“Abduction”
*
Nathan (Taylor Lautner) discovers a photo of himself taken as a child on a website for missing persons. With the help of his classmate Karen, he finds out that everything about his life is a lie. And then the bad people start coming after him. Main villain Michael Nyqvist is a textbook example of sleazy Eurotrash heavies. PG-13. 1 hour, 46 minutes. Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers
“Courageous”
*½
The film follows four Albany, Ga., sheriff’s deputies, all fathers, who are tested by the small city’s gang and drug problems, something the sheriff identifies as being the product of kids growing up in fatherless homes. PG-13. 2 hours, 4 minutes. Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
“The Ides of March”
***
Idealistic press spokesman Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) finds himself caught in a riptide of his own making during a Democratic primary battle. Philip Seymour Hoffman is his mentor. Paul Giamatti portrays the opposition campaign manager. George Clooney acquits himself well in front of the camera — as prez hopeful Gov. Mike Morris — and behind it as director (he also co-wrote the hothouse script). Based on one-time Howard Dean campaigner Ben Willimon’s play, which took its original title from a Washington, D.C. metro station. But “Farragut North” was a tad too Beltway-insider for the filmmakers. Sorely, they didn’t shed the vexing insularity, which is part of the point, but doesn’t make for a fully satisfying commentary of our political zeitgeist. R. 1 hour, 41 minutes. Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post
“Thurgood”
This 2011 HBO TV special achieved an artful rendering of U.S. Supreme Court Justice and civil rights activist Thurgood Marshall’s life and influence. Laurence Fishburne stars in the one-man Broadway play (he was nominated for a Tony Award), recounting Marshall’s career and family life, the issues that moved him and the laws which he, in turn, changed forever with momentous cases like Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1952, he was determined to challenge segregation. “I have to tell you,” Marshall confides, “sometimes I get a little bit weary of trying to save the white man’s soul.”
Joanne Ostrow, The Denver Post
More releases
Available today
Age of Heroes
Belle de Jour
Bill Moyers: Amazing Grace
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Dead Poets Society (Blu-ray debut)
Dirty Girl
Eclipse Series 31: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin
Good Morning, Vietnam (Blu-ray debut)
The Josephine Baker Story (Blu-ray debut)
Kickoff
Merlin: The Complete Third Season
Mysteries of Lisbon
Sliders: The Fifth and Final Season
The Tuskegee Airmen (Blu-ray debut)
Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Six
