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Special Releases

'Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut'/Warner
As promised, "The Ultimate Cut" presents the longest version of "Watchmen," Zack Snyder's admirably faithful cinematic replica of Alan Moore's epic graphic novel and easily the most complex superhero movie ever produced. This is ostensibly even more faithful, incorporating the animated version of the "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic-within-a-comic in Moore's original novel (previously available as a stand-alone short film) with brief transition scenes at the newsstand. The problem is that this is a poorly animated adaptation that loses all context when removed from the static panel of the page and turned into a grisly anime-style cartoon. The previously-released "Director's Cut" may not be quite as literal an adaptation but it's a more effective and involving movie and I think Snyder realized that as well; note that he only stamped one version as his "Director's Cut."

The five-disc set features two new commentary tracks, one by Snyder (very informative), one by graphic novel artist Dave Gibbons (not so informative), plus all the previous "Watchman" supplements from various releases: the mock documentary "Under the Hood" (directed as a seventies-era TV special), the two-disc "Watchman: The Complete Motion Comic" (a flash animation-style presentation of the comic book, panel by panel), four featurettes on the film and the comic, and the "Watchman Video Journals" (11 brief featurettes that were originally incorporated in the "Immersive WB Maximum Movie Mode" of the Blu-ray release). Also available on Blu-ray, which was not made available for review by press deadline.
©Milestone/Oscilloscope
The Exiles
Before there was ever such a thing as an independent American cinema, Kent MacKenzie's independently produced 1961 drama chronicled the lives of urban American Indians (all of them non-actors drawing from their own lives) in the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles over one long, alcohol-lubricated night with powerful images and painful honesty. In the interest of full disclosure, I participate in the DVD commentary with author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, and interview Alexie for a separate audio-only supplement. The two-disc set also features four short films by MacKenzie plus other documentary shorts and clips.
©Criterion
Downhill Racer
The feature debut of Michael Ritchie is a character portrait in the guise of a sports drama. Robert Redford plays a self-involved hotshot on the American ski team more concerned with personal glory than any conception of teamwork or discipline. Shot largely on location in Europe, the sports scenes have an integrity that favors the physicality of action over the drama of competition. Features new interviews with Redford and writer James Salter on the origins and evolution of the film, an interview featurette with other members of the production team, and an archival audio-only recording with Ritchie discussing films and filmmaking in a 1977 seminar.
©IFC
My Effortless Brilliance
Before she hit Sundance with "Humpday," Lynn Shelton explored the complications of male relationships, specifically the "breakup" of old friends and the desperation with which one man (played by Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson) attempts to reconnect, with this slyly funny and slightly discomforting portrait. His motivations are less out of affection than ego -- dude, he was dumped! -- and Shelton watches this relationship spin its wheels on Nelson's glib but needy presence in all its understated humor. Features commentary by Shelton with the stars and key members of her production team, a featurette and deleted scenes.
©First Run
Luxury Car
Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes 2006, Wang Chao's drama covers territory now familiar to modern Chinese cinema: the experience of young adults from the villages moving to the city and getting caught up in the crime and corruption and hustle of urban life. Tian Yuan is a bar girl all but resigned to her compromises when her father comes searching for her brother, who's been missing for more than a year. The brief references to the Cultural Revolution and underplayed revelations of the criminal underworld are all the more effective by the quiet understatement. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment and a contributing writer for GreenCine.com, Turner Classic Movies Online, Parallax View and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications. Find links to all of this and more on his shamelessly self-promoting blog.

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