Two Director’s Cuts well worth watching

I thought I’d mention a couple of my favorite films that have been released as good director’s cut versions.

Lèon (The Professional), Luc Besson’s Hollywood debut about the seclusive hitman Léon (Jean Reno), who reluctantly takes care of 12-year-old Mathilda (Nathalie Portman) after her family was killed, was cut down after a supposedly disastrous test preview. I suppose Besson’s story was a bit “too European” for theatre release, but I think the “International Version” is well worth watching, at least for anyone who doesn’t get upset when art makes even the slightest approach towards uncomfortable subjects.

Leon – The Professional (Uncut International Version) (at Amazon.com)
Leon [1995] (at Amazon.co.uk/not sure if this is the uncut edition, only British release I could find)

Once Upon a Time in America is in my opinion Sergio Leone’s magnum opus and one of the best gangster movies ever made, maybe even the best. This gritty tale about Jewish prohibition-era gangsters also contains strong and “inapproiate” scenes, but another reason was probably the runtime – the director’s cut is nearly four hours long. That may have been a bit too much for many theatre goers, but with the DVD you can have as many intermissions as you like. It was quite some time since I saw the original cut, but I’d say the longer version fills in quite a few blanks.

Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition) (at Amazon.com)
Once Upon A Time In America [1984] (at Amazon.co.uk)

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October 16, 2005 at 10:38 pm · Filed under Entertainment & Culture, Movies & TV

Lost

Today, I’m a bit excited. Over a television show, of all things, but I must admit that I’m seriously hooked on Lost, and tonight TV4 will begin airing season two of Lost in Sweden. And this time with only a couple of weeks delay after the original U.S. airing. Must be some sort of a record for a major drama series. The networks here usually seem to wait and see what gets the best ratings before aquiring new series, so they usually take a while to show up, and then they keep with that time of year for the following seasons.

The first season of Lost started in spring, then TV4 comitted the terrible crime of a three month summer break before the last seven episodes (the last episode was actually aired last week here), but I guess they deserve some kudos for breaking the trend and catching up with the ABC transmissions. It’s really a pain in the rear to see online discussions about the end of a series when you’re only somewhere in the middle of the beginning due to the lag.

Now let’s jsut hope that this season is good as well, and that they end the series before it declines too much. I’d hate to see the 2007 series beginning with another plane crashing on the island just to keep things going…

Lost – The Complete First Season (at Amazon.com)
Lost: Season 1 – Part 1 (at Amazon.co.uk)

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October 12, 2005 at 12:55 pm · Filed under Entertainment & Culture, Movies & TV

24 more hours

So, the fourth season of 24 has made its way to Swedish TV-screens. Actually I just saw the rerun tonight, the first episode was last Sunday, but I didn’t know they had started showing it (certainly not as much promotion as earlier seasons) and I was too busy finishing setting this site up to bother about the TV schedule.

I consider the first season to be something of the best that has ever happened to my TV. The second season was good, even though the novelty of the “real-time” format started to wear off. I watched every episode of the third season as well, the decline went on but still watchable compared to most of the tripe on TV.

I’d say the first episode went on according to the formula: Jack Bauer fired from CTU, but of course his new job gives him a reason for being there exactly at the right moment, so that he could be his typical self by breaking in to an interrogation room, shoot a suspect in the leg and get the information about the strike planned minutes later. This is of course directed against Bauer’s new boss, the Secretary of Defense, who gets kidnapped toghether with his daughter. That same daughter is also Jack’s new lover…

I must say that I failed, utterly, to be surprised by those events. But I’ll probably end up watching the whole series anyway. There’s not much else to see on Sundays, and its on 15 minutes after Mythbusters ends on Discovery.

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October 2, 2005 at 12:00 am · Filed under Entertainment & Culture, Movies & TV