What are your thoughts on different releases?

These opinions are based on seeing both cuts.

Theatrical Preferred

The 40 Year Old Virgin - Extra scenes don't bring teh funny. Plus it makes the film longer and you feel it.

American Pie - The famous pie scene is altered in the uncut. It just doesn't work for me. I don't remember much else noteworthy.

Gladiator - I'm a huge fan of the film but the extra scenes do nothing for me. They are interesting but don't add anything significant to the film.

Independence Day - The deleted scenes were cut for a reason. They're mildly interesting but doesn't enhance the experience.

Sin City - The extra scenes are interesting but slow the breakneck pace that stories have going for them.

Terminator 2 - I believe there's 3 different versions of the film and the theatrical is the best. Stay away from the version that has an old lady Sarah Connor sitting on a bench at the end of the film.

Extended/Unrated Preferred

Almost Famous - The only way to watch this movie. The extra scenes reveal more character insight and better it doesn't mess with the pacing of the film.

King Arthur - Now really all that is added is blood and gore, however, it elevates the film so much because it feels legitimate and not watered down.

Kingdom of Heaven - The director's cut brings the film from mediocre status to masterpiece. Ok, that's a bit bold. But the film is great and one of my favorite neo-epics.

Leon: The Professional - As far as I'm concerned it's the only version of the film that should be seen period.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy - I think the Fellowship suffers the most because from the extended because the scenes aren't all that interesting but it's still better. The Two Towers on the other hand is remarkable and imo, makes it the best film of the trilogy. Return of the King kicks ass (see Mouth of Sauron) but not quite as good as Two Towers.

Malena - I was going to post this below under the minor changes but remembering it now the changes are pretty significant. The main boy's daydreams and imaginations are cut from the film which are important and loaded with extra Monica Bellucci skin. It's a win-win.

Miami Vice - Honestly, I don't remember what was added or changed but I remember enjoying the director's cut a lot more than when I saw it in theatres.

Troy - The best thing about this version is the color palette. It's quite more graphic though, babies are tossed out of windows, bones shatter, and the film's opening protagonist is a dog.

Zodiac - Nothing too significant here but the film is great I could watch a 6 hour version of it.

These films have minor changes that may or may not be significant:

American Psycho - More sex & violence earns a

Robocop - The gore is what Verhoeven does best. Watch the unrated.

Some films I'd love to hear feedback from:

The Chronicles of Narnia
King Kong
Monster's Ball
The New World
Walk the Line

I'm waiting for coments on the Director's cut of THE NEW WORLD as well. It's really hard to find too much info about it after searching reviews of this online, even in Italian since it was released on Italian PAL DVD.

When the 40-Year Old Virgin DVD came out, I was totally disappointed. It was the first time that I actually replaced this dvd with the R-Rated Theatrical version. I'm so glad that they actually made the R-Rated version which took a while to come out. It's okay to have the choice of R or Unrated/extended on release date. But I don't like it when DVD producers don't give one a choice, especially if the "Extended" cut throws off the whole pace/flow of the theatrical cut.

there was a really good thread on this very topic a ways back...

i think it was in this forum, but i'm not sure...

thanks to the suck search algorithms used by Vbulletin (improved some on later versions btw)... and me being lazy... i don't have the link...

but there was lot of good info there... a lot of the films you mention were covered in some detail...

i don't say this be yet another 'repost police' person unnecessarily decrying threads of a similar nature... but to say there was quite a bit of good info in that other thread on 'most improved' extended and director's cut films...

the one film that i think is the most changed and improved example of them all is Sam Peckinpah's 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid'... which was a film literally butchered into a bad film, and obscurity... that becomes damn near a masterpiece in the 'Turner Classic Movies Restored Edition' edition that came out in that Peckinpah box set... i got it the day it came out... and that film is one of my favorite westerns ever... the difference is astounding... and the butchering of his film was all petty ego and studio interference crap...

a film that is really added to by the extra runtime, not much actual time in minutes of extension, but additional content that really adds considerably to the film... is 'Copland Director's Cut'...

I couldn't find that thread either, but here's the threads I did find about extended/unrated cuts in general:

What is the best Extended/director cut?
Unrated/R-rated/'alternate cut' films on DVD (Region 1 only)
Are there movies that you own the Unrated AND Rated versions?
Your most wanted 'Unrated' DVD's
unrated/extended/director's cut DVD's where you noticed no difference?
LA Times article on rated vs unrated DVD versions
Unrated vs. R rating

i saw those...

the one i mentioned went on a few pages... i posted in it several times...

we covered most of the films the OP of this thread brings up...

Daredevil's DC is far better than the theatrical.

Leatherface: TCM III is an awesome extended cut with more gore.

Jason Goes to Hell is a lot less terrible thanks to some good unrated gore footage.

King Kong (2005) is a film I love, so the extra scenes flesh out some minor characters and give us some more moments with the big ape.

Planet Terror and Death Proof are both better films with the added scenes.

The Punisher's (2004) extra footage doesn't add much more than a weak subplot to the flim and really isn't to interesting.

AVP just adds some crappy CG blood to an already weak film.

Payback is a totally different film in the DC. I think I like it slightly better than the original cut, but they're both pretty close.

i like both films a lot...

but this is sort of simlar to the thing that happened with 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid'...

the 'director's cut' release is the original movie... and the original theatrical release was actually the 2nd, or altered version...

I'm not going to lie, your list has a lot of gaps of logics in it.

A lot of the preferred cuts you mentioned are not "extended/unrated" cuts, but the director's preferred cut (with the exception of Leon: The Professional). Just like American Psycho and Robocop were originally given an NC-17 (or an X for the latter) before they had to be trimmed for theatrical release. We could have an entire thread based on those types of films alone -- and in every one, the director's cut or uncut version would win.

There is a huge difference between a director's cut and an "uncut" presentation of a film than a majority of the extended/unrated cuts that have being presented on DVD. 95% of them are just a gimmick unless it's a film that contains a lot of sex or violence.

found it...

i knew i had mentioned the "Pat Garrett ' thing in it... 'Garrett' is a pretty unique query... nailed it...

Link to other thread...

Which version are you perferring? I've seen four of them:

Original theatrical cut
Turner Preview Version
"Uncut" version
New "Director's Cut"

#3 is my favorite. It was released on LD and VHS sometime between '98-'00. In short, I always perfer a version which doesn't have the lyrics of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" being sung.

really anything besides the criminally lousy theatrical release...

i think i like the Turner Classic Movies version best...

it seems to have the best feel to it for me...

I meant for this to be theatrical vs everything else. You can lump it all together.

I believe there's 3 different versions of the film and the theatrical is the best. Stay away from the version that has an old lady Sarah Connor sitting on a bench at the end of the film.


This actually exists? lol

I like that ending best. It puts a final ending on what should have been a 2-film story.

Yes.

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I may have missed it in an earlier post, but The Abyss directors cut is far superior then the regular cut. It is an additional 28 minutes inserted into the movie, and adds a whole new subplot, which I personally like.

I felt the AVP extended cut greatly added needed exposition to flesh out the story. The theatrical version is what sunk the film.

TCM 3 - unrated - also made one murder (the sledge hammer to the head) make more sense, it was very badly edited in R-rated form.

ah, Jason Goes to Hell - one of THE goriest deaths in the entire series, released in all it's unrated goodness - the bisection scene.

both cuts of Addio Zio Tom / Goodbye Uncle Tom are utterly fascinating

The Godfather Saga

a splicing-together of the events of Godfather I and II in chronological order with deleted scenes


Quite nice when you follow that with an exquisite showing of

The Godfather, Part III

and Part II "updates"

I was having problems with re-editing the thread

Majority of the time I side with the theatrical cut. Most of the directors I like ususally get there say and the theatrical cut usually IS the directors cut. Glaring exception being "Kingdom Of Heaven".

Talladega Nights theatrical is better than the "unrated."

I've always preferred the extended cuts of Aliens and T2 to the theatricals. In fact, I saw both for the first time in these forms.

Haven't seen the US cut of Leon, but the international cut is what I've stood by since I first saw it.

Still need to watch the Final Cut of Blade Runner, but the international theatrical is definitive to me.

Watching the R-rated RoboCop is a huge step back after seeing the uncut version. Wish that the Total Recall X-rated version would show up one day...

What about Once Upon a Time in America? The theatrical cut is apparently disastrous, but the full 230-minute version is absolutely amazing.

I've also added the Kingdom of Heaven Blu director's cut after hearing the good feedback for it. Will I be able to overlook Orlando Bloom's horrendousness with this cut?

sadly I don't think we'll ever see that footage - wish that Carolco Pictures had retained the graphic scenes for the international prints. MPAA requested cuts seem to become the defacto version, when in fact such cuts should only be valid for the US release of the film, not for international distribution. The Verhoeven/Schwarzenegger commentary track on the DVD talks about the deleted carnage.

I'd like to get some feedback on Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, as I just got threw watching the theatrical version for the first time and I loved it. Unrated version much better/different?