Though I didn't see the marathon theatrical showing, I did catch the extended cuts of the first two films in theaters at the beginning of December, and I really thought they were by far superior to the original versions. 'Lord Of The Rings' Extended Editions - totally worthwhile. 'Touch Of Evil' - the new reconstruction offers the closest thing we'll ever get to a director's cut of this minor classic, and I'm glad to have it.

This was a film for me that when I first saw it in theaters, I didn't want it to end, I didn't want to stop spending time with these characters in these places, and the longer version nicely expands on that. This is clearly better, it makes it a much richer film. With some longer cuts, you get an alternative version of the movie that's really no better or worse, just different. I can't think of another film offhand where the longer version is so clearly superior. 'Almost Famous: Untitled' - perhaps my favorite director's cut. 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Director's Edition' - no huge additions, about two or three minutes of trimmed or deleted footage put back in that gives the film some more character depth.

Off the top of my head, I can think of a few that I'm glad exist: There are some good directors cuts, some with minor changes from the theatrical cuts, some with more major ones, that are absolute gems.

Terminator 3 deleted scene