Watchmen — Will Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic be any less disappointing with an additional twenty-five minutes of footage? We’ll find out with the release of Snyder’s director’s cut on DVD and Blu-ray. There never seemed to be a compelling reason for a movie version of the DC Comics miniseries, a dense, multi-layered work that derived much of its power from its subversion of five decades worth of comic-book conventions, other than the obvious reason — superhero movies are hot, and Watchmen was just about the only untouched property left aside from the long-suffering Aquaman. Snyder’s adaptation was faithful, in the sense that it lifted great swaths of dialogue and major visual set-pieces from the graphic novel, but even the 168-minute version felt bloated; the pacing was leaden and so were most of the actors, with the notable exception of Jackie Earle Haley as the violent vigilante Rorschach. (Surely it’s no coincidence that much of the new footage is said to center on that very character.) None of this will matter to the fanboys who’ll line up in droves for the Blu-ray edition, which promises an unprecedented “Maximum Movie Mode,” featuring Snyder guiding you via split-screen through all the twists and turns of the story as well as the behind-the-scenes wizardry.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her — No, it’s not the prequel to 10 Things I Hate About You — it’s Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 experimental essay about a Paris housewife turned hooker, the director’s tenth film to get the Criterion Collection treatment. The restored hi-def digital transfer features a commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin and archival television interviews with Godard and actress Marina Vlady.
Coraline — Feeling lonely and neglected by her parents, eleven-year-old Coraline (Dakota Fanning) discovers a hidden door in her house that leads to a magical parallel universe. Henry Selick’s stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book is a creepy good time, but be warned if you purchase the 3D version on DVD: the digital effects have been replaced by the inferior red-blue variety.
The Great Buck Howard — John Malkovich stars as the title character, a down-on-his-luck mentalist with an inflated sense of self-importance. It’s another jewel in Malkovich’s glittering string of latter-day comic performances, but the focus on Colin “son of Tom” Hanks as Buck Howard’s bland assistant Troy is a drag on the proceedings.
