Blade Runner: The Final Cut
For the first time in the my life, though I was 12 when it originally released (no one would take me), I got to see Blade runner on the big screen and it's worth it. I'm not sure if it was the new master or just the sheer size but there was a lot of detail I never saw before. Probably a bit of both. The final cut? Not any really big deal. Adds a couple, non-important lines of dialog and a couple more shots of Los Angeles 2012 scenery but outside that it adds very VERY little to the movie itself. I'd had read that it definitively answers the big question of whether Deckard is a Replicant himself. I'm not ruining anything, other than either a misunderstanding by critics or a marketing gimmick, by saying this cut doesn't do anything of the sort. There is nothing here about that which isn't in the Director's Cut. Nevertheless, BR is perhaps my most fav sci-fi movie of all time and seeing it as Scott wanted it (he didn't fully buy off on the Director's Cut. Actually threatened to disown it) but on the big screen is where this flick belongs. The theater ran a 35mm print which was nice because the medium is so much richer than digital. Now all I can do is wait for my friend at WB to send me the 5-disk boxed set for Christmas <big>

I saw it a few weeks ago on the big screen. Here are a few things I noticed (SPOILERS): -Roy Batty's line to Tyrell ("I want more life, fucker") has been changed to "I want more life, Father". Personally, I think this is a bad change. The "fucker" line had more intensity to it, more anger. -there were some hockey mask wearing dancers in the club -When Batty expires, and releases the dove, they got rid of the blue sky that was visible in the previous cuts -there seemed to be more shots of "glowing eyes" o the various characters, including Deckard. Now, maybe they've always been there, but my most frequent viewings have been of the directors cut on VHS, which isn't the cleanest, crispest picture. As far as the definitive "Deckard is a Replicant" answer, didn't Ridley Scott come out a few years ago and said that yes, Dekard was a Replicant?

I,ve brought the BR 5 dvd set and it's wonderful :) B-B

It comes out in the US on DVD on December 18. I will be getting this for Christmas. Plus, there is an all new three-disc edition soundtrack containing the missing tracks that are found in the movie by Vangelis coming out on the same day. Look it up on amazon.com

You don't have the set that comes with the silver briefcase, BB?

I noticed those shots too, Benson. There just wasn't a ton of big changes and certainly nothing of any consequence. Oh, I liked the line as fucker better too. As far as Deckard being a Replicant, yeah, the ONLY definitive answer has been Scott's saying so, nothing new though in this new cut. On the big boxed set, I want to see the work cut on one of the DVDs

The workprint is excellent :) as is the whole set. Along with the A L I E N Quadrillogy it's the best DVD boxset out and put's the Lucas Star Wars and Indianna Jones sets in the shade. B-B

Just to add the deleted scenes are worth the price of the box-set alone! My fave is the shot of the Ad Blimp approaching LA that leads to Deckard's introduction, there's so many deleted scenes it's like watching a different version of the movie! 1000000000000000000000000000 out of 10 B-B

RE: Blade Runner boxset up there with Alien Quadrilogy What Brit-Brat said.

this is going on my christmas list.

This is totally on my Christmas list, too. I personally prefer the "father" line. The "fucker" version was always incongruous to me. As for Deckard being a replicant, when Scott inserted (finally) the unicorn dream sequence, that was the final word. Sorry I've been away so long. Life catches up to and overtakes you sometimes.

Cool. I just watched this last week (Director's Cut) after seeing Jovanka Vuckovic's (Editor-in-Chief of Rue-Morgue magazine and HUGE Blade Runner fan) total arm sleeved tattoo tribute to the film. A great film, I don't think I had ever "perceived" it properly before this. IMO Deckard is absolutely a replicant. Skindeep: Confessions of a Blade Runner Fanatic by Jovanka Vuckovic I remember the first time I saw Blade Runner. I caught it on television late one night in an insomniac fugue back when I was still in grade school. Its sombre tone, visual sophistication and majestic score mesmerized me. But more than that, I was stunned by its challenging thematic density. What does it mean to be human? Are our memories, which we count on as evidence of our existence, reliable artifacts of that existence? Does sentience equal life? The experience was so sublime that, in the morning, I thought I had dreamt it all. Just in time for the film's 25th anniversary, a new version, dubbed Blade Runner: Final Cut, is slated to be released in a limited theatrical run this year. It will restore deleted scenes that never made it into the Director's Cut (which Scott was never satisfied with but gets an updated DVD release). Following that, Warner will release the Ultimate Edition DVD set, which will contain four different versions (US Theatrical, Expanded International, Director's Cut and Final Cut). I'm salivating! The producer of the DVD, the talented Charlie de Lauzirika, and I met on the set of George Romero's Land of the Dead; we were both cast as zombies thanks to our pals Greg Nicotero and father Romero. The two of us made friends while breaking bread in full zombie make-up (complete with those uncomfortable sclera lenses that blind you). During our conversation, we discovered we're both gargantuan Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick fans as well as horror aficionados. He gave me the scoop on his plans to create this fantastic DVD collection and plans were put in motion for me, along with many others, to appear on the extras. A couple of years later, his project has come to fruition and De Lauzirika has kept his promise. (Look for me on the documentaries). It's an exciting time for this Blade Runner junkie. I live for this movie in a way no one else does. It's the film that turned me into a rabid cinephile. Though I'm the Editor-in-Chief of Rue Morgue Magazine, an internationally distributed horror in culture and entertainment publication, my favourite film is Blade Runner. That always seems to surprise people, but anyone who's as obsessed with the movie as much as I am isn't surprised at all. In fact, I love this futuristic 1940s detective thriller so much I've dedicated the flesh of my left arm to it. Back in 2002, after almost a decade of searching for the right artist to complete my "Blade Runner sleeve," I found Shane Faulkner at King of Fools Custom Tattoos in Toronto. He was as much a film fan as I and, more importantly, a vehement Blade Runner junkie. I heaped my pile of BR collectables on him: my first-run edition of the Cinefex BR issue, copies of Cinefantastique, Omni, the Marvel Blade Runner comics, my copy of Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (widely considered the "Blade Runner bible" by fans), high-res Syd Mead sketches hoarded from various BR fan sites (including Bladezone.com, the best there is), and more. In two months, he had drafted a compilation of my favourite elements from the movie. Near the outside top of my shoulder, Roy Batty sits expired on top of the Bradbury building in the rain. The dove he has released in death flies just outside the border of the sleeve. Underneath, a Police Spinner, its beam trained onto a silhouette of Deckard, his coat collar flipped up, standing on a rooftop gazing at the top of the Police Headquarters, where another tiny spinner can be seen landing in a puff of smoke and dust. Floating through the night sky is the Off-World blimp, its columns of light falling on a billboard of a geisha (in the film, this ad has her washing down a birth control pill with Coca Cola). On the inside of my arm lies the film's opening: the industrial wasteland and orange Tyrell pyramids with the reflection of Holden's eye above it (eyes and seeing are recurring themes in the movie). Another spinner can be found in the ditch of my elbow, and various noxious gasses and flames litter the piece below near ground level. Finally, wrapped around my forearm is a running unicorn – a -*test*-('")ament to my belief that Deckard is indeed a replicant, a position that usually pisses most BR fans off. People seem to de-*test*-('") the idea that Deckard could be an android, which is a shame because it gives him more depth. Like Rachel, he's so perfect he might not even know he's not human. As Deckard says: "How can it not know what it is?" There is a beautiful irony in that hypothesis. Years after the film's initial release, director Ridley Scott himself would admit that Deckard is indeed a replicant, and that he dropped those clues in his Director's Cut to give it away. The evidence given about Deckard is indeed subtle, but undeniably present, and I pray to the god of biomechanics that the Final Cut will reveal what I've always known about him, once and for all: androids do dream of electric sheep. Originally written for the awesome Blade Runner fansite, Bladezone.com. You can see plenty of pics of her tat(s) on her MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jovankavuckovic T

Not as good as the others as it has.nt been as far as i know remastered but is still priceless and excellent viewing :) B-B