American Gangster Extended Edition (1 Viewer)

[Brett_M]

Has anyone seen this version? I'd love a brief review.

I enjoyed the film but there was something missing for me, something missing that keeps it out of "excellent" territory.

Is the extended treatment akin to that of Kingdom of Heaven, albeit with only an extra 18 minutes?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

No, the longer cut doesn't improve the flick ala KOH. There's an extended ending that stands out as different but the rest of it was tough for me to notice as extra footage. I saw the film theatrically and couldn't tell what was new most of the time.

IMO, both cuts of the film are about the same in terms of quality/impact, though I like the theatrical version's ending better...

 

[Brett_M]

Thanks, Colin.

 

[Nathan V]

Exactly, the extended cut is just an extended cut, not a director's cut like KOH. Both cuts are on both DVDs. DVDTalk says the extended scenes, aside from being extraneous, are not color-corrected to the standards of the rest of the movie. DVDBeaver however, much more reliable on such matters, makes no such statement regarding image quality. Either way I'll be picking this up- the Making of is supposedly fantastic to boot. Very underrated picture- it's subtly different in ways that end up making it very different from other similar films. Ridley's so good that when he turns in another great movie, people shrug their shoulders. If you like Ridley, and are interested in the subject matter, you'll dig it.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[ErichH]

Extended scenes. Nothing that adds to the story.

 

[oscar_merkx]

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[Brett_M]

Thanks everyone for answering. I'll pick it up later when the price goes down.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

OK, so I just rented the disc, but haven't seen the film at all -- am I better off watching the theatrical or extended version?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I prefer the theatrical version...

 

[Kevin EK]

I also caught the note about the Extended cut not being color corrected, but I didn't notice anything like that, or I would have said so in my review. I think what that reviewer was seeing was one of the first extended sequences is a beach flashback with Bumpy Johnson that is very bright. But I didn't think that was an issue of color correction.

I believe the chase into New York was also extended a bit, and yes, the ending goes on for another few minutes, but it really doesn't add anything substantial to the proceedings.

I totally understand where Scott was coming from in trying to circumvent the pirates by putting the longer cut out. I think he was right to try to do something. On the other hand, the usual Charles de Lauzirika documentary and good extras also go a long way toward providing extra value. And I wouldn't be surprised to see that people are already trying to pirate the extended cut as well. Those guys are relentless.

I also agree with Nathan that this is a subtle and effective film. Keep in mind that it's not a really flashy film as people probably expected from Scott. But it's consistent with the story and the characters that it's more understated and muted. Frank Lucas rarely did anything flashy, and when he did, he regretted it.

Finally, I'm going to do the unthinkable and recommend anyone interested to my review here. (You can find it on the 2nd or 3rd page now, or just go up to the Software Review section) I didn't itemize the Extended Cut differences, but I gave the best summary I could of what's on the disc. Sam Posten has a review up on the HD-DVD combo disc in the Hi-Def section, too.