Only watch the 120 minute cut!

I have the Japanese widescreen laserdisc (and soon the anamorphically enhanced German dvd) of the film which clocks in at 120 minutes. Talk about a world of difference! As far as I am concerned, the 99 minute cut is crap; editing is choppy and the story is a little too straight-forward without anything else to build on it (the pan and scan doesn't help at all either).

The "director's cut" (being that apparently Stevie doesn't like the 120 minute version) is a much better experience; not only is it the proper 2.35:1 letterbox, but there is more character development, more development of the Hard Man project, but more importantly more development of the Elle Pouget character (her and the Death Machine have something in common that is pretty creepy and disgusting). It also helps that a lot of the action and special effect shots can now be enjoyed and appreciated as we can now see what the hell is going on. Editing is also smoother, with the addition of more violence and scene extensions (Scott's run from the DM's intro is twice as long, with a really cool EVIL DEAD style tracking shot as he is running through multiple corridors before getting trapped in the conference room).

Regardless, hunt down the 120 minute version and watch it for yourself. Just ignore the bastardized 99 minute cut.