Donnie & Lefty

The original Donnie Brasco is a solid film with strong performances from Depp & Pacino, but was a bit bogged down by the agent plotline - which I mostly didn't mind, and felt added some tension to certain scenes - and the family life plotline - which feature the unbearable character of Maggie. Adabisi has removed these scenes entirely, resulting in a more interesting film. While the narrative pace is a little inconsistent, and sometimes you can feel something is missing between scenes, the end product is overall very enjoyable, more so than the original film.

Regarding the narrative, my main critique, as some others have mentioned, is that the scene where Donnie sees the magazine with the boat on it should've been cut, along a lingering shot of Donnie looking nervous when the rat is discussed, and the scene where Donnie is brought out the car at gunpoint for seemingly no reason other than to mislead the audience.

Technically speaking, the edit was mostly good, only a couple rough audio transitions I noticed, and there seemed to be a slight audio delay throughout.

Overall, a very strong edit of a film I thought was already good to begin with. Not just a FanMix, but a FanFix too in my eyes.

So I'd been wanting to watch this for awhile. Before I got around to watching it, just for fun, as an editing exercise, I attempted my own edit with the same goal as Adabisi. It was interesting going into this edit having already attempted it myself. Now I wasn't aiming for perfection with my editing "exercise", I just wanted to see what choices needed to make, spots that were tricky, etc. etc.

Adabisi overall did a great job with this. We made similar choices, for the most part, and he pulled it off fairly seamlessly. I do have to agree with Captain Khajiit that the scene on the airplane (where Donnie sees the paper with the article about the Abscam boat) should have been removed, to preserve suspense and make it more of a surprise. That was my only complaint though.

A very enjoyable, fast paced edit and a fun alternate version of the movie.

August 15, 2009

Review by Captain Khajiit

**Warning!**

**This review contains spoilers!**

I think very highly of the original film, and consider the theatrical version almost perfect, so I had mixed feelings about a fanedit. Nonetheless, I gave it a go.

The removal of the FBI story increased the pace of the film considerably, and this made for an exciting ride. It’s definitely a new way to view the film. In fact, the whole concept of the edit was rather creative, and it really begins to grow on you when you get into the film.

The cuts are sensible given the aim of the edit and are more or less seamless, even when one knows the original as well as I do. My only wish is that the faneditor had found a way to remove the fact that Donnie is an FBI agent at the end, and devise a new ending to the film. Although I acknowledge the great difficulties this would involve, the way the edit ended didn’t quite feel right for me. It does pass as a surprise ending, but I feel the scene when Donnie hides the article from Leftie on the plane anticipates it, and really should have been removed.

Editing: 9 out of 10 for the editing itself
Entertainment: 8 out of 10 (original theatrical cut 9 out of 10; original extended edition 8 out of 10 – I include the latter just for comparison)

Image and video quality: The video quality was excellent all round. 10 out of 10
Audio editing and audio quality: 10 out of 10
Presentation: nice cover art and appropriate static menu but no scene selection – 8 out of 10

Overall: 8.5 out of 10 (I rounded it up to 9 to vote above, as one cannot give half stars)

I found this to be a pleasant surprise and a genuinely new take on a classic gangster movie. Would I recommend it? Forget about it! (i.e. yes)

August 4, 2009
*This rating was given before reviews were required*

July 28, 2009
*This rating was given before reviews were required*