The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[Neon Ignition]

Sing 2
Mindless pap like the first film.

Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania
I'd heard that this was the final one, an attempt to round it up now that Sandler had stepped away from it. The first is solid fun, the second reasonable whilst the third was a surprisingly solid improvement on the second. This one isn't bad but it is very tired. There's a lot of weirdness you can go into with the concept but this one feels like another B-Team took it over and just reran some tired beats. Nothing offensively poor about it but yep, best to leave the franchise at this point.

[wakka]

A couple of 'Final Cuts' ... starting with The Wicker Man. Absolutely brilliant but tbh I used to love what is considered the butchered studio cut. The final cut makes more sense though ... the story does flow much better. One of my fave soundtracks too ... has me wanting to learn all the songs on guitar. Next up Apocalypse Now. Not only the final cut but the latest 4k master too which is incredible. The film looks and sounds unbelievable. The rumble of the helicopters before you can see them and the napalm attacks sound amazing. Not sure about the final cut cut though. The French plantation part is good material but breaks momentum right when you feel ready to enter the Kurtz compound. There's less time in said compound too, and I missed the daytime bits with Kurtz and Willard. But I'm nitpicking. I came to this film late, maybe only 10 years ago (always avoided watching it as I was never comfortable with the famous sacrifice - I still turn away) but it's an astonishing piece of work.

That's interesting re: The Wicker Man final cut. I hadn't heard about that. There is definitely stuff in the original cut which simply doesn't make sense (although it didn't stop me really liking it and you could even interpret it as contributing to how disorientating and unnerving it is).

I've seen the Apocalypse Now Final Cut, and here's my confession - it's the only cut of the film I've seen. Yep, I came to this very very late. Even more embarrassingly, I owned Redux on DVD and the triple disc on Blu-Ray and never got around to watching either, so bought it for THIRD time on UHD in its 'Final' format and finally watched it.

I loved it - it's an incredible film. I'm curious about the other cuts but from what I've read it seems like Final is a good balance - Redux I believe has a lot more plantation? I agree it kills the pacing, although it's a cool segment. You can see why it was removed from the theatrical however.

EDIT: Just had a further peek into the status of Wicker Man cuts and it looks like the 'final' cut dropped in 2013 and is about 92 minutes in length. However there is a school of thought that the 99/102 minute cut (opinion seems divided over which length it is?!), which features some workprint elements and was the original VHS 'Director's Cut', is still the most complete one. This was seemingly last issued as the second disc of an Anchor Bay DVD in 2001 and seems fairly widely available second hand for a cheap price.

Going to do a bit more research into which to watch as I really fancy seeing this again, haven't watched it since I was a kid and it's always stuck with me.

[QualityChimp]

I find the different cuts of films quite interesting.

I used to be of the mindset that longer cuts were always better, but these days, I'm a little more flexible.

Like Aliens. The extra scenes are cool, but I find that opening section reduces the tension of when the marines arrive as we've seen it.
Watched an extra on Endgame and the characters all kneel in respect at the end, but it was cut to make the funeral scene more poignant.
The chumming scene in Jaws made audiences jump more in test screenings, but less when they added the decapitated head at the start.

I sat down to watch one of the three cuts of Dawn of the Dead on Prime, but realised I've overwatched it and couldn't face it, even for 12 minutes (or something) of replaced scenes and a different score.

I'm glad these options are available, I'm just saying that sometimes it's interesting to see a different cut to see how the original one worked better.

Anyway, I saw a few bits over the weekend. Kids had the Hotel Transylvania 4 (Prime) on and Croods 2 (NowTV) on in the other room and I could hear what was happening, but can't claim I "watched" them.

I did, however, watch The Lion King (Disney+) for the first time, because I wanted to watch something with my daughter and it's on my "100 films" poster! I mean, I've heard most the soundtrack over the years and I knew the story, but it was lovely to see that old-skool animation so beautifully drawn. The fantasy section in "Just Can't Wait To Be King" is particularly lush.

Another one for the poster and some prep for when we visit Florida is a cheeky low-budget film called Star Wars (Blu-Ray).
First time seeing it since they broke them and rereleased them at the cinema!
Interesting to see how my son coped with it. The pacing is a lot slower than kids are used to today and he was a bit more fidgety when he's normally a good watcher.
As for me, it was lovely to see again, especially with such a crisp print (rather than VHS recorded from ITV with adverts).
I'd forgotten what a whiny bastard Threepio is ("C-3PO constantly complains about everything. A perfect Star Wars fan.").

Tying in with my earlier discussion of different cuts, I definitely think this benefits from some of the tinkering but a lot of it sucks.
The Jabba scene is unnecessary as he works better as an unknown threat, it breaks the pacing of trying to leave Mos Eisly and that dated noughties CGI makes him look like a videogame slug.
The bit where Han steps on his tail - just because they can, they never stopped to ask if they should.
It makes him aggressive to Jabba, when he's actually scared and it's not in the original scene, he just walks behind him.
Greedo never shot first.
Stormtrooper head bonk sound effect is unnecessary.

We also watched The Empire Strikes Back (Blu-Ray).
Again, first viewing since the cinema rerelease.
A lot less fiddling here and I actually love the stop-frame animation of the tauntons and AT-ATs.
Aside from that and the obvious puppetry of Yoda (which adds to his charm, IMHO), the film has aged so brilliantly.
Thought my son didn't know the Darth twist, but it's kinda hard to avoid such a major pop culture reference.
I particularly enjoyed the Hoth scenes.

Just Jedi to go, then BttF.
It's not streaming anywhere at the minute.
Another tick for fans of physical media!

[Dogg Thang]

Like Aliens. The extra scenes are cool, but I find that opening section reduces the tension of when the marines arrive as we've seen it.

Aliens for me fundamentally breaks the flow of the film because, in the theatrical cut, we are on a very clear journey through Ripley and her encounters open up that point of view as we cut to other characters. But the opening stuff has no way in. It's entirely separate and unconnected. I can see totally why it was cut. The gun turret part is fine but I can see why it was cut for flow - it's extraneous.

It is very rare that I see an extended cut that I feel is actually better. Scenes are rarely cut from a movie on a whim and so, usually, there are strong editing reasons why cuts are what they are. Often the commentary on cut scenes is interesting because you get to hear exactly why they didn't make it in.

[QualityChimp]

Aliens for me fundamentally breaks the flow of the film because, in the theatrical cut, we are on a very clear journey through Ripley and her encounters open up that point of view as we cut to other characters. But the opening stuff has no way in. It's entirely separate and unconnected. I can see totally why it was cut. The gun turret part is fine but I can see why it was cut for flow - it's extraneous.

Love the turret scene (watching a digital countdown has never been so thrilling, even microwaving popcorn) and "Ellen" "Dwayne", but that opening scene with Captain Hollister of the Jupiter Mining Corporation is, on reflection, TMI.

It is very rare that I see an extended cut that I feel is actually better. Scenes are rarely cut from a movie on a whim and so, usually, there are strong editing reasons why cuts are what they are. Often the commentary on cut scenes is interesting because you get to hear exactly why they didn't make it in.

I was thinking about The Warriors. That was an instabuy because I love the film and relished the opportunity to watch an extended version, but the animated sections add nothing, instead they detract from the film. So much so that I've never bothered to watch it again as the disc offers no theatrical cut.

I was hoping that cut Endgame sequence had a commentary to explain why it was cut, but I had to Google it. Having commentary on top is, I agree, interesting to hear the decisions.

[wakka]

Yep, I'm with you both. Every time I watch an extended cut I go 'Oh yeah, I can see why that was cut'. It's like with Apocalypse Now. I knew that the plantation had been entirely cut from the theatrical and having watched the Final Cut I was thinking 'Oh, yeah, well, that makes sense'.

The very nadir of the extended cut is, of course, the extended cut of a comedy. Stuff that wasn't funny, reinserted!

I'm struggling to think of an example of where I do prefer an extended cut to be honest, but I'm definitely intrigued to watch an extended version of The Wicker Man simply because having watched that a few time as a kid on VHS, I remember discussing with my brother how there were these non-sequiturs and nonsensical bits. So there's always been a feeling with that film, for me, that there are elements actively missing from the version I've seen.

[Dogg Thang]

I was thinking about The Warriors. That was an instabuy because I love the film and relished the opportunity to watch an extended version, but the animated sections add nothing, instead they detract from the film. So much so that I've never bothered to watch it again as the disc offers no theatrical cut.

Yep, they add nothing at all.

I remember feeling bad for the director of Donnie Darko. That film's release was basically scuppered by 9/11. When it came out on DVD, it featured a bunch of deleted scenes with commentary from the director outlining why they didn't fit and the movie was better without them. But because of the release problems, they later wanted to bring it back to cinemas properly and, to justify that, put a bunch of those scenes back in and called it a Director's Cut. I get why they did it and I think that movie deserved another shot in the cinema but I knew the director did not want those scenes in the movie.

And that's the thing - with only a handful of exceptions, extended cuts are usually a marketing tool rather than a creative endeavour.

[wakka]

I remember being so excited about the concept of 'Deleted scenes' when I first had access to DVDs (on my PS2). Imagine the wonders that awaited on the cutting room floor!

Watched 'em. Yep. Totally boring. And that's why they were cut

[QualityChimp]

I think it's distinguishing that different cuts of films may not add something, but an opportunity to explore further the films you like.

The choices are always quite interesting. "Brazil" having a happier ending in the US, Blade Runner changed for various reasons of Replicant explanation, Superman II because of a Director change and so on.

The Film Stories podcast is good at talking about the stories behind the films.

I'm just saying I've adjusted my personal stance of "the longer cut is always better" and made it a film-by-film judgement.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, some are just curiosities, such as the Superman II example. The film was never meant to be seen like that. Same with things like the work cut of Alien3. Really interesting to watch but that was never going to be the movie and it wasn't intended to be the movie. So yeah, I agree. Once you've seen the movie, the extended cuts are often interesting to watch even if they don't actually make for a better movie.

[wakka]

I watched Wrong Turn, the new one from last year, which I think is technically Wrong Turn 7. But it's a reboot, anyway, with a new story and characters.

I haven't seen a Wrong Turn before, although I'm reliably informed this one hews pretty closely to the first one and essentially retells the same basic story with new characters in a new way.

The premise: 5 selfie-taking, smartphone-toting, wisecrack-making hipster twentysomethings head into the woods for a pleasant weekend's hiking. But there's a spooky community of strange folks out there who aren't too happy about being disturbed. Booby traps and gory kills galore and before you know it you're three teens down and there's still no phone reception. "We just need to get off this ****ing mountain!!" they wail, repeatedly, to no avail. Bless 'em.

No prizes for originality here, but this is a really fun slasher I can totally recommend for an easy unchallenging weekend watch (provided your idea of easy watching includes seeing people impaled on spikes).

You could pick holes in it all day, of course, and there's plenty of complete silliness (for people who've lived in the woods for generations, some of the baddies have certainly got trendy haircuts), but on the whole it's very slickly executed. I had a blast watching it on Saturday night.

You can find it on Netflix

[QualityChimp]

I watched Wrong Turn, the new one from last year, which I think is technically Wrong Turn 7. But it's a reboot, anyway, with a new story and characters.

I haven't seen a Wrong Turn before, although I'm reliably informed this one hews pretty closely to the first one and essentially retells the same basic story with new characters in a new way.

The premise: 5 selfie-taking, smartphone-toting, wisecrack-making hipster twentysomethings head into the woods for a pleasant weekend's hiking. But there's a spooky community of strange folks out there who aren't too happy about being disturbed. Booby traps and gory kills galore and before you know it you're three teens down and there's still no phone reception. "We just need to get off this ****ing mountain!!" they wail, repeatedly, to no avail. Bless 'em.

No prizes for originality here, but this is a really fun slasher I can totally recommend for an easy unchallenging weekend watch (provided your idea of easy watching includes seeing people impaled on spikes).

You could pick holes in it all day, of course, and there's plenty of complete silliness (for people who've lived in the woods for generations, some of the baddies have certainly got trendy haircuts), but on the whole it's very slickly executed. I had a blast watching it on Saturday night.

You can find it on Netflix

You'd think with 7 wrong turns they'd have gone in a full circle and returned safely home by now.
Maybe if they'd have take a left at Albuquerque?

[Atticus]

Just had a further peek into the status of Wicker Man cuts and it looks like the 'final' cut dropped in 2013 and is about 92 minutes in length. However there is a school of thought that the 99/102 minute cut (opinion seems divided over which length it is?!), which features some workprint elements and was the original VHS 'Director's Cut', is still the most complete one. This was seemingly last issued as the second disc of an Anchor Bay DVD in 2001 and seems fairly widely available second hand for a cheap price.

Going to do a bit more research into which to watch as I really fancy seeing this again, haven't watched it since I was a kid and it's always stuck with me.

I’ve seen all 3 cuts: theatrical, director’s and final, in that order.

There are two factors which take the theatrical version away from its intended form. There’s cut material and there’s a whole re-edit moving story elements into a different order. The directors cut sorts both issues but the extra footage is very poor quality (the original stock went into landfill and only Roger Corman had a ‘copy’ of the original cut). The final cut places the correct scenes in order but relies less on the ropey original footage. I actually prefer the tighter cuts. The dc spends unnecessary time on the mainland at the beginning for starters … the music changing in flight tells us all we need to know

[wakka]

Good guidance. I'd kinda like to watch both actually, as it's such a cool film. I think I will start with the final cut based on what you've said above

Would it be correct to say that this set includes all three cuts (the 'Director's Cut' being the longer one with workprint footage?):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wicker-Man-3-Disc-Anniversary-Blu-ray/dp/B00E5BTJGG/ref=asc_df_B00E5BTJGG/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310739652840&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13226262130501468640&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045882&hvtargid=pla-557232464559&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

Is this set how you watched the final cut?

[Dogg Thang]

Which is the one with the bees?!