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True Lies: Straight Faced Edition

Mollo

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I have a soft spot for the original mainly because of Jamie Lee Curtis who stole the show in my opinion.

The problem with trying to alter the feel of True Lies and make it more "Straight Faced" is that the film's action and feel is overtly comedic and no amount of cutting can alter that fact.

Schwartzenegger steals a horse, rides it into a hotel, rides it into a lift and the villain gets away by making an incredulous leap on his motorbike from sky scrapper to sky scrapper into a roof top swimming pool to live another day. How can this action be taken with a straight face?

Schwartzenegger is being shot at and chased by guard dogs. He knocks the dogs out and in a hail of bullets has time to make a quip "Stay!" to the now dazed dogs. How can this action be taken with a straight face?

True Lies is intended to be experienced for amusement sake. It is exciting but there is no real threat of danger as the characters seem to be having a jolly good time while in "dangerous" situations. The over-the-top nature of the action is off-set by the humour that peppers the film. This is clearly not to be taken seriously. The pay-off to the implausibility of the action is the gag at the end of it. Taking away the pay off lines, however cheesy they might be, relegates the action to simply ridiculous.

The editing is pretty flawless up until the horse chase. The cut just before Schwartzenegger empathizes with the horse is very noticeable as it looks like Arnie is about to talk. There are also a few little things I would have removed such as the dogs reaction shot after Arnie knocks their heads together. This is only there to let the audience know that Arnie is not so mean as to kill a dog. The "Stay" line could have been removed quite easily. Also the line "Here we go" by Tom Arnold as he gets back into his car, could have been cut as it again suggests this has happened before and is nothing to worry about.
 

elbarto1

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I see what you are saying and understand that my cutting the "pay off's" or punchlines doesnt a action movie make. it all boils down to personal preference - you liked the original, I did not. I cant stand Curtis and left her awkwardly wretched "sexy dance" in only to appease potential viewers who (like you) claimed the scene was crutial to the film.

The bottom line is: I cut what I didnt like and left in what didnt bother me.
I am happy with it and thats about where it ends.

Sorry you didnt like it, but I cant please everyone *shrug*
 

zeppelinrox

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elbarto1 said:
I cant stand Curtis
Me neither

jlcd.jpg


Nearly fell off my chair.
Again.

/I'll be in my bunk
//*fap*
 

blueyoda

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Mollo said:
Schwartzenegger steals a horse, rides it into a hotel, rides it into a lift and the villain gets away by making an incredulous leap on his motorbike from sky scrapper to sky scrapper into a roof top swimming pool to live another day. How can this action be taken with a straight face?

And if Arnold had farted in the swimming pool would that have been warranted because of the silliness of the action scene? You're entitled to your opinion of course but in my opinion the humor in True Lies was forced and cringe-worthy. What Elbarto did was remove a lot of the excessive unfunny joke-a-minute stuff and made a more action-oriented movie that is much more enjoyable now. Of course the movie can't be "fixed" perfectly but it is a huge improvement for me and has replaced my True Lies DVD on my shelf.
 

Mollo

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elbarto1 said:
you liked the original, I did not.

There is a lot to not like about True Lies. I find much of the humour and action to be contrived and silly.

blueyoda said:
And if Arnold had farted in the swimming pool would that have been warranted because of the silliness of the action scene?

No. Cameron is cleverer than that.

blueyoda said:
You're entitled to your opinion of course but in my opinion the humor in True Lies was forced and cringe-worthy.

I agree.

blueyoda said:
Of course the movie can't be "fixed" perfectly

That's somewhat of my point.

Sorry, Elbarto1 for not really digging your FanEdit. I just have to tell it how I see it. It is only one persons opinion, the majority seem to love it.
 

TMBTM

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I'm a bit "afraid" to watch this edit because I feel like Mollo's point of view here.
True Lies is an action comedy, it is the remake of a french action comedy and the silliness of the action is here for the fun and not really for the thrill (machine gun in the stairs anyone?) .
I'm all for other takes on movies, it's just that I really like the original because it is not serious.
+ I did watch True Lies three weeks ago on TV and I don't know if I want to rewatch it so soon. Maybe at the end of the month! :)
 

Uncanny Antman

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Every edit has it's audience. It's certainly no mark of shame on Elbarto that some will prefer the original version.
 

Ziz

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I haven't seen Elb's edit yet, but I always viewed True Lies as a James Bond parody without being so literal about its intentions. To that end, the crazy stunts and corny humor works. At the same time though, there are occasions where a joke can go too far past its punchline (or an action scene too far past its natural conclusion) and become insulting again.*

Bottom line is it depends if you see the film as an action movie with a lot of humor or a comedy with action scenes. It's hard to be both at the same time.



*Family Guy is guilty of this all over the place, but they've sort of established that as their style, so I'm of two minds there.
 

elbarto1

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its really not a big deal - if you don't like the film to begin with, or feel that the original is not in need of an edit, simply don't watch it. There's plenty of edits that get released that I have no interest in watching even many from big name editors. Its not like I expect everyone to replace their DVD's w/ my humble effort. Frankly I am surprised at the positive reaction/reviews I have received. I expect people to not like it ;)

Like I said in my ITW thread, and on the DVD in the "about this edit" and in my commentary's - this is what I'd like to have seen, its not better (I like to believe its not worse) - its different, its turd polishing.
 

Mollo

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One thing is for sure, your skill as an editor is getting ever greater. :)
 

TV's Frink

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Really enjoyed this one. It flows very smoothly and is much more enjoyable than the retail version. I agree with the comments that the second half isn't as good, but nothing could change that. I was ready to give this an 8/10, but decided on a 9/10 because the DVD presentation is simply wonderful. Nice menus and really great special features - I wish more fanedits would have deleted scene montages. And an extra special shout out to blueyoda for his contribution to the edit, which I thought was brilliant in both idea and execution.

It's a shame this was released in the same month as TMBTM's edit, otherwise I definitely would have voted for this one. Sorry bart :-(
 

elbarto1

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Thanks you very much Professor, I am thoroughly pleased you enjoyed the edit as well as the extras. I had alot of fun making them, especially the music video :)

No worries about voting for The Man, his effort was superior IMO and deserved the crown.
but to quote dr claw...

nexttime.jpg


;)
 

TMBTM

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:lol:
Just want to say I voted for you Elbarto.
 

TV's Frink

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elbarto1 said:
Thanks you very much Professor, I am thoroughly pleased you enjoyed the edit as well as the extras. I had alot of fun making them, especially the music video :)
Small correction - my brother is the Professor. I work in TV :wink:
 

blueyoda

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Thanks for the kind words, TV's Frink. It was great working with El Barto - our approach to editing is very similar I think and it would be great to collaborate again in the future.
 

zeppelinrox

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I very much enjoyed watching this.
Great editing decisions were implemented and makes for a quicker and more enjoyable viewing without the contrived comedy - especially during the horse chase.

All that needs to be said in this regard has already been said, really.

I watched all the extras and listened to all the commentaries and they were great additions to the DVD.

I must confess though that the video quality was well below what I was expecting.
I'm aware of the problems regarding editing at 29.97 fps instead of 23.97 fps.
The stuttering wasn't all that noticable to me, really.

So apart from the framerate issue, fixable video issues would be:
1. Too soft and blurry - especially during action scenes (as previously noted)
2. AR is a bit off (fat faces when compared to my R1 letterbox version)
3. It's a bit too dark.

On the plus side, the colours of this version are much richer than my R1.

Anyway, I began watching it but didn't really enjoy it due to video quality and stopped about 20 minutes into it.

I decided that I could make an avi and try and fix the video issues that I had since I had a bit of time and really wanted to watch this with a better picture.

I used AutoMKV, played with various settings and ended up with a very nice encode that I could enjoy watching.
Basically, I fixed the AR, I eliminated repeated frames (no stuttering), brightend it a little, added a bit of saturation so the colours didn't look washed out and sharpened the picture.

The DVD, as is, I would rank an 8, as the extras and editing are awesome.

I'm going to post caps of the enhanced avi soon.
Maybe, if Elbarto doesn't mind, I can make it available.
 

elbarto1

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zeppelinrox said:
I'm going to post caps of the enhanced avi soon.
Maybe, if Elbarto doesn't mind, I can make it available.

not at all, if you managed to make a better version I am all for making it available.
wish my tech skills would catch up to my editing ones :)
glad you liked it despite the issues!
 

zeppelinrox

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Cool, thanks.

Xvid/AC3 avi specs:
1.55 gb
Video: Xvid 688x368 Anamorphic, DAR 2.25:1, 23.976fps, 1600 Kbps
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 6ch 224Kbps

Here are caps comparing the fan edit, the R1 letterbox, then the enhanced avi.

FE
1feq.jpg


R1 LB
1orig.jpg


AVI
1avi.jpg


FE
2fek.jpg


R1 LB
2orig.jpg


AVI
2aviz.jpg


Elbarto, if you decide that you can enhance the DVD with a version 2, maybe I can make a couple of technical suggestions.
I was thinking of re-encoding the DVD but doubt it would be as good as the results you would get if you were to do it, since you have, hopefully, the original sources.

For example I was able to get rid of the repeated frames and the now 23.976 fps xvid was still in sync with the audio.
I'm not sure if would still be in sync with a DVD structure though, since it will play back 23.97 fps video at 29.97 fps.
I do know that cropping 4 pixels off the top black bar and 8 off the bottom black bar would need to be done so that the images don't look as wide as they do now.
 
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