A 'Road' that led nowhere - Los Angeles Times
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A ‘Road’ that led nowhere

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Revolutionary Road

Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99

Despite the Oscar success of “American Beauty,†Sam Mendes might be the best working director who has yet to make a truly outstanding film. Mendes’ adaptation of Richard Yates’ “soul-sick suburbia†novel “Revolutionary Road†doesn’t break his streak. The movie’s re-creation of mid-’50s Connecticut is stunningly precise, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give compelling performances as a young married couple coming to the realization that their bohemian dreams are about to go unfulfilled. But nearly everything about “Revolutionary Road†-- save for a live-wire supporting turn by Michael Shannon -- feels pat and outdated, with nothing to say about contemporary life. Still, Mendes remains a talent to watch, as evidenced by his thoughtful additions to the DVD and Blu-ray featurettes and commentary track.

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Defiance

Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99

“Glory†writer-director Edward Zwick returns to action-oriented historical drama with “Defiance,†based on Polish Jews who led a band of guerrillas in the forest throughout the Nazi occupation. Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber play brothers who disagree over whether they should be on the offensive or the defensive and whether they should cast their lot in with the allies against the Axis. It all makes for a rousing war story with complex moral underpinnings. The “Defiance†DVD and Blu-ray editions include a Zwick commentary and featurettes that deal with the real events depicted in the movie and how the filmmakers went about dramatizing them.

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He’s Just Not

That Into You

New Line, $28.98; Blu-ray, $35.99

The big-screen version converts a popular self-help tome into a surprisingly ambitious romantic comedy, running a sprawling ensemble cast through a series of mini-dramas designed to illustrate the thesis of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s book. Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore star along with Justin Long, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Connolly and Ben Affleck in loaded scenarios that demonstrate how men and women misinterpret each other, to comic and tragic effect. The DVD adds deleted scenes with commentary by director Ken Kwapis. The Blu-ray offers further guidance -- on romance and on filmmaking -- via a trio of behind-the-scenes featurettes.

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Spring Breakdown

Warner, $27.98; Blu-ray, $35.99

Former “Saturday Night Live†comic actresses Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch co-star with Parker Posey in a riff on beach-party movies that has three middle-aged ladies trying to keep up with the college kids they’re supposed to be chaperoning. “Spring Breakdown†debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this year to mixed reviews and is now being dumped onto home video rather quickly and unceremoniously. The DVD and Blu-ray editions come with a gag reel and a commentary track by director Ryan Shiraki and Dratch (who also co-wrote the film with Shiraki).

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Une Femme Mariee

Koch Lorber, $26.98

Subtitled “fragments of a film shot in 1964 in black-and-white,†Jean-Luc Godard’s under-seen classic is a movie marvelously of its time. It combines snippets of advertisements with verite conversations between a materialistic young woman and the three men in her life: her husband, her son and her lover. Godard works his usual critique of consumerist culture into something more like an actual narrative, and less like the freewheeling essays on politics and aesthetics that have dominated his career output. This is also arguably his most sensual work, with its Beethoven soundtrack, whispery narration and flashes of bare skin all showing how upscale living can be a process of never-ending seduction. “Une Femme Mariee†arrives on DVD for the first time in a sumptuous-looking but features-free edition.

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All titles available Tuesday.

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