"Special editions"/Director's Cuts worse than the theatrical cuts

[Neville]

I saw the DC of "Windtalkers" a while ago. The original is bad enough, but it moves so fast it helps you ignore the clichés and the bad dialogue. The DC moves slower, allowing you to experience every single second of its badness in its full glory. It's just excruciating. And if you thought the action scenes were over the top in the theatrical cut... well, here the Japanese seems to have barricaded themselves using TNT bags rather than sandbags.

[InformationGeek]

I hear the Director's Cut for The Chronicles of Riddick was bad because they reveal a plot point too early in the film and it ruins all the mystery.  Of course, that's what I heard.

[Nathan45]

Army of Darkness.  The Directors cut seems more like "Hey, these are all the alternative scenes we didn't show in the movie, enjoy!"  rather then a real attempt to show the Directors true vision.  (As a example, they replace the classic line "Good...Bad....I'm the guy with the gun." with "I'm not that good..."  Even on the commentary track they seem to tip toe around that the theatrical line was better.  The final battle makes a bit more sense in the Directors cut, but the pacing is slower.  The Directors cut isnt bad, but I definitely prefer the theatrical release.

ALL the Star Wars movies (Episodes 4-6.)   The ONLY improvement Lucas made was reinserting the Biggs/Luke scene.  Every other change was jarring.

[Neville]

I forgot to mention "Aliens"... the scenes in the planet that show life beofre the aliens are good, but the rest of the re-added scenes are superfluous and they kill the pace. That's one major fault, because the TC of "Aliens" is one of the most entertaining films I've ever seen.

[Flick James]

I own a Special Edition of Tombstone, and I never watch the version with the deleted scenes. They are just awful. Most of them are melodramatic and silly, and most of them involve Val Kilmer chewing scenery. It was wise that they kept those scenes out of the TC. I enjoyed Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday, but he definitely chewed scenery, and the TC kept the ratio just below where it would have become annoying. IMHO, of course.

[Mr. DS]

I've kind given up on all director's cuts.  I find most deleted scenes to be deletable.

[Couchtr26]

I don't remember that Dune (extended cut) very well.  I do remember not liking and feeling it was flawed in quite a few ways.  Sadly, I have only watched once so can't remember any pinpoints.  I seem to remember some artistic cards adding some of the back story at the beginning of the movie.   

[Neville]

I've kind given up on all director's cuts.  I find most deleted scenes to be deletable.

I guess the real problem here is telling apart the genuine director's cuts from those films that are re-released with a few deleted scenes just to cash in. I remember DC that were great improvements over the original film, such as "Kingdom of Heaven", which was butchered for the theatrical release.

[claws]

As mentioned in another thread: Donnie Darko.

[Neville]

I don't remember that Dune (extended cut) very well.  I do remember not liking and feeling it was flawed in quite a few ways.  Sadly, I have only watched once so can't remember any pinpoints.  I seem to remember some artistic cards adding some of the back story at the beginning of the movie.   

That one is an abomination. David Lynch's final version is the TC, and he disowned further "improvements". I tried to watch this version but couldn't, the additions destroy the pace fo the film (which was already problematic in the TC) and are completely irrelevant.