he’s not crazy and everybody else is just afraid that he’s going to call them on their bullshit. I loved the parents; the father has some of the best lines in the film; “They better not fuck us on the shingle match,” nearly brings tears to my eyes. And the opening lines–“I’m voting for Dukakis,”–are classic.
I sure wish Kelly had cut out Drew Barrymore’s grating, semi-literate teacher character out of the Director’s Cut entirely, though.
Stranger
Man, I hated Redux… especially the Kilgore scenes. His character was changed from the epic “monster” that he was in the original into a laughing stock. Terrible. Clean’s funeral, and a couple of shots of the boat going up the river were the only parts I didn’t have a problem with.
As for one I liked… the (in character) commentary by the surviving members of Spinal Tap is the best part of the bonus features. It’s like getting to watch the film all over again.
I agree with everything that’s been said (numerous times in many threads) about Star Wars; Han shot first, damnit!
I’ve seen the extended version of Terminator 2 and I definitely prefer it over the original. Now I want to go watch it again.
Personally, I like the theatrical ending for Butterfly Effect way more than the director’s cut. Yeah, it’s a happy Hollywood ending, but that’s just what the movie needed if you ask me. The other one is just depressing, and strangely goofy at the same time.
If you watch the extra stuff on the DVD for The Cell, it has some cool scenes that were cut. There’s one great animation that was half-completed where it transitions from a dog, in real life, to the dream world inside the Carl’s mind. It starts with the dog’s face, then it turns sideways and starts getting closer, and then you realize that it is in fact an island that looks like half of a dog, reflected in the water. It zooms in on the scene until you can see Carl walking up to a little house.
They also changed a plot point to avoid controversy that would’ve tied a few more things together.
There’s a scene in the movie where Vince Vaughn’s character goes inside Carl’s mind and finds Catherine (Jennifer Lopez) in a sort of brainwashed/hypnotised state. In the theatrical version, he gets her to snap out of it by talking about her brother who was killed in a car accident or something (I don’t remember the exact details.) In the director’s commentary, they mention that in the original script, what he actually says is that she had an abortion. This was deemed too controversial for the movie, but I think it makes the movie more symbolic (even if it’s Hollywood pseudo-symbolism); The scene at the very end of the movie is reminiscent of Carl’s baptism, the bird that he drowned to “save” it, the fate of his murder victims, and finally it also ties in with the abortion theme. I think it was an interesting cut.
Oh yeah, the new song they put in the “Special Edition” DVD for The Lion King sucks. (Does that count as a director’s cut?) If they were going to make an extended version, what they should have done is made a secondary audio track with Jonathan Taylor Thomas doing the voice for adult Simba. That would’ve been so cool.
What I didn’t like in that version is how they replaced The Killing Moon in the beginning to something else and put a little TKM in later instead. The Killing Moon is the perfect song to start the movie on.
I agree. I think that directors cuts prove that directors often need to be reigned in.
I hated the Aliens movie with extra footage for the reasons you gave. The theatrical version was just perfect.
The only director’s cut I can think of that is an improvement is Almost Famous. It slows down the plot in a few spots, and the extra scenes add nothing to the story, but I wanted to spend more time with those characters. In the commentary, Cameron Crowe said that for the theatrical version, the feeling was that it took too long to get the kid on tour and so early background scenes were cut.
You tell 'em! I’ve always thought that, too, but am resigned to being in the minority on this point.
I have a nominee for worst which is a little more obscure than the often debated Blade Runner and Star Wars cuts.
In the deleted scenes of We Were Soldiers Once there is a scene of some of the lower enlisted guys at a cookout discussing the new Sergeant Major.
[spoiler] They are standing around talking and someone asks if anyone knows anything about SGM Plumley (Sam Elliot). One of them goes into a story about his old platoon sergeant. You seen the flashback with a voiceover by the soldier. The platoon gets a brand new LT who demands a dress uniform inspection with all awards displayed. The platoon sergeant is a scarred WWII vet who doesn’t look impressed with the LT. The scene switches to the inspection with everyone in formation. The LT gets to the Platoon SGT and sees he is not wearing any decorations. The LT yells at him and demands he return with all his awards. The SGT returns completely naked except for two Medals of Honor around his neck. The LT crisply comes to attention and salutes the SGT then dismisses the men.
The punchline:
“So what does that have to do with the new Sergeant MAjor?”
“SGT Wossname was scared shitless of SGM Plumley.”
Film cuts to a scene that was left in.
Smiling SGT: Good morning Sergeant Major!
SGM: Whats so fucking good about it?
Damn good reason why this scene was deleted. It just doesn’t work. Sam Elliot’s acting is enough to show what a hardass he is no need for this scene. What really took me out of the scene is the two Medals of Honor. The last double winners were from WWI and they were Marines. I could see a soldier telling a story like that but everyone around him would have called bullshit. The way it was shot it was shown as what really happened, not just a story. It certainly doesn’t work in a movie that is supposed to be a true story. [/spoiler]
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember how excited I was when I saw the Director’s Cut of Dune. “Now,” I thought, “I’ll see David Lynch’s true vision before it was prostituted.”
Man.
I hate to say it, but I thought the theatrical release was about as good as they could have edited it.