Sorry, but I hated it.

Rating: 2/10 (7 February 2000)

After hearing wonderful things about it and reading rave reviews here on IMDb, I finally rented Blade Runner (Director's Cut). And what an incredible let-down it was. I had heard that it wasn't an action-packed, fast-paced film, but I was expecting something...the word evades me....good, perhaps. Thought-provoking. Interesting or original. The movie I saw was none of these. Instead it was 1) unforgivabley slow-moving and 2) very dated.
It started off with promise. The beginning scroll was enough to lure me in, and the interview with Leon was cool. But then we get to the parts where Harrison starts sneaking around, looking for clues. I was told that the original version had Ford reading a monologue during these parts, but that it was cut out for the Director's Cut. Why?? The deadly silence makes it boring beyond belief! I usually don't mind slow-moving movies, but I dozed off several times during this one.
Another problem is that although this is a sci-fi futuristic film, it has a severe 80's look, especially the ladies' hair styles. I'm sure it worked well back in '82, but here in 2000 I find it very distracting. And the idea of machines having feelings isn't a particularily original one nowadays - I'm sure it was fairly interesting when it first came out, but my reaction to the premise in general was "yeah....AND...?" (i.e, nothing new.)
I will give this another chance and rent the original version, but I'm doubtful that it will redeem itself. It may be an allegory of truth and value of life to some people, but in my opinion it's just a big ball of nothing trying to be meaningful. It's just not good.
Al's Rating: 2/10
The 2 points are for Harrison Ford and Rutgar Hauer.