Weekend at the Movies: 'Moneyball,' 'Abduction' and 'Killer Elite'

September 23, 2011 Movies

Here's a sneak peek at what's opening in theaters this weekend, including the Brad Pitt baseball flick "Moneyball"; the Taylor Lautner thriller "Abduction"; the sweet family film "Dolphin Tale"; and the hard-action movie "Killer Elite" with Robert De Niro, Jason Statham and Clive Owen.

In Theaters Now (September)

'Moneyball' (Sept. 23)

Who: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman; directed by Bennett Miller What: The film focuses on Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who in the early 2000s successfully put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

'Abduction' (Sept. 23)

Who: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver; directed by John Singleton What: A young man sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.

'Dolphin Tale' (Sept. 23)

Who: Harry Connick Jr., Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble; directed by Nathan Gamble What: A story centered on the friendship between a boy and a dolphin whose tail was lost in a crab trap. Who wants to cry?

'Killer Elite' (Sept. 23)

Who: Robert De Niro, Jason Statham, Clive Owen; directed by Gary McKendry What: When his mentor is taken captive, a retired member (Statham) of Britain's Elite Special Air Service is forced into action. His mission: kill three assassins dispatched by their cunning leader.

'Drive' (Sept. 16)

Who: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks; directed by Nicolas Winding Refn What: A Hollywood stunt performer (Gosling), who moonlights as a wheelman, discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist goes wrong.

'Straw Dogs' (Sept. 16)

Who: James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard; directed by Rod Lurie What: L.A. screenwriter David Sumner relocates with his wife to her hometown in the deep South. There, while tensions build between them, a brewing conflict with locals becomes a threat to them both.

'I Don't Know How She Does It' (Sept. 16)

Who: Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Christina Hendricks; directed by Douglas McGrath What: A comedy centered on the life of Kate Reddy, a finance executive who is the breadwinner for her husband and two kids.

'Contagion' (Sept. 9)

Who: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cottilard; directed by Steven Soderbergh What: A thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.

'Warrior' (Sept. 9)

Who: Tom Hardy, Jennifer Morrison, Nick Nolte, Joel Edgerton; directed by Gavin O'Connor What: The youngest son (Hardy) of an alcoholic former boxer (Nolte) returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament — a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his older brother (Edgerton).

'Apollo 18' (Sept. 2)

In documentary-style, decades-old footage is found from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission. It shows how two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition — and reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon. [cue ominous music].

'Shark Night 3D' (Sept. 2)

Who: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee; directed by David R. Ellis What: A weekend at a lake house in the Louisiana Gulf turns into a nightmare for seven vacationers as they are subjected to fresh-water shark attacks.

'The Debt' (Sept. 2)

Who: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthingon, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain; directed by John Madden What: The espionage thriller spans time following Mossad agents from the time they track down a Nazi war criminal in 1966 to 1997, where the agents are being killed. The team's mission was accomplished-or was it?

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