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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Film Die Harder, Die Longer

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 3:31 PM

Brendon Connelly at British pop culture site Bleeding Cool informs us that A Good Day to Die Hard director John Moore has announced that he's already working on the director's cut of his movie, which is still in theaters:

There aren’t any details of what the cut will comprise, other than a 30% expansion for the car chase sequence. It already runs for something like 20 minutes, I believe...Moore says his cut will be “substantially longer” though I don’t have any idea what that means in real terms. I expect it may be ready in time for the film’s DVD and Blu-ray release and if it is, I doubt we’ll ever see the uncut theatrical version in the UK, with this Director’s Cut leapfrogging it. Might be for the best.

When I wrote about A Good Day to Die Hard, I placed all the blame for Good Day on Moore's direction. It's a movie full of bad directorial choices. It seems to me that people who paid money to see this movie should feel ripped off that the director's cut is coming so soon. That indicates that Moore doesn't have any confidence in the movie he released. And if Moore is talking about releasing the director's cut in time for DVD and international release, that also indicates the studio knows it released a piece of crap movie.

On the other hand, nothing in Good Day indicates that Moore understands how to direct a movie. This leads me to believe that his "substantially longer" director's cut is simply going to be more bullshit stuffed into the same bag.

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"I paid money to see a movie even though it got 16% at Rottentomatoes. But then I heard the director is redoing some shit and NOW I feel ripped off."

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on February 27, 2013 at 4:14 PM

"Director's Cut" usually doesn't really mean "the director's preferred vision of a movie that the studio butchered" anymore, now it just means "slightly extended version to lure you into watching the movie again".

Posted by rejemy on February 27, 2013 at 4:24 PM

@2 - Even if it did mean something, it's hard to think of a "director's" version of a film that was better than what the original editor assembled*.

*You could guess Blade Runner is an exception, but I'm not really clear on who-wanted-what between the workprint versions and what finally became the DVD—it is clear they're all better than the original theatrical release, at least.

Posted by Dougsf on February 27, 2013 at 4:37 PM

I always though it sad when in a rock video, the band gets so old that they no longer get the chicks themselves, they just sing and then help some other guy get laid. That's how the last Die Hard, and how this one sounds.

The only cool thing about Live Free or Die Hard was the fire sale. Which becomes more likely as we build Google Cars and the Internet of Things. The chase on the spiral overpasses wuz also k.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on February 27, 2013 at 6:53 PM

Movies are often released with a different edit in the theater and on DVD. Scenes which were cut for content to get a desired rating or scenes which were cut for time to get a desired length are restored. I don't know which version should be considered the official version.

Really this is nothing new. Many movies are edited for overseas distribution. In the past movies could be released first run with a dolby soundtrack and then edited for a second run with a stereo or mono soundtrack. Some movies had different versions released on HBO or for broadcast or home video release.

Posted by fletc3her on February 27, 2013 at 7:53 PM