Eric D. Snider

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Archive for August 7th, 2007

There’s usually a good reason they were deleted

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty has a great interview with Matt Damon in the current issue. Damon comes off the way he always has: likable, funny, and level-headed.

In particular, I love what he says about deleted scenes on DVDs. He’s talking about the stuff they cut out of “The Bourne Ultimatum” specifically, but it applies to most movies’ deleted scenes:

Will we get to see them on the DVD?

Never. To me, that’s like walking into a room holding a pile of s— and saying “Look what I almost stepped in!”

That’s a perfect analogy. You had to good sense not to make the mistake — and then you negated that good sense by showing it to everyone anyway.

There are exceptions, of course. In general, a comedy that was made with a lot of improvisation is bound to have plenty of great stuff that had to be cut purely for time and story concerns. Hence, the “Waiting for Guffman” deleted scenes are brilliant; the Will Ferrell comedies tend to have a lot of good leftovers; I anticipate plenty of “Knocked Up” bonuses.

Do you have any favorite deleted scenes that you’ve discovered on DVD? Or do you feel like in most cases, the filmmakers should probably leave that pile of s— outside and be glad they were smart enough not to step in it?

Once a pun a time

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

An update on the situation with the movies that have pun titles: After I mentioned it last week (prompted by “Who’s Your Caddy?”), several readers pointed out some films that use this sort of wordplay. Here’s what they came up with:

“Octopussy”
“The Aristocats”
“The Nightmare Before Christmas”
“Dead & Breakfast”
“Lucky Number Slevin”
“My, Myself, & Irene”
“Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous”
“The Work and the Story” (referencing “The Work and the Glory,” a series of Mormon historical-fiction novels)
“The Beautician and the Beast”
“Adam & Steve”
“Juwanna Mann”
“The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas”
“Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde”

On my own I remembered “Blacula” (the black version of “Dracula”) and “Shanghai Noon” (variation of “High Noon”).

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