Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Friday, March 2:
Slick, smart “Tower Heist” is a timely comedy caper with Ben Stiller as the infuriated manager of one of New York’s most luxurious residences who’s determined to wreak revenge against a Wall Street tycoon (Alan Alda) who masterminded a Ponzi scheme that swindled the employees’ pension fund.
In Clint Eastwood’s inscrutable “J. Edgar,” Leonardo DiCaprio embodies the iconic, paranoid head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, serving eight Presidents through three wars, using surveillance evidence to try to blackmail Roosevelt, Nixon, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
Antonio Banderas vocalizes the intrepid feline adventurer in “Puss in Boots,” a picaresque animated spin-off from “Shrek 2” who meets his match in sultry femme fatale Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek).
Mixing the feeling of belonging with the sensation of being lost, Elizabeth Olsen is “Martha Marcy May Marlene;” her many names reflect her splintered identity when she flees from an insidious commune in upstate New York, taking refuge with her sister (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy).
Colin Farrell teams with Keira Knightley in “London Boulevard,” as an ex-con who becomes involved with a movie star who is holed up in a Holland Park mansion, protecting her against the paparazzi.
In “The Son of No One,” Channing Tatum plays a rookie NYC cop who gets in over his head when he re-opens a double homicide cold case in his old Queens neighborhood; Juliette Binoche is an investigative reporter and Al Pacino surfaces as the former lead detective on the investigation.
Blandly inspirational, “The Mighty Macs” celebrates the victorious 1972 women’s basketball squad of Immaculata College near Philadelphia with Carla Gugino as their novice coach Cathy Rush.
For kids, “Stellaluna” follows a spirited young fruit bat who finds friendship, love and acceptance in a family of birds.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Martin Scorsese brings Brian Selznick’s children’s book to life in “Hugo,” a magical adventure set in a 1930s Paris train station, where a 12 year-old orphan’s determination to repair an automaton leads him to befriend George Melies (Ben Kingsley), a pioneer filmmaker.