Six Director's Cuts or Expanded Editions That Are Inferior to Their Theatrical Cuts
Zodiac
Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001): A temporarily whimsical Willard stealing Kilgore's prized surfboard, the stranded Playboy bunnies offering their bodies for fuel, the lengthy French plantation scene, etc.--turns out even the psychologically fried Francis Ford Coppola of 1979 was right to chop 'em from his 'Nam behemoth. But at least he's decent enough to still offer the original in addition to the flaccid Redux.
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982/2002): Like pal George Lucas' late-'90s Star Wars updates, Steven Spielberg's attempt to drag his old phenom into the age of CGI is unsightly and distressingly insecure. Memo to wildly successful filmmakers: Films get dated. Deal.
Cinema Paradiso (1989/2002): Adding a half-hour to the international cut (and nearly an hour to the American), Giuseppe Tornatore's moony drama about a young rural boy and his aging projectionist friend somehow found more ways to sadistically extract tears.
Pretty Woman (1990/2000): Er, why, of all movies, does Garry Marshall's fluffy take on what was initially supposed to be an immensely dark drama about a coke-addicted prostitute need an extra handful of minutes? Hands off The Other Sister, Garry!
Donnie Darko (2001/2004): The first sign Richard Kelly really ought not be allowed free rein to fulfill his visions, this cash-in on his debut's belated DVD success revived all the awful, wisely axed scenes from the original disc. Perhaps more egregiously, he changed the opening song from the brilliantly used "The Killing Moon" to his original choice, the rights-troubled "Never Tear Us Apart," not realizing he was right the second time.
Zodiac (2007/2008): We wait six months after the initial bare-bones DVD and all you can give us, David Fincher, is an additional eight minutes? Where's the eight-hour cut featuring several avalanches of additional facts, false leads and dead ends?
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