© FAKESHEMP.NET
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Good Movie Monday
    • WTF was that?
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • About

TICKER (Director's Cut)

8/10/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
2001 / Director. Albert Pyun. Movie #35

The reason Albert Pyun cops such a bad rap is because the studios would often take away his films and recut them. This is why the last several films of his career have been entirely independent. Wherever he's been able to Pyun has put together director's cuts of these titles. Cyborg and Captain America have been two of his more prominent ones and one of my personal favourites is TICKER. This is probably his most extreme alternative cut in terms of being significantly different to the version released by Nu Image and Artesian Entertainment. After taking the film away from Albert Nu Image changed the setting from Chicago to San Francisco and used a shit load of archive footage from other films to pad it out. I recall watching the home video version and it was pretty awful... ie   another typical direct-to-video piece of fluff. Nu Image recut Albert's film to capitalise on Steven Seagal's name. This was at a time when Seagal's career was transitioning from A grade Hollywood to D grade gutter trash. The Nu Image cut perpetuated that transition buy making it a Segal vehicle but if  they had let Albert's vision become realised the film would have been a respectable addition to his catalogue. With an impressive cast also including Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper and Ice-T, TICKER is a well constructed action-thriller about an IRA terrorist playing games with an elite bomb squad. This version sees Seagal stepping back into a co-starring role rather than the lead and it plays out in a far more subtle and engaging way. Pyun's knack for action is strong and his new cut is well edited and makes more sense. All of the performances are decent... Hopper, as usual, is shit at accents and his Irish tongue is atrocious. Nevertheless his onscreen presence is affective and considering that he only worked on the film for one day, what Pyun has achieved with him is a testament to his skill. Albert's cut does suffer from a weird and irrelevant opening credit sequence and finishes on a rather tacky end scene but just about everything in between works for me. The only problem with these unsolicited director's cuts is that Albert is forced to use footage from wherever he can get it. There's a hell of a lot of work-print and temp-footage, which make the film look like a 3rd or 4th generation VHS dub. Pyun has made the most of it, though, even if there are some moments lacking audio... but these things can't be helped. If only he was given the opportunity to release his director's cuts with an official budget. Maybe then the world would come to understand the man's talent some more and he would receive the respect he so deserves.  

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    OUR WRITERS
    GLENN COCHRANE
    JARRET GAHAN
    SHAUN CRAWFORD
    ALEX MAYNARD
    CHRIS THOMPSON​
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010

    RSS Feed

© 2018 FakeShemp.Net    All rights reserved.  FakeShemp.Net Illustrations by MJ Barros. 
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Good Movie Monday
    • WTF was that?
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • About