Refresh my memory. I know Christian Slater was originally written to die, and then Patricia Arquette escapes with the money, pulls off on the side of the road and blows her own head off in a fit of grief, but that never made it past storyboarding.
Is it that Patricia shoots the cop, (Chris Penn), instead of the mafia guy? Yeah, that’s much better IMO. I’ll give you that.
It’s the over-the-top screaming after Arquette kills James Gandolfini that bugs me beyond belief. I used to love that scene, but now I FFWD through it or (worse) change channels because I find it so incredibly grating. Drives me up a wall.
In addition to those argued above, I’d throw out Bladerunner and Brazil as films that are definitely superior as director’s cuts ( or at least unbutchered in the case of Brazil ).
Okay, i haven’t seen the movie, so i scrolled through the thread really quickly so i don’t totally spoil the movie for myself. But i have heard great things about this one, and heard ashton kutcher did a pretty good job. i’m going with a friend this weekend to check out his latest flick, a lot like love. one of the main reasons i’m seeing it is because i have a huge respect for amanda peet. i think she’s a tremendous actress.
Whoa, thank god for that! That’s totally out of character.
Yes, for me it is a nice feeling of reciprocation from the “that’s so romantic” episode with Drexl.
Otherwise, the scene you mention is extended as is some of the violence from Clarence v. Drexl. It is the wrap up at the producer’s house that really makes it for me, though. I wonder why that was cut. Maybe the ratings board didn’t want the good guys to shoot the cops?
I don’t remember a “crucial motivating factor”, unless you’re talking about how the “aliens” indict all of humanity for being violent and war-faring, thus subjecting us to scare tactic tidal waves and ham-fisted moralizing for an extended 20 minutes. Which is exactly why the director’s cut is dramatically worse–turning a good film with a weak ending into an insufferably preachy film with a bullshit ending.
I know I’m quite late on this thread, but just finished watching this movie for about the tenth time, and in doing the same ritual at the OP, came across this thread.
Personally, I love the director’s cut ending, but I feel that the theatrical ending is more in sync with the rest of the film. Yes, the DC ties things up a bit nicer, but the theatrical doesn’t necessarily not tie things up.
The concept behind that scene is actually a few things, one of which, the second quoted post covers. The picture Evan draws is a depiction of the two prisoners he had just stabbed before traveling back into the school scene. It wasn’t an image of him killing Tommy. Also, yes, the picture is what caused the beginning of the journals, so this was essentially a fixed point in time (An event that has to happen. It doesn’t matter how it happens, but it must always happen). If he didn’t draw the picture, it wouldn’t have caused the journals to have been written, which would have stopped him from being able to go back into the past, but at that current point he was in the past. That’s the beginning of a paradox, which, as most time-travel enthusiast know, is bad.
I’m assuming by the post in the second quote, the comment about a drastic event refers to Evan impaling his hands on the two spikes? Not necessarily a drastic, life-altering event. Just a serious injury. He was already headed to a mental institution after doing that drawing, chances are the spike incident just got thrown into the already existing conversation.
I thought the premise was that it didn’t take a drastic life-altering event to cause one’s life to go in a radically different direction. That Evan stabbed his own hands and ended up back in the same prison with the same cellmate annoyed me.
Well, that and how he ended up in prison in the first place, after a clear case of self-defense. He must have had a lousy lawyer in both timelines.
Despite its flaws, I found it to be an otherwise fun time twisted tale that only oversteps into the ridiculous a few times.
The premise is great, and they explore it well enough. Although the screenplay and direction could’ve used some sharpening up, it was disturbing and entertaining. I haven’t seen it since I saw it at the theater. I think I’ll rent it again.
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