Test screenings & previews

Jonathan Lynn

This is the only scene in which we made substantial changes after our first test screening. In the original script, Oz, towards the end of the scene, made a long declaration of love to Cynthia. We had never questioned this, but when we saw it with an audience, we realized that it happened too soon. It was only his second meeting with her.

33:41 · jump to transcript →

Jonathan Lynn

It was also not very good structurally because although Oz is in love with Cynthia, she doesn't realize it until much later in the movie when they're in the parking lot on the phone to Jimmy Tedeschi. And we felt in this scene the audience really slipping away from us. So before we did our second test screening, we simply...

34:40 · jump to transcript →

Jonathan Lynn

We chopped big pieces out of the scene and recut it and restructured it a little. And the scores in the test screening went up enormously to such an extent that it was clear that the film was going to be a hit. It was very satisfying for us to have seen the problem, diagnosed it correctly, and as always, afterwards you think, why didn't we see it first?

35:07 · jump to transcript →

that she must be feeling. The first screening I went to after the film was released, the audience was... It got a big laugh when Parker and Longbaugh go in and we see all the women in the brothel. Oh, people in the test audience, you know how you have them little cards that says, what's your favorite scene? I can't tell you the number of cards that said, when he smacks that whore on the ass. That's a scene to some people. You spend two years working on a movie and that's a scene.

1:28:42 · jump to transcript →

It was sticking huge needles into chicken joints. Because my brother had described to me the sound he heard when his wife got her first spinal. And I thought, well, that's gotta be in there. This is a scene that I personally used to get on your case to cut out. I'm glad you left it in. After the first test screening, you won me over. I think you won everyone over. Everyone in the world wanted it out. This scene was not in the script. Geoffrey Lewis... Did he just disappear after they left the brothel?

1:33:06 · jump to transcript →

Simon West

Now this scene was one that was actually originally cut out. It was one of two scenes that I cut out of Alex's apartment in Venice. But after the one and only test screening that we had, the audience were actually asked for more of Alex in the film, so I reinstated this one. The other scene involved Lara coming in in the middle of Alex having a poker game with some of his more disreputable friends.

1:07:53 · jump to transcript →

tone and length is somewhat challenging. Yeah, because it can go from being dramatic to melodramatic if you're not careful. There's another place that, like so many others, that Sylvester is just kicking ass. When we previewed the movie, one of the cards, we showed it to 500 people and only one person mentioned it, but they said they noticed that there's a...

1:36:55 · jump to transcript →