DVD Review HTF REVIEW: "Almost Famous - Untitled - The Bootleg Cut" (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

RESPONSE TO SPOILER!!!

I also beamed over the "Stairway To Heaven" sequence. Since the music rights are unavailable, Crowe has an interesting trick up his sleeve: go find your own copy and cue it up, and then watch for the onscreen prompt. (Trust me, it's funny.) For some reason I couldn't find my copy of Led Zep IV (I think my dad has it) so I simply downloaded the MP3, and cranked it and cued the scene. HEAVEN. We watch for eight minutes as William, Anita's boyfriend, William's teacher and counsellor listen to the music. This scene would have NEVER made it into the final cut even if the music rights were cleared, but I loved it anyway.

I can't wait to see this. I'm buying this title on Friday, and I'll have my Zep IV disc ready and waiting.

 

[Tim RH]

My fave new scene from Untitled: "Where's your pubes?"

 

[Sean Cauley]

***Possible spoilers included!***
StephenT, I too noticed some apparent alternate takes, most noticeably the inflection on "No, this is not Maryann-with-the-pot." And the layer change was in a really horrible spot; I mean, right in the middle of one of the movie's most famous lines? Craazy.
Jason Whyte, I agree with your assessment that Untitled is an even better movie than the already-great Almost Famous. There are several improvements to the storytelling that come from this new cut, and I'll mention some of my top ones here:
-The fleshing out of Jimmy Fallon's character, Dennis Hope, better explains his presence through the latter part of the film. You get a much better impression that he is, in fact, very good at his job, but that he got so good by being as sleazy as he had to be.
-Penny's leaving the tour is even more heartbreaking than before (again, thanks to a new scene with Fallon's character)
-The increased presence of Anna Paquin's Polexia character, and her dialogue with William, really help to illustrate the mentality of all the Band-Aids, and suggests the sad part of that lifestyle that many viewers complained was whitewashed in the theatrical cut.
-Longer, more detailed scenes in the "young William" portion of the film helped to build the tension between Elaine and Anita (the seatbelt thing from the stationwagon scene is the best example), making the resolution of their story arc hold a lot more emotional impact than when Almost Famous premiered last year.
Since finishing Untitled, I've watched about half of the commentary version, and recommend it to all. The other Disc One supplements are pretty good, too. The Disc Two supplements are on tonight's to-do list; gotta break out my Zeppelin collection, it looks like.
(Oh, and my fave new scene is the entire arc of William's souvenirs, ending with them spilling out all over the sidewalk; his exchange with Dick here is just great.)

 

[Joseph Young]

When I first saw Almost Famous theatrically, it struck me as a film with rich characterizations and a heady - and accurate - recreation of the 70's. After seeing it a couple times, however, I did start to feel like these characters deserved more screen time. The characters in Almost Famous/Untitled are classic, compelling, and sharply drawn. With this new, longer cut of the film, everything you could hope for to flesh out the story is there. Nothing feels extemporaneous.
More Phillip Seymour Hoffman! More Mark Kozelek!
The security sticker normally pasted onto cardboard holders (as in Dr. Zhivago :frowning is attached to the outer plastic wrapping on the Untitled case. The presentation is slick and consistant, not only with the menus found therein but with the overall theme of the film.
Overall the anamorphic video is very pretty, with the exception of a couple of quick shots which look pulled from a less tidy source. This is in no way, however, distracting toward the overall effect of Untitled . Colors are sharply dispersed and I only noticed the usual film grain (and other flaws which are intensified by my very low end dvd player).
In my opinion, this is not to be compared to the usual 'ultimate edition' fiascos or other such greed-motivated double dips. This 3 disc release (2 DVDs, 1 CD) is clearly a labor of love for Cameron Crowe. He narrates many of the special features himself. This is the release that was not afforded them due to time constraints and the pressure to meet the initial release date. And besides, this film ranks as one of my favorites of the last couple years and I believe it deserves the deluxe treatment.
A wonderful DVD of a wonderful film!
:star::star::star::star: (out of 4)
Joseph

 

[Frank_W]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS ....

Well as Steven and Jason have pointed out from their

spoilers, this is exactly why I love this new version.

There are many scenes, although great in the theatrical

version, that play out with much more clarity. This

'extra' footage is not your typical 'Director Cut.' The

extra footage, either long or short, is filled in all over

to even out certain scenes and/or characters. And there is

plenty of it.

The supporting cast seemed to have a more significant role

in the new version (especially Fallon). The characters do

not seem as rushed compared to the earleir version.

..One part that has always bugged me was the scene with

Lester and Willim ending there initial conversation on

the street corner and then all of a sudden appear in a

scene in a coffee shop/diner. I could never figure out

how they say good-bye but are together again in the next

scene.

..Was Max's Kansas City known in the previous version?

This was the first time that I realized this was

the famous bar Stillwater learn they will be

on the cover of Rolling Stone.

..The extended scene outside the hotel in Miami where

they learn about the 'embarissing' story submitted to

Rolling Stone was excellent.

Also, the radiostation scene was very funny.

Well, in the end, a great movie that just got better.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

(You can even see this downconverted on standard televisions if you have Dish Network and the Dish 6000 receiver.)

Same thing if you have DirecTV and a DTC-100. In fact, you can choose between letterboxed 480i and anamorphic widescreen 480i.

 

[Richard Kim]

SPOILERS AHEAD:
I just finished watching "Untitled". I did notice the sound is pretty low. I had to increase the volume 6-7 db, just like the TPM DVD.
My favorite line from the added scenes:
"Hey Lady!"
Anyone who's seen Untitled knows what I'm talking about.

 

[VicRuiz]

I just finished watching "Untitled" as well, and this is now officially one of my favorite movies of all time. One thing I didn't remember from when I saw the original was that the Zep kid fan's name was Vic! I scanned the end credits for his full name and it was Vic Munoz. I was blown away! Now, it is an undisputed fact that Vic Ruiz is the biggest Zeppelin fan in the known universe. I have all their albums, movies, every bootleg tape I can get my hands on, and even some very rare bootleg concert videos that very few people have. But what are the chances that Cameron Crowe would choose the name for the big Zep fan in the movie to be a Vic with a Spanish last name that even sort of sounds like mine? Unreal!
Here's my "Almost Famous" moment:
Penny: "Vic is a Zeppelin fan"
(And I'm screaming: YES I AM!!!)
William: "Right, I picked that up"
Penny: "He tours with them, but not, you know, with them. There's no biggest Zeppelin fan than Vic"
(Me again: NO, THERE ISN'T!!!)
And here I'm looking at that kid (Jay Baruchel is his real name) and I'm thinking That's exactly what I would've been doing and how I would've been acting if I had been born just five years earlier. He even looks sort of how I looked at fifteen! I loved it!
The "Stairway" sequence was a hoot too, but I'm confused about something: How is it that Zep would not give permission for "Stairway" to be used, but they did for "That's The Way", "Bron-yr-Aur", "Misty Mountain Hop", "Rain Song", and "Tangerine"? It doesn't make much sense to allow some and not the other. Anyone know?
All in all, an excellent evening was had by all. I'll get to the rest of the supplemental material tomorrow. I have a feeling I'm going to be watching this DVD several times over the next few weeks.

 

[Tom Oh]

Being a classic rock fan, I'm curious to know which albums made Crowe's top 10 list. I can't wait until I get the DVD. Somebody please post. Thank you.

 

[VicRuiz]

Cameron Crowe's Top 10 Albums of 1973:

Allman Brothers - "Brothers and Sisters"

David Bowie - "Alladin Sane"

Jackson Browne - "Late For The Sky"

Bruce Springsteen - "Greetings From Asbury Park"

The Who - "Odds and Sods"

Todd Rundgren - "Something/Anything"

Elton John - "Hunky Chateau"

Led Zeppelin - "Houses of the Holy"

Joni Mitchell - "For the Roses"

The Rolling Stones - "Goat's Head Soup"

 

[Richard Kim]

Hey Vic, if you're interested, the kid who plays Vic Jay Baruchel is currently on the Fox TV series Undeclared.
SPOILERS AHEAD
As for the added scenes, the majority of them were great, but now that I think about it, there are 2 scenes that I thought were unecessary. The first is when Anita's ex boyfriend Daryl visits William's room (what the heck was that about?) The second was when Polexia says goodbye to William and tells him where she's going. This is redundant, since we hear about it later from Penny.

 

[Sean Cauley]

Richard Kim, I noticed that in Untitled, Polexia has a lot more interaction with William than in the theatrical cut. All of these conversations seem to give hints to the mindset of a goupie. I think that, were she not so preoccupied with musicians, William might be the kind of boy she'd like back at school (she did say, "If only you were taller, and rich, and British, and older, and a guitar player..."). I think the goodbye sort of wraps up this arc.
VicRuiz, with regards to the rights to "Stairway," I got the feeling that the scene was cut from Almost Famous long before the music purchases were official, and that the song was probably considered to expensive to obtain for the DVD release of Untitled. I know, as an example (and don't anyone make fun of me for knowing this :b), that the use of Warrant's "Cherry Pie" in Bring It On cost the filmmakers $40,000; when a longer version of the scene featuring it was put on the DVD, director Peyton Reed indicated that it was too expensive to use again, so a dummy track of similar tempo was included.
And on a sad note: I checked out Link Removed , per Cameron Crowe's suggestion on the commentary track, and found an update that, as of this past Sunday, Red Dog has been dismissed by the Allman Brothers Band after over thirty years of service as their roadie. With the dismissal last year of Dickey Betts, it seems some things really have changed since the time of Untitled.

 

[George Cifrancis]

Is there a list of all the easter eggs in Bootleg Cut DVD? I think I found most of them but wanted to be sure.

George

 

[Matt Birchall]

Anyone found Eric Stoltz yet?

-mwb-

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

I just got done listening to the first half hour of the audio commentary track.
Fantastic.
Judging by the commentary, Cameron Crowe is quite possibly the least pretentious and most down-to-earth director in Hollywood. In addition, he supplies some fascinating info along the way. I wouldn't have guessed the references in Untitled to the films of Francois Truffaut and Billy Wilder (although it doesn't surprise me knowing that Crowe has been a longtime admirer of Wilder). Why does Crowe suspect that the late Lester Bangs was "haunting" the movie set? What innovative technique did Fairuza Balk use to secure her role? Listen and you'll find out.
This disc is simply wonderful. I can't recommend it enough.
Link Removed

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'd seen the previous version and was absolutely floored by it. I got the AF:BC set for my birthday on the 21st, and got around to watching it last night. Wow. Even better... the extra footage didn't drag it down like I thought it would.

 

[David Von Pein]

Just watched this movie for the first time (original release; not the Boot Cut). Absolutely sensational film! Many memorable, "stays-with-you" scenes.
Did anyone else enjoy the ........
"Aircraft might be going down so I'll confess all my inner-most secrets" scene...
........as much as I did. Great, great scene IMO.
Especially....
the band member confessing his sexual preference just seconds before the turbulence stops...then the slamming of the cockpit door to silence the jubilant flight crew.
I'm surprised more people aren't upset that the HBO Making-Of isn't on the Bootleg Edition. I thought it was pretty good, with some interesting still photos included of C. Crowe when he was working for Rolling Stone mag.
WHY would they not include all extras on the SE that were on the non-SE? Seems odd.
Now....Decisions, decisions. To upgrade...or not to upgrade? The mental struggle begins.....
Golly Neds! What a terrific movie this is!!!

 

[JustinCleveland]

There is no question in my mind that, if you enjoyed the original, you must own the bootleg cut.

 

[DonRoeber]

The bootleg adds some amazing scenes to the movie, including one of my favorites: the birthday party scene.

 

[Todd Schnell]

One of my favorite films of recent years. David no doubt go for the Bootleg.

Todd