Accidental Spy Butchery Official Severity (It's bad people) (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Kleist]

21 FREAKING MINUTES CUT!

Anamorphic 2.35:1, English and French 5.1 tracks is all we get.

Original runtime 108min
Disney Butchery-87min

WHEN WILL IT END!?!?!?!

This is official off of Buena Vista's retailer web site

Boy, I'm glad I have my nice R0 disc, sure the transfer isn't the best, but at least it's the entire movie. And who knows what they did to the Anthrax-2 area of the plot.

 

[Chad Parks]

Wow, that's pretty bad. I assumed after Iron Monkey maybe they had learned their lesson, but with this (and Shaolin Soccer and Legend of Zu) it's clear that they do not care about these films AT ALL.

 

[MartinTeller]

Typical. I'll hold on to my VCD.

Region 1 Jackie Chan cuts:
Armour of God - 8 minutes
Armour of God 2 - 16 minutes
Crime Story - 2 minutes
Gorgeous - 22 minutes
Mr. Nice Guy - 11 minutes
Police Story 3 - 4 minutes
Police Story 4 - 23 minutes
Rumble in the Bronx - 24 minutes
Twin Dragons - 15 minutes
Who Am I? - 12 minutes
Young Master - 11 minutes

 

[Matthew Brown]

If this was a French film, people would be up in arms!

This is typical of Miramax, Newline and occasionally Columbia.

ACCIDENTAL SPY, like ZU WARRIORS, bombed with test screenings. This is why the theatrical release was cancelled.



Matt

 

[Michael St. Clair]

If this was a French film, people would be up in arms!

So why aren't they?

I'm serious. I'm pissed, but why does the average person not know or not care?

 

[Matthew Brown]

Michael -
People know, and care.
http://www.hkfilm.net/disney/index.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/warthkf/petition.html
Unfortuneately, Miramax doesn't. This issue has been around for a while but it came to a head months ago when Miramax cracked down on the sale of import DVD's of titles they claim rights to. I even did an interview for msnbc.com on the subject. Sadly, most if not all major DVD web sites have considered this "just another petition" and have never mentioned it or why it was created, despite being asked politely for a brief mention.
I have been told months ago that the online petition is being monitored by Disney, yet they haven't said a word. That is why I fully believe that any petition sent to Miramax, or Disney, whether it be cutting of films or aspect ratio, has little bearing on their policy. Their response was to release butchered versions of ACCIDENTAL SPY and ZU WARRIORS as well as change SHAOLIN SOCCER for it's release.
Miramax changes the story content, throws out the score and original soundtracks, and they get away with it. The biggest problem is that they seek to keep the originals from being purchased in the US. They are even buying Asian movie titles just to keep the originals from diluting their market.
Matt

 

[Will K]

I've never really paid much attention to Hong Kong films, but I will now. MY GOD this is horrifying! I'll be adding my support to the cause. Sheesh!

 

[Carlo_M]

Harvey Scissorhands strikes again!
I still haven't forgiven him and Miramax for the severe cutting of Malena!

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Just watched my unbutchered Shall We Dance VCD again tonight
Gee, it's so much better with those 20 unimportant minutes!
Most of these titles are R0 that Miramax is butchering. Feel free to use an HK retailer like http://www.dddhouse.com to order the good versions.
Be sure to send Miramax a nice F U letter every time you buy one

 

[DonaldB]

While I'm not interested in this film or most of the others that have been altered, I do share your outrage and incomprehension over this matter. It boggles the mind that Disney must think it's doing us a service by not presenting these films as originally intended.

 

[Chris Xolotl]

Jeff: I think you are overreacting. They probably just cut the character developement, story development and any worthwhile character interactions. No big deal
BTW, I just ordered a couple more Accidental Spys (Universe) for $9 from HVZ and am giving them out to my buddies.
And this domestic US release is only in English or French? WTF? I guess they think no one has the capacity to hear everyone speak in their native language (we all might get confused?) The dts track on the HK release was superb and aggressive (unlike some bogus dts tracks I've heard)

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Miramax has NEVER included the OSL tracks because they don't feel like editing them to match their genocide on the movie.

 

[Matthew Brown]

Since Buena Vista has rights to THE KILLER and HARD BOILED, it will be interesting to see what they do to these. Even if they are anamorphic, I won't buy them unless they are uncut and un-altered. If these get botched, the Criterions will double their value.
At least Hong Kong Legends has the rights to the KILLER.

The only reason I can think of as to why more people don't care is because when they think of Asian films they think of the badly dubbed 70's moves and maybe they feel this is the intended way of seeing them. When I mention a Hong Kong film to people they always break into a bad impersonation of that guy from POLICE ACADEMY. For some reason, there IS a double standard.

Miramax also makes no mention that these films are altered on the DVD cases or on the DVD. If you purchased a Miramx DVD, you would never know that the movie has been altered. This is misrepresentation. It should be illegal.

IRON MONKEY is almost 9 years old and they market it like it's a rip off of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. They are throwing out the history of these movies and claiming them as new.

Matt

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

I also think with these movies, most people are so used to getting ripped off, it's become habit.
Also, I suspect the studios simply do not take the movies seriously, and they probably think their audience for the most part don't take them seriously either. Even if they are aware some fans do take them seriously, they believe the largest part of the audience don't care and perceive them as silly action movies, so they cut out as much as possible.

 

[Peter Kim]

Yeah, my enmity for Disney/Miramax knows no end. 21 minutes...I feel like throwing up (on those fucking studio bastards. I've never used this pejorative before, but come on!!!...21 minutes cut???!!!).

On the subject of VCD. What is it? And will it play in my DVD player (either stand-alone or iMac)? What about picture quality...poor sub for dvd? Thanks for insight.

and 20 minutes cut from Shall We Dance? What kind of mind-control megalomaniacs are running the show?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

VCD is basically a kludge of the audio CD format. MPEG-1 video is crammed onto a CD at 150KBps at 352x480 resolution
It looks...OK, better than the alternatives for Shall we Dance and Fist of Legend (oh wait, Miramax hasn't put out SWD on DVD!)
The official HK DVD of Accidental Spy is R0, and should run you under $15 shipped from http://www.dddhouse.com. The transfer is a little spotty and non-anamorphic, but OSL is intact (AS is actually a hybrid English/Cantonese movie, it's hilarious to hear some of the horrible (probably on purpose) English dialogue "Gimme the thing!" "What thing?" "Gimme the THING!" "I don't know what thing!" )

 

[Chuck Esola]

I think there's about a zero chance of either of these films being released uncut by Disney. Besides their basic tendency to hack up every Hong Kong film they own, Disney has a policy of not releasing unrated or NC-17 rated material. I'm sure that both THE KILLER and HARD BOILED are much too violent to qualify for an R.

Thanks for the heads up about ACCIDENTAL SPY. I'll be ordering the unmutilated version from DDD House.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I think there's about a zero chance of either of these films being released uncut by Disney. Besides their basic tendency to hack up every Hong Kong film they own, Disney has a policy of not releasing unrated or NC-17 rated material. I'm sure that both THE KILLER and HARD BOILED are much too violent to qualify for an R.

I'm pretty sure the version of 'Hard Boiled' that I saw in the theater before it was released on even laserdisc was indeed rated 'R'. Not sure about 'The Killer'.

 

[Matthew Brown]

Buena Vista also has BULLET IN THE HEAD. At least HONG KONG LEGENDS has that and THE KILLER.

John Woo's greatest films are in the hands of Miramax. Just think about that for a moment. One of Hong Kong's greatest director's is going to get pissed on by Miramax.

Just for the record, when I was interviewed by MSNBC, the reporter asked Miramax for their official response. Miramax said "all the changes on its films are made with the approval of the movies’ stars or directors. “Some of the changes are to update the film, some to streamline the film and some to clarify the narrative,”

Don't you go to Hell for lying?

Michael -
There are two versions of HARD BOILED around. One version is slightly cut. This may have been the R version you have seen.

Matt

 

[Kaima]

Maybe it'll be a better movie now. I'm asian and my mother rents a lot of asian movies and I hated everyone of them even Rumble in the Bronx because it is too long (it was close to 2.5 hours) and some scenes have nothing to do with the story and it really slows the movie down.

Most Comedy Action movies seems to have an A and a B story in it much like a sitcom. I rather have them cut out the B story to move the A story along.

I find the re-released movies in the US a much better version than what I saw on tape of the Taiwan release.

This is why I'm willing to watch the US release of the Accidental Spy.

Off topic: I never seen Legends (Tom Cruise) before until I read the review and gave it a shot. I saw the director's cut and after 40 mintues I stopped it and returned the DVD to Netflix. The movie seemed to go nowhere after 30 minutes. I wished I watched the shorter version instead.