Search - Watchmen (Theatrical Cut) (Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition) on DVD


Watchmen (Theatrical Cut) (Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition)
Watchmen
Theatrical Cut
Actors: Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup
Director: Zack Snyder
Genres: Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense
R     2009     2hr 42min

A COMPLEX, MULTI-LAYERED MYSTERY ADVENTURE, WATCHMEN IS SET IN AN ALTERNATE 1985 AMERICA IN WHICH COSTUMED SUPERHEROES ARE PART OF THE FABRIC OF EVERYDAY SOCIETY, AND THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK WHICH CHARTS THE USA'S TENSION WITH ...  more »
     
     

Larger Image

Movie Details


Similar Movies

300
Two-Disc Special Edition
Director: Zack Snyder
   R   2007   1hr 57min
   
District 9
Blu-ray
Director: Neill Blomkamp
   R   2009   1hr 52min
   
The Dark Knight
Two-Disc Special Edition
   PG-13   2008   2hr 32min
   
Terminator Salvation
Director's Cut
Director: McG
   R   2009   1hr 57min
   
The Dark Knight
Widescreen Single-Disc Edition
   PG-13   2008   2hr 32min
   
Batman Begins
Widescreen Edition
Director: Christopher Nolan
   PG-13   2005   2hr 20min
   
Hellboy II The Golden Army
Collector's Set
Director: Guillermo del Toro
   PG-13   2008   2hr 0min
X-Men Origins Wolverine
Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy
Director: Gavin Hood
   PG-13   2009   1hr 47min
   
V for Vendetta
Widescreen Edition
Director: James McTeigue
   R   2006   2hr 12min
   
Sin City - Unrated
Two-Disc Collector's Edition
Directors: Frank Miller (II), Robert Rodriguez
   UR   2005   2hr 4min
   
Kick-Ass
Director: Matthew Vaughn
   R   2010   1hr 57min
   
The Spirit
   PG-13   2009   1hr 43min
   
V for Vendetta
HD DVD
Director: James McTeigue
   R   2006   2hr 12min
   
Man of Steel
Blu-ray
Director: Zack Snyder
   PG-13   2hr 23min
   
Dredd
3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray + Digital Copy + UltraViolet
Director: Pete Travis
   R   2013   1hr 35min
Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice
Ultimate Edition Blu-ray + Theatrical Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD UltraViolet Combo Pack

   
Pacific Rim
Blu-ray
Director: Guillermo del Toro
   PG-13   2013   2hr 12min
   
Mad Max Fury Road
Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet

   
Logan
DVD+DHD
   R
   
Ex Machina
Blu-ray
   R   2015
   
The Fifth Element
Blu-ray
Director: Luc Besson
   PG-13   2015   2hr 6min
   
Prometheus Blu-ray w/ Dhd
7
   R   2015   4hr 8min
Batman Begins
Ultra HD/BD
Director: Christopher Nolan
6
   2017

Similarly Requested DVDs

No Country for Old Men
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
   R   2008   2hr 2min
   
2012
Director: Roland Emmerich
   PG-13   2010   2hr 38min
   
Snatch
Widescreen Edition
Director: Guy Ritchie
   R   2003   1hr 42min
   
Green Zone
Director: Paul Greengrass
   R   2010   1hr 55min
   
A Time to Kill
Director: Joel Schumacher
   R   1997   2hr 29min
   
Tropic Thunder
Director: Ben Stiller
   R   2008   1hr 47min
   
Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
   PG-13   2010   2hr 28min
   
Land of the Lost
Director: Brad Silberling
   PG-13   2009   1hr 42min
   
The Blind Side
Director: John Lee Hancock
   PG-13   2010   2hr 9min
   
The Sixth Sense
Collector's Edition Series
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
   PG-13   2000   1hr 46min
   
 

Member Movie Reviews

Craig S. (InnerMacro) from WAUSAU, WI
Reviewed on 2/3/2015...
I'll preface this review by saying I love super hero movies and usually have a good foundation in their origins in comics, however Watchmen is not a series I have read. People have always told me that Watchmen is an epic read and one of the best things in the history of comics. So I will admit I had high expectations for this film, however I cannot help but feel that either this movie completely missed the mark, or Watchmen is simply not for me. Below contains SPOILERS so only continue if you are not concerned . . .

My first complaint was, Where's the action? Other than some heavily cliched scenes that largely copied styles from every other action movie being made at the time (namely Batman and Matrix), this movie was mostly nudity and political statements. My guess is that Moore's sequencing suffered from being translated to a movie format as it seemed disjointed - and the whole bit with the faked assassination attempt on Veidt was beyond credibility . . . even for a superhero movie. The world's smartest man comes up with a plan that would likely be thought up by a pre-teen kid. "I know, I'll hire a guy to try and kill me and that will make everyone think I am not behind this!" The ONLY reason that scene exists is to trick the reader/ viewer because evidently Moore's plot could not convincingly misdirect without such a cheap device.

Rorschach was the only character I really felt had an substance,(since he had that sort of Punisher feel to him), but he was an obvious tool for Moore's thinly veiled preach-fest about the errors of American values. The Comedian was an absolutely idiotic one-dimensional view of America and anyone who serves in the military.

We all know that superheroes would not really work under the US judicial system, and I guess Moore was trying to explore that. I got tired of the attempt at shock value of showing Dr. Manhattan's genitals in every scene they could, bored with all the women being trampy for fanboys, and beat over the head by the political symbolism that was present throughout. For a three hour movie, I still feel like I don't understand the backstory of many of the characters or how they came to be what they are - especially given all the effort put into describing the Nixon alternate timeline as a result of the US defeating Japan using superheroes. It almost seems like anybody could be a superhero if they just simply declared that they were going to be one. The Second Silk Spectre tells us that she "donned the costume because her mother did". Was there some genetic transferrence? Does the costume give the abilities? Did she train for years in a Tibetan monastary to learn her martial skills? Nope - she just chooses to do what mom did with no explanation as to how she can defeat a dozen armed criminals without so much as a scratch. I know Moore intended it to be this way, but it just doesn't flow well in the medium of movies and leaves that characters seemingly empty.

In an effort not to be entirely negative, I'll say that the lunch room prison scene was pretty cool and the subsequent broken toilet in the cell stuff was awesome. To me, the best line of the movie was "You're in here with me!". Classic. Moore's twist is that Rorshach is the true villan - because of his journal, makind will utlimately destroy itself because he had to tell the truth about Ozymandius' lie to save the world.

In summary, don't watch this with the expectation of it being like the Avengers or Batman. Rather than an action movie, this is really a drama with an overt political message in a 'superhero setting'.
David D. (regblank)
Reviewed on 5/12/2010...
One of the worst movies that I've seen in recent history. A complete waste of time....
0 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Jennifer J. (Avon-Girl-Jenn) from BALTIMORE, MD
Reviewed on 10/23/2009...
I really, really liked this movie. The characters were great. My favorite, however, is Rorschach (forgive me if I mispelled). This is a great superhero movie, but it's not for the kids. Very entertaining.
Mary L. from ROYAL OAK, MI
Reviewed on 10/23/2009...
really enjoyed this movie

Movie Reviews

This Is The Masterpiece We Never Thought Would Ever Happen
The Great Rocky Hill | Pittsburgh, PA USA | 03/09/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)

"*SPOILER WARNING*

Let me be blunt.

Alan Moore should eat crow and be proud of this movie. "Unfilmable" it most certainly wasn't.

And the fanboys all need to take a laxative. This was in at least some ways better than the maxi-series/graphic novel, which will never be demoted from its status as a classic of its medium.

Aside from the overly graphic violence, a gratuituous sex scene, and Dr. Manhattan's needless nudity (he needed to wear pants, and seeing his genitalia added nothing to the plot)I really have nothing negative to say about Watchmen.

Let's diffuse some of the criticisms I've come across.

Yes, Matthew Goode was foppish as Ozymandias. He's supposed to be that way. He's not intended to exude menace. That's his style. A villian as sublime as Ozymandias is subtle. Coming across as overtly malevolent would have caused his plans to fail. His slender, Aryan appearance and slight German accent made him the perfect choice to play the type of foe who believes that the murder of millions is the only way to save the world.

Which brings me to the casting. There was not one actor who didn't fit their respective character like Rorschach's inkblot mask. The decisions made concerning who should play who were more accurate than any comic book movie I can think of.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Comedian was Burt Reynolds as a misogynist sociopath. It was as if the character himself was directly lifted from the pages of the graphic novel and given life. It was uncanny how Morgan captured this character's all too easy violence, his nonchalant, happy penchant for brutality.

I said in a review of Batman:The Dark Knight that Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was unfathomably good, especially considering Ledger's teen idol pedigree.

Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach dethrones Ledger's Joker in that regard. From out of some forgotten void, a former heart throb returns to play a madman akin to Robert DeNiro's Travis Bickle or Michael Douglas' William Foster. My money would be on Haley's Rorschach as Steve Ditko's right-wing Objectivist Mr. A, the analogue for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' character, is channeled with such a chilling and disturbed beauty. His guilt is blended with an intolerance as he claims that the dead heroine Silhouette met her fate due to being a lesbian. When Haley takes off the mask, things become even more unnverving as you see how "fascinatingly ugly" Walter Kovacs, Rorschach's alter ego is, inside and out. Again, having a former Tiger Beat hero play such a character was just remarkable to me. 20 years from now, people will never believe that Haley was once a Bad News Bear, and for that alone he deserves an Oscar. Seriously. His performance is more than enough to recommend this film to anyone.

None of the other performances disappoint. Patrick Wilson's Nite Owl also deserves mention as he nails down the David Brinkley (from Robert Mayer's obscure but very influential 1977 novel 'Superfolks') as Batman that Moore and Gibbons intended Nite Owl to be. He's awkward, stuffy, insecure, and rusty in crimefighting and life in general, and Wilson flawlessly gets that across.

As an aside, and us comics fans need to face this fact, the film versions of Silk Spectre, Nite Owl, and Ozymandias absolutely trump the comics versions in terms of design. Silk Spectre is sexier, Nite Owl is fierce, sleek, and punches his wonky-looking comics counterpart back to DC's Silver Age, and here Ozymandias is a Greek god compared to Gibbons' take.

Some people are complaining that Malin Akerman's Silk Spectre was dry, but I thought she was fine. In fact, she was just the right mixture of innocent and sultry and thusly kept with the spirit of not only Silk Spectre herself but also of the characters that inspired Moore and Gibbons to create her. Akerman was one mod version of Phantom Lady or Nightshade.

Remember, they're all analogues because if they weren't, we wouldn't have had any Blue Beetle or Question tales in the 80's.

Carla Gugino is quite the aging diva here. Her makeup job as a senior (The Silk Spectre's mother and predecessor) is so astonishing you'd think she was an unknown. In the flashback sequences she is the epitome of retro eroticism.

She sees herself in an underground porn comic and is flattered. Wow.

And speaking of unknowns, can anyone honestly think of any famous actors who would have done as well or better in these roles? Yet another reason why Watchmen is such a success. John Cusack as Nite Owl? Please.

So the casting was faithful as was the entire movie for the most part, thereby squashing another gripe the fans had. I'll even go as far as to say that Watchmen works so well because it is very faithful to its source material.

Yes, the ending is somewhat different, yet is pretty much the same. Ozymandias stages nuclear attacks instead of an alien invasion to unite mankind, "killing millions to save billions" as he himself would put it.

You know, when I read the Watchmen chapter in David Hughes' book "The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made," and saw that Sam Hamm didn't feel that the ending of the original comics story "worked" for him, I knew then and there that the makers of Watchmen the film weren't going to completely stick to Moore and Gibbons' vision. And that slight difference (it's just a parallel path to the same destination) only made for a better movie.

Alien invasions are not timely in any period, let alone this alternate Nixon-led 1985 or 2009. The threat of mutually assured nuclear holocaust is. If humanity is to be dealt a serious blow, it will be by humanity's own hand, not something from beyond our solar system.

What we have with the cinematic Watchmen, is what I believe we had with the original tale. It's a treatise on those who rule the world, masked as a superhero yarn, which in turn is masked as a murder mystery. It makes you think, and at the same time is mindful of that needed sense of wonder. It's scary, nihilistic, exciting, provocative, and its ending is as hopeful as it is troubling.

The tale of the Watchmen is like a railroad track that is built with the best of aims yet leads to nowhere but perdition. What will our elites do, or what are they above or not above doing to improve the human condition? Who in power can we trust? In the movie, we see Nixon, Kissinger, and other real-life malefactors who did what they did for personal gain. What of Ozymandias? What did he stand to gain? Did he really love humankind or have nothing but detached contempt for it? We see this with Billy Crudup's Dr. Manhattan as well, although Manhattan suffers from disappointment and heartbroken selfishness, whereas Ozymandias has this sense of birthright to save the world from itself by way of genocide.

I may need to dig out my copy of Watchmen the graphic novel as it has admittedly been a few years since I last perused it, but as a comics fan of 30 years, as someone who holds comics in the highest regard as an artform and recognizes the Moore/Gibbons masterwork as deserving of its status, I will state that Watchmen was more than worth the wait. One could even make a case that it's a better movie because it took so long to happen, that development hell aided in making it what it is.

And it bears repeating, Watchmen, with some minor and essential tweaking, is reverent of the comic book, and that reverence is another component that makes the movie so engrossing.

There was a time when I didn't think that a Watchmen film should be made. However, upon seeing the final product, I am left with some questions.

Why isn't Alan Moore rejoicing?

And why isn't comics fandom rejoicing along with him?

Even if you've never read a comic book in your life, I strongly recommend Watchmen. If it doesn't make you a fan of the comic book or of comics in general, then you didn't enjoy the film, and if you didn't enjoy the film, I have nothing left to say to you. If you think that your unfamiliarity with the characters, the fact that they aren't icons like Batman and Spider-Man, will hinder your enjoyment, remind yourself of the Hellboy phenomenon. Hellboy was a mid-level character that has never had an ongoing series and was published by a company that was not Marvel or DC. He has since been the subject of a pair of moviehouse blockbusters. Also be mindful of the the popular Men In Black franchise and its origin as an obscure independent comic book. From the looks of it, the heroes/villians (are they one and the same?) of Watchmen are about to join that club.

If you are a comics fan and haven't seen it yet, leave the nitpicker in you at home, allow yourself to be surprised in the best way possible, and go ahead and be a little smug as the closing credits roll. You deserve it for being so far ahead of the curve.

A monument of comics finally has a cinematic counterpart. Hold your head high.
"
Additional changes for Director's Cut
Senor Zoidbergo | Washington D.C. | 07/02/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The director's cut runs about 25 minutes longer, and incorporates more elements from the comics, adds more violence, as well as more shots of Dr. Manhatten's schlong. Some of the previous scenes are reworked with additional dialogue. Information has been supported by sites such as AICN etc.

Overall, the storyline and conversations are better fleshed out, and this version is truer to the comics. The largest additional addition is that of Hollis Mason's death, which is spectacularly directed to the score of the Intermezzo from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana (think Godfather III).

(1) Rorschach gets additional dialogue, some straight from the comics.

(2) When Rorschach searches the Comedian's apartment shortly after the opening scene, he encounters two cops still stationed there. He fights briefly with them before jumping back out the window.

(3) Conversation between Dan and Rorschach (beans scene) is extended.

(4) All flashbacks extended, with the exception of Sally's.

(5) Dr. Manhatten discussing the symbol on his forehead. Additional questions in the face to face with Dr. Manhatten. Dan and Hollis watch Dr. Manhatten go crazy on their TV set.

(6) Laurie getting interrogated by the military as they try to determine Dr. M's whereabouts (on Mars). Alessandro Juliani's (Lt. Gaeta from Battlestar Galactica) scene has been reinserted. He plays one of the scientists who bursts in during the interrogation of Laurie to tell the military that they've located Dr. M on Mars.

(7) Probably the biggest addition is the depiction of Hollis Mason's death at the hands of the knot heads. Interestingly, the death is done from poor Hollis' POV, where he imagines himself fighting the gangsters of the 1940s. He delivers left and right hooks to Captain Evil, before being done in by "Moloch". The score for the death scene is very fitting.

(8) Dan taking revenge on an isolated knot head at a bar, post Hollis' death. It's a brutal revenge.

(9) The shootout by hired hitman Roy Chess is much more brutal- e.g. more blood and gore, fingers blown off.

(10) Conversation between Dr. Long and Rorschach is extended.

(11) Longer jail-break scene with arguments between Rorschach and Laurie. Prison guards open fire on Dan's ship.

(12) Longer conversation between Dr. M and L on Mars.

(13) Riot scene is longer with more conversation between the Comedian and the rioters.

(14) Agent Forbes (Fulvio Cecere) has a larger role as the government agent in charge of handling all the Watchmen.

This is THE version to get. It feels complete.

"
Better than theatrical release, but more to come in December
J. W. Luther | Rolla, Missouri United States | 08/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This edition is an improvement over the theatrical release and is closer to the book. My only disappointment related to this edition was that I opened the package to find a coupon for the ULTIMATE edition, which is to be released Decemberish. The next (and I hope final) version will have the Black Freighter story woven into the main story as it is in the book. If you don't want multiple versions of this film, hold off buying until the end of the year.

I agree with the other reviewers who note the film's ending is an improvement over the book's. It just makes more sense in the context of the story. This is not a knock on Mr. Moore, of whom I am a big fan.

I don't understand the folks who are so down on this film, unless it is that they just had the wrong expectations and/or didn't do their homework before watching it. It was never meant to be another Spiderman, Superman or Hulk story.

Kudos to Mr. Moore. Kudos for the team who produced this film."