Fun fact, the part of Sleepers where they had the kid prison was filmed in the town next to me in Connecticut… Fairfield Hills (formally an insane asylum campus now houses several business and youth soccer leagues). I was in middle school when it came out and a few boys I was in school with were extras as fellow juvenile delinquents.
I just watched both versions of Payback this morning, and it made me wish that all parties could have worked together and compromised and finished the project working together instead of being stubborn and fighting and ultimately making two radically different versions, because I think there was one good movie somewhere between the two. I do think it's kinda cool that Mel Gibson let Brian Helgeland go back after the fact and finish his version of the movie, but I can't definitively say it is better, aside from just visually. Getting rid of the weird blue bleach thingy they did is the only area where the director's cut is absolutely 100% an improvement. It's probably the better movie, but it's not as much fun, and from a business standpoint they probably made the right call releasing the one they did.