Bullets 'n' Babes

jimmythegent wrote:Almost Famous - Another rock 'n roll epic that is much more meaningful in the full director's cut. This is what he wanted, and the tale is semi-autobiographic. It's what I want, as well.

I know I'm in the minority but I much prefer the theatrical cut. It's why I've never bought the blu-ray. I love the film (especially the bus scene with Elton John's epic Tiny Dancer). Only one scene adds real value (the Lester Bangs radio interview) and crucially the pacing is lost. Given the subject matter nippier pace of the original works better.

Is it a Director's Cut? That word tends to get so overly used by studios, often they're extended cuts. Terminator 2: Special Edition certainly isn't a Director's Cut but is often labelled that way.

In fact, I'm going to listen to Tiny Dancer now. Timeless song. Made during Elton's singer/songwriter phase, before he embraced flamboyance and OTT pop.

jimmythegent wrote:Aliens - I agree with most of the other posters. DC is better in all respects save the family exploration scene that should have been left out.

I totally agree. I like a lot of the Special Edition's extra footage but that scene totally ruins Newts surprise appearance, to the point it's Theatrical Cut all the way.

jimmythegent wrote:The Cage vs. The Menagerie

I'm rather fond of The Cage. Pike would've made a good captain. I do like Kirk though, before Shat became a knob.

jimmythegent wrote:The Good The Bad and the Ugly - What we have here is the original Italian release versus the US version. The biggest difference is a long Tuco segment which is not essential, but it is fascinating. I vote for the extended version.

Which is included on the UK DVDs/BDs? I'm guessing the US cut.

jimmythegent wrote:Kill Bill - The Whole Bloody Affair - Well, it never came to be, but I was certainly looking forward to the director's cut of this one.

Volume 2 is so awful though. That bloody stupid unburying scene and where's the big ass finale? I am surprised QT never made this though.

Excellent fisrt post, jimmythegent

A Night in Nude: Salvation
This one opened in theaters with R-15 rating, after several cuts (studio request). An extended R-18 rated Director's Cut followed only a few months later (a limited theaterical release). Very confusingly, both versions were released to festival distribution and as a result some festival's screened the Director's Cut without even knowing it. Only having seen the DC, I can still say the theatrical version would be almost certainly better. The DC is too underlining and explains too much, even though additional Hiroko Sato full frontal never hurts

Gonin
Another Ishii film. I think someone suggested the DC isn't necessarily a true DC, though. In any case, it adds 12 minutes of new footage (mostly good, some bad), changes the place of one scene, and makes color correction to one scene. Perhaps slightly preferrable to the theatrical version, but a bit of a mixed bag.

jimmythegent wrote: Kill Bill - The Whole Bloody Affair - Well, it never came to be, but I was certainly looking forward to the director's cut of this one.

Same here, although they do work perfectly also as two separate movies. Vol. 2 is bloody fantastic - has one of the best endings ever.

Kill Bill Vol 2 bored me... and I prefer the theatrical cuts of Payback and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Brad, the cut of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly used on the UK/USA BDs is the extended version.

jimmythegent wrote: Army Of Darkness - Everybody knows this one: content better, audio/visual worse.

The Region 3 Chinese MGM disc is perfect picture and sound, so get that its not the crap version the rest of the world got as some old cobbled together piece of crap.

HungFist wrote:Same here, although they do work perfectly also as two separate movies. Vol. 2 is bloody fantastic - has one of the best endings ever.

It was obvious you were going to say that .

Thanks Grim.

Good topic.
These days with Blu ray there is no reason to not have both versions available for us to watch, although obviously George Lucas doesn't think so.
Enter The Dragon: Much prefer the theatrical cut, it flows better.
Aliens : Same, although the longer version has some good scenes.
T2 : Extra scenes just drag the film a bit.
The Abyss : Directors cut much better with the story making much more sense
True Romance: DC much better mainly because of the censorship to get an R
The Mist : Great to see the original B/W version
Hard Target : As far as i know the UK release was the preferred directors cut as the R rated USA version was cut badly. The work-print does not count in my opinion.
Avatar : Mixed feelings. The extra scenes are good but not really necessary
The Exorcist : Pointless DC or version we never saw!
Leon: I love both versions!

I'd like to see the director's cut of Legion which later became Exorcist III.

The unkindest cut: 13-plus movies weakened by directors’ cuts
- http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-unki ... ect,79676/

The kindest cut: 14-plus movies improved by directors’ cuts
- http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-kind ... tor,76968/

"It’s still no Point Blank, but Payback: Straight Up is a marked improvement on the unrulier original."

Wrong on both counts.

1. Payback is better than Point Blank.

2. The theatrical cut is better than the director's cut.

They should have included Dark City, the director's cut is absolutely better.

HungFist wrote:The unkindest cut: 13-plus movies weakened by directors’ cuts
- http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-unki ... ect,79676/

The kindest cut: 14-plus movies improved by directors’ cuts
- http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-kind ... tor,76968/

Good shit, thanks