‘Trapped’ in a nasty movie

Trapped

Charlize Theron, Kevin Bacon

Columbia TriStar, $28

Watching this smarmy kidnapping thriller is akin to receiving a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking. The film opened late last summer with little fanfare during a seemingly endless spate of real-life child kidnappings around the country. It also was quietly released because it is just a nasty bit of business, despite the stellar cast. Child kidnappers Bacon, Courtney Love and Pruitt Taylor Vince meet their match when they kidnap the asthmatic daughter (Dakota Fanning) of Theron and Stuart Townsend.

The DVD has way too many extras for a film of this quality, including a “making of” featurette, several deleted scenes, an alternate ending, decent commentary from director Luis Mandoki and another commentary track from Greg Iles, who wrote the screenplay.

*

Blood Work

Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels

Warner Home Video, $27

Eastwood, now 72, stars in and directed this rather anemic, old-fashioned thriller about a retired FBI profiler and recent heart-transplant recipient who tracks down the killer of his heart donor. It’s better than some of Eastwood’s most recent films but nowhere near the quality of “Unforgiven.” Wanda De Jesus plays the sister of the heart donor and Daniels is Eastwood’s hippie neighbor. The digital edition is pretty skimpy, with a “making of” documentary and a conversation in Spanish with De Jesus and co-star Paul Rodriguez (subtitled in English) about the rise in popularity of Latino actors. Eastwood also pops up in this conversation but speaks in English.

*

The Judy Garland Collection

Judy Garland

Kultur, $40

This four-disc DVD set features the terrific 1962 TV concert “Judy, Frank & Dean: Once in a Lifetime” that was produced and directed by Norman Jewison of “In the Heat of the Night” fame, the tuneful 1963 “The Judy Garland, Robert Goulet & Phil Silvers Special,” the legendary 1964 concert “Live at the London Palladium With Liza Minnelli” and the 1985 PBS special “The Concert Years,” hosted by Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft.

Garland is at the peak of her vocal and emotional powers in the three concerts from the ‘60s, but Kultur doesn’t seem to have done any restoration work on these titles. The “Once in a Lifetime” concert, which was colorized when it was reprised on the small screen in the 1980s, is in decent shape, but the Goulet and Silvers special and the Palladium concert are not. In this age of digital restoration, there is no excuse for releasing anything this shabby.

*

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu

Warner Home Video, $27

There are spectacular stunts, tons of gunfire and car chases galore in this mindless but watchable action thriller. FBI agent Ecks (Banderas) discovers that his late wife (Talisa Soto) is alive and married to an evil CIA agent (Gregg Henry). Liu is a defense intelligence agent pursuing the Henry character because he’s stolen some micro-technology and was involved in the killing of her infant.

The ho-hum DVD includes an HBO “First Look” documentary and an interactive challenge game.

*

Also this week

Eddie Murphy stars in “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” (Warner, VHS: $22.98; DVD: $26.98); “Harrison’s Flowers” (Universal, DVD: $32.98), a drama with Andie McDowell; the comedy “The First $20 Million Is the Hardest” (Fox, DVD: $34.99); and “Circuit” (TLA Releasing, DVD: $29.99), a drama detailing life on the gay party trail.

Top VHS rentals

1. K-19: The Widowmaker

2. Austin Powers in Goldmember

3. Like Mike

4. Lilo & Stitch

5. Men in Black II

Top DVD rentals

1. Austin Powers in Goldmember

2. K-19: The Widowmaker

3. Men in Black II

4. Like Mike

5. Halloween Resurrection

What’s coming

Tuesday: “XXX,” “Barbershop” and “Hey Arnold! The Movie.”

Jan. 7: “Signs,” “The Good Girl,” “Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat” and “Who Is Cletis Tout?”

Jan. 14: “About a Boy,” “Blue Crush,” “Undercover Brother,” “Time Out (L’Emploi du temps).”

-- Susan King