Monday, August 24, 2009

I'm More Feared Than A Sugar Hill Contract ... ?


Can we please, PLEASE get a proper expanded re-release of Beat Street on DVD / Blu Ray?? I, like many other movie watchers, frequent IMDB almost anytime I see a flick. The amount of tidbits in the trivia section for a movie is always a direct correlation of how many bonus materials / extras come with an expanded edition of a given title. How many times have you read the trivia on a movie and then seen a DVD featurette, only to realize all of the interesting facts in the extra were things you already read for free on IMDB? (End nerd-out paragraph here)

Beat Street re-releases have unfortunately never come with any notable bonus material, so there's not much to read on its IMDB page (although my boy Nick Sinista did point out that the dude who played Spit has been a stuntman for over 130 movies, including American Gangster, The Bourne Ultimatum, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Meet Joe Black, 8MM, Meet the Parents, Juice, King of New York, and No Country for Old Men. Crazy). Awhile back I noticed in the trivia section there was a paragraph that read:

About 80% of the footage in the original theatrical trailer is not included in the final cut. Examples include Ramón getting his bag ripped off while walking with Kenny and Charlie, several battle outtakes including the classroom up-rocking scene, Ramón on a set of drums, and one dancer flipping off against a wall at the Burning Spear nightclub. Several other pieces of footage were included as well but were in freeze frame in the opening credits of the film. The trailer also includes an alternate version of title song performed by Kool Moe Dee, (who appears in the film in the "Christmas Rappin'" sequence with the rest of the Treacherous Three), which also did not appear in the movie nor on the original soundtrack albums.

Out of control! A quick youtube search yielded the original theatrical trailer for the movie, and sure enough my mind was blown. An alternate title cut by Kool Moe Dee set to tons of scenes left out of the movie. Check it out below:


This gives new meaning to the term "teaser trailer." It appears that there is a PLETHORA of extra footage from this flick. I know that to the big wigs a movie like this isn't worth assembling an expanded special edition of, but hopefully, down the road, somebody will be in a position of power to swing something like that.

I wonder if that Kool Moe Dee title track had to be replaced by Jazzy Jay's Son of Beat Street because of some Sugar Hill contract issues? Wouldn't surprise me. As Treach (Naughty by Nature, not Treacherous Three) said,

"...I'm more feared than a Sugar Hill Contract..."

3 comments:

  1. How about Phase 2 tagging the window!!
    That alone warrants dvd extras.

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  2. Hello, very useful to me all the information that is on this page, especially the one related to this information I'm More Feared Than A Sugar Hill Contract ... ?

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