Ali: Director's Expanded Edtion - Region 1

William Shatners Wig · 17-03-2004, 10:55

Columbia Tristar are to release Ali: Director's Expanded Edition on June 1st. The movie will be a never before seen director approved 165min (6mins extra) cut presented with an anamorphic widescreen transfer and DD5.1 English audio.
Extra features will include a brand new director's audio commentary and a making-of documentary.

You can find the full article (with cover art) here.

What with the recent / upcoming extended releases of Wild Things Unrated, Underworld Uncut, Booty Call Bootiest, The Animal Uncut and The New Guy Director's Cut, it looks as if this is going to be a regular thing with Tristar.

john316 · 17-03-2004, 11:00

CT are the worst for re-releases IMO - so many different ones appear under different banners that its a nightmare for consumers to keep up with.

Guest 9392 · 17-03-2004, 11:22

This'll probably be worth a purchase because the original release never had a director's commentary with it.

Niceguygeoff · 17-03-2004, 15:34

I've been waiting for a decent R1 release of Ali for quite a while - hopefully this new DVD will be worth it.

Guest 31331 · 17-03-2004, 18:18

CT are a bunch of [...] this is really getting on my nerves. I know I don't HAVE to buy it but still. when you like a film it's not really fair. are we really supposed to wait a year before we buy any DVD??

Mind you the original release was in may 2002, so it's not that bad.

Gregg1978 · 17-03-2004, 18:46

They part of the whole "RCE" gang as well.

Guest 31331 · 17-03-2004, 18:52

I thought RCE was dead?
not as in not present anymore but as in players don't care anymore.

Guest 33484 · 17-03-2004, 21:38

I heard about this release back in August from Mann himself.

I do hate how studios re-release films as extended cuts - the theatrical version is the version, nothing else; that is the version after all that the director and editor both lock as being the film artistically, so why change it later down the line? In ways I hate the LOTR EEs as they mean that there is an unneeded question over which version is the intended one. It should be the original one, i.e. the one recognised by the Academy and the one that is listed on sites such as IMDb.

danielzavitz · 17-03-2004, 22:46

i get your point rik, but the theatrical version isn't ALWAYS 'the' version. just look at Brazil, sometimes the directors and editors don't get their way, and not just due to studio interference. admittedly such examples are much rarer than that lucas-esqe artistic changes/money grabbing, but they're out there and people go crazy about dvd releases of films like that. just look how excited everyone got when it was rumoured that fincher was doing a directors cut of alien 3!

Niceguygeoff · 18-03-2004, 10:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Rik Booth
I do hate how studios re-release films as extended cuts - the theatrical version is the version, nothing else; that is the version after all that the director and editor both lock as being the film artistically, so why change it later down the line?

Yeah, but most of the time such extended cuts come with input from the director themselves, which surely validates such releases from an artistic point of view (whether you agree with the changes or not!). But Columbia or Universal rattling out several new DVDs of a movie (usually to shamelessly promote a tie-in or sequel) is a different proposition entirely, and one that both studios are notorious for. There is still a grey area in-between obviously, where consumerism meets genuine artistic endeavour - the LOTR:EEs being a case in point.

William Shatners Wig · 27-05-2004, 14:57

We've now had the chance to give this disc a thorough going over and have compared it to the original 2001 release. You can find our detailed comparison review of the new US R1 release of Ali Director's Cut and 2001's original release here.

This is the second (third and fourth) time I have watched the movie since seeing it originally at the cinema. I must say that I enjoyed it a whole lot more on DVD, and never tired of the repeated viewings. Casimir, the chap who actually wrote our review, loves the film and everything about Ali anyway.

The extra footage is good, but by no means as effective as Underwold's recent re-release that we reviewed earlier this month. The only totally new extra is the audio commentary, as the documentary was previously available on the UK release.