alternate version


years ago i saw a different version of the movie, Mousy (Jonthan Brandis) was Tim's best friend and died near the end of the movie instead of it being Drugs (Jon Abrams). I liked that version much better because Mousy and Tim's friendship was stronger. They wanted to be like the characters in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and head west together. And it really is much sadder at the end when mousy dies.

"I am not a superhero, I am a latter day saint" - Joe Young

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I haven't seen that but I got the DVD and when I saw it before I remeber a part with Drugs helping TIm's little brother with his paper route. I thin they took that out, but I thought it was pretty funny and they didn't even include deleted scenes... Anyone else notice that?

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I have both the DVD and VHS of this movie. The DVD surprisingly doesn't show the alternate ending and the "Mental Floss" outtakes that the VHS shows after the end credits. The alternate ending had Jane and Jackie going to Tim's graduation instead of his dad and she tells him that she got back into Brown (which doesn't make sense because she had already told him) and then she asks him if he is still going to California...so I guess that means there must be a different version of the movie.

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Wow. I remember seeing that years ago. Why isn't it on the DVD?

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I remember seeing that on someone's computer not sure where they got it from. I remember the different deaths and I think some other smaller things were different throughout the movie, also the ending was slighty different. Don't know the story behind this would be interesting if somebody knew.

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I remember that version too. If memory serves, I believe it was re-shot after Jonathon Brandis's death in real life.

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Brandis died 4 years after the movie was released.

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I love this movie. I have it and just watched it on DVD but, it's the ending where Drugs dies instead of Mousy. I never knew there was an alternate version with scenes re-shot after the death of Jonathan Brandis? I am curious where I could see that version of the film? Is it just the VHS version or is it harder to find than that?

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I am kind of late to this discussion, and I've never seen any of these alternate scenes/endings (I would like to, though). However, this movie is based on a novel by Peter Farrelly. I've never read it, but it might be instructive to see how the novel ended to get an idea what, if any, was the preferred ending.

Having Drugs die instead of Mousy sounds like the kind of note an executive producer would insist upon and force onto the creative team as a condition of making the movie... you know, something in the vein of "it will be less controversial and more satisfying to the audience if the drug-addicted friend dies instead of the smart, thoughtful friend." I just find it hard to believe that Harvey Weinstein who, for all his flaws, is supposedly famous for letting artists be artist, would do that, and I can't imagine that any executive would force the Farrelly Brothers to do anything expecially so soon after "There's Something About Mary". Hmmmm. Now that I look at it, "...Mary" was released only about a year before "Outside Providence" so there is a pretty good chance that filming was complete (or nearly so) when "...Mary" became a hit.

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