cerveza_fiesta;309643 said:
As for riddick, I'll say the theatrical version is dumb as a post. The director's cut contains 15 crucial minutes of backstory that make the ENTIRE FRACKING MOVIE make sense. In those 15 minutes are the furion story, Riddick's motivation for wanting to kill the Lord Marshal, the Lord Marshal's reason for wanting to kill riddick, The reason Vacko didn't kill Ridick on the landing strip on Crematoria and a cool part of one of the action scenes. They could have cut so much other stuff...I never get why the theatrical version took so much away from the story.
SO ALL OF YOU SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTHS ABOUT RIDDICK
That movie is awesome *cries shamelessly to self*
You know Riddick was on TV a few days back and I started watching it, and as it went along, I would think, "hmm, I dont recall seeing that little scene before", or "I'm sure this scene was shorter when i saw this." So I guessed I was watching some kind of director's cut. Whats funny is that its not hugely different - you say they cut 15 minutes and I guess all these snippets probably add up to that much, but I have to say, the story did seem to be a whole lot more interesting than I remembered it being.
I still maintain Riddick is the best Sword & Sorcery movie ever made. Sure it has spaceships and laser guns, but at heart Riddick is Conan. Its very, very different from the first movie.
As for Thin Red Line - its an odd duck, particularly since its climatic scene [taking the village] happens about half way through the movie. It feels like everything that follows is an anticlimax. The large cast and the refusal to stick to the usual 'band of heroes' storyline is also unusual. Its obvious that the director had some trouble in making his movie come together. The original cut was five hours long. One of the pivotal characters was played by Adrian Brody who was almost entirely chopped out of the movie in the final cut (he is left with a couple of lines of dialogue). Originally Billy Bob Thornton also had a significant role and he provided 3 hours of narration - he was also dropped from the final cut. Other actors whose parts were completely cut out of the final version include Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Viggo Mortenson and Mickey Rourke!
As for George Clooney, apparently the studio made it a condition of funding the movie that he be in it, so he was given a minor role which was milked by the marketing people for all it was worth. As it so happens, I thought his cameo is very effective.
For all its problems, I liked Thin Red Line a whole lot. Its flawed, its a mess, its confused, but its brilliantly flawed.