The BBFC ruined your childhood (riddled with spoilers)

[TwoHeadedBoy]

The Ninja Turtles thing though.. May be Urban Myth, but was there not an incident somewhere in Ireland or the UK where a child was kicked to death by two other kids pretending to be Ninja Turtles?

Definitely an urban myth - I remember the EXACT same story popping up again when Power Rangers were popular.

[OldSkoolCoolFool]

If you were raised in Britain you probably had no idea just how handy Bruce Lee was with Nunchaku. Add Fist Of Fury to the list of butchered classics...

It may or may not be true but I heard that the rat from The Abyss was unharmed and lived a happy and peaceful life with James Cameron after its movie career.

[bensonrad]

Turtles was massively edited, but they did re-release it in the UK, in the early 2000's uncut and with Ninja back in the title. I bought it first time round Region 1 and was amazed at just how much more violence there was including the final fight scene.

What I find horrifying is all these old 15/18 certificate films that are been edited down and put on Channel 5 on a Sunday afternoon! Things like Hellboy and Beetlejuice, not really kids viewing no matter how much they have cut.

Some editing was done on films to actually tailor them to fit more advert breaks, I remember watching a Carry On film (Henry) and noticed several whole scenes and were cut and others trimmed down, and thats a PG!

[Megamixer]

commiserations to anyone who owns that very common UK DVD of Schwarzenegger's Commando, such a truly horrific example of censorship/censor-fear.

What's cut out? I know of the bit with the buzz saw projectile cutting a piece of a guard's head off but was anything else cut? Is there an uncut version?

[JetSetWilly]

commiserations to anyone who owns that very common UK DVD of Schwarzenegger's Commando, such a truly horrific example of censorship/censor-fear.

What's cut out? I know of the bit with the buzz saw projectile cutting a piece of a guard's head off but was anything else cut? Is there an uncut version?

The other scenes cut are:

-a longer scene of a pitchfork being shoved in someones stomach
-the infamous 'arm chopping' scene, and subsequent scene of Matrix throwing both the machete and arm at the bloke on the floor and scene of bloke screaming at the sight of his arm being gone, plus lots of blood
-a buzz saw being thrown, and embedding, into someones throat and again, with lots of blood

Other differing scenes are Matrix talking about his past to Cindy, and various other alternate scenes (directors cut only these two)

You can get the DC version on R1 disc (I bought it years ago), or you can get the Blu Ray, with just the violence over here (at least i think it's just the violence).

Hope that helps.

[felgekarp]

That version of Commando's only on for about half an hour they cut that much out Didn't they cut a scene from the Turtles movie where some sausages were being slung around like nuncucks or is that urban b*llocks as well?

[Megamixer]

commiserations to anyone who owns that very common UK DVD of Schwarzenegger's Commando, such a truly horrific example of censorship/censor-fear.

What's cut out? I know of the bit with the buzz saw projectile cutting a piece of a guard's head off but was anything else cut? Is there an uncut version?

The other scenes cut are:

-a longer scene of a pitchfork being shoved in someones stomach
-the infamous 'arm chopping' scene, and subsequent scene of Matrix throwing both the machete and arm at the bloke on the floor and scene of bloke screaming at the sight of his arm being gone, plus lots of blood
-a buzz saw being thrown, and embedding, into someones throat and again, with lots of blood

Other differing scenes are Matrix talking about his past to Cindy, and various other alternate scenes (directors cut only these two)

You can get the DC version on R1 disc (I bought it years ago), or you can get the Blu Ray, with just the violence over here (at least i think it's just the violence).

Hope that helps.

Hmm...I can watch R1 DVD's on my laptop I guess. I see a new copy of the DC version is £13.92 at Play.com. Anywhere cheaper and trustworthy to buy it from? Not saying that Commando isn't worth £13.92 of course; it's a great film.

This thread makes me wonder if it's worth checking every single film before buying one to make sure that there isn't a better version available! The BBFC really have butchered loads of movies by the sounds of it. Why couldn't they have just made 'serious' stuff an 18+ and be done with it?

Also, it's eye-opening as to how crap DVD's are in this country.

[dste]

Funnily enough I was reading the Metro today and they were on about Snakes on a Plane.

They reckon the the US dub of the film has the infamous line changed to "I have had it with these monkey fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane"

My favourites have always been "Why me?" from Robocop and "Melon Farmer" from Repo Man.

[themightymartin]

The best TV censored line for me has to be from The Big Lebrowski. The original line is "You see what happens when you f*ck a stranger in the a*s?". Now, watch this video: http://youtu.be/LCcKBcZzGdA

[JazzFunk]

To refer back to Megamixer's question, and in addition to the cuts that JetSetWilly spoke of, the 'five star' PAL R2 version *also* removed oodles of gunshots/throatslits etc., though these cuts were actually made by the distributor (think this version of the DVD was released all over Europe as well, so they wanted it to be a 'Happy Meal' version.) I'm pretty sure the 'dustman massacre' at the start of the film, and the fight with Bill Duke in the hotel were drastically cut, even from the already slightly censored old skool UK VHS. Yep, if you've got a copy of the old (cut) UK VHS, then it's a much better version to have than the original UK DVD one....nuts!

[Megamixer]

To refer back to Megamixer's question, and in addition to the cuts that JetSetWilly spoke of, the 'five star' PAL R2 version *also* removed oodles of gunshots/throatslits etc., though these cuts were actually made by the distributor (think this version of the DVD was released all over Europe as well, so they wanted it to be a 'Happy Meal' version.) I'm pretty sure the 'dustman massacre' at the start of the film, and the fight with Bill Duke in the hotel were drastically cut, even from the already slightly censored old skool UK VHS. Yep, if you've got a copy of the old (cut) UK VHS, then it's a much better version to have than the original UK DVD one....nuts!

I used to have the tape version but got rid of it along with a load of other Arnie VHS movies a while back. The Commando DVD I own is just a 20th Century Fox one from 2001. Can't see any other distributer names/logos on the box.

[theantmeister]

The best TV censored line for me has to be from The Big Lebrowski. The original line is "You see what happens when you f*ck a stranger in the a*s?". Now, watch this video: http://youtu.be/LCcKBcZzGdA

Ugh, that's just terrible.

[JazzFunk]

I used to have the tape version but got rid of it along with a load of other Arnie VHS movies a while back. The Commando DVD I own is just a 20th Century Fox one from 2001. Can't see any other distributer names/logos on the box.

Yep, sadly that's the cut to buggery version. It is monstrous.

When bought new n' sealed, it has this little yellow sticker on the front, saying something like "five star selection" and "*****", and often used turn up on those 'budget' DVD racks in Wilkinson's and Matalan and the like, in the mid-late 2000s. I think the DC version came out a few years back and is thankfully fully uncut (though people STILL argue about how complete the 'shed' scene is, even in the uncut!)

[Megamixer]

I used to have the tape version but got rid of it along with a load of other Arnie VHS movies a while back. The Commando DVD I own is just a 20th Century Fox one from 2001. Can't see any other distributer names/logos on the box.

Yep, sadly that's the cut to buggery version. It is monstrous.

When bought new n' sealed, it has this little yellow sticker on the front, saying something like "five star selection" and "*****", and often used turn up on those 'budget' DVD racks in Wilkinson's and Matalan and the like, in the mid-late 2000s. I think the DC version came out a few years back and is thankfully fully uncut (though people STILL argue about how complete the 'shed' scene is, even in the uncut!)

I'll have to get the R1 Uncut version then. Hate watching DVD's on my laptop but I have no room for a multi-region DVD player anymore and the one I do own is out on indefinite loan

[JetSetWilly]

I used to have the tape version but got rid of it along with a load of other Arnie VHS movies a while back. The Commando DVD I own is just a 20th Century Fox one from 2001. Can't see any other distributer names/logos on the box.

Yep, sadly that's the cut to buggery version. It is monstrous.

When bought new n' sealed, it has this little yellow sticker on the front, saying something like "five star selection" and "*****", and often used turn up on those 'budget' DVD racks in Wilkinson's and Matalan and the like, in the mid-late 2000s. I think the DC version came out a few years back and is thankfully fully uncut (though people STILL argue about how complete the 'shed' scene is, even in the uncut!)

I'll have to get the R1 Uncut version then. Hate watching DVD's on my laptop but I have no room for a multi-region DVD player anymore and the one I do own is out on indefinite loan

Interesting fact:
The version we have here is ACTUALLY the German print, but we got it by mistake, and have had it ever since. There was a whisper of us getting the R1 DC version as a 2 disc set, but that was about 5 years ago, and nothing ever happened about it. About where to get the disc from, I got mine from Amazon, and it arrived about 10 days later. But, it always pays to check other sites first. Definitely try Play.com though as well.