FILM HIGHLIGHTS
MONDAY GILDA (1946)
More4, 10.55am Rita Hayworth moved into the Hollywood pantheon of screen goddesses in this unmissable classic noir of desire and doublecrossing. Casino owner Mundson saves gambler Johnny Farrell from being mugged out of his winnings in Buenos Aires. Farrell then tries to cheat at Mundson’s casino, but talks his way into a job when he’s caught. There, he encounters Mundson’s beautiful wife, singer Gilda, who has something of a history with him.
BIG (1988) Film4, 6.55pm
Tom Hanks received the first of his five Oscar nominations and signalled the beginning of a stellar career in this much-loved comedy.
Young Josh makes a wish to be an adult at a fortunetelling machine, and wakes up as a fully-grown man, but still a boy on the inside. At first his new life is great, as he sets about getting a job and meeting a lady, but he soon yearns to return to his old life as he misses home.
SOUTH CENTRAL (1992)
TG4, 9.30pm Part of a slew of gritty gangster ghetto films in the early 1990s, including New Jack City and
Boyz n the Hood, this flew somewhat under the radar. Gang member Bobby Johnson (Glenn Plummer) is released after spending 10 years in youth authority for murder. Having found inner peace and religion, he resolves to go straight, but is distressed to discover his young son Jimmy (Christian Coleman) is mixed up with his old gang.
TUESDAY CATTLE EMPIRE (1958)
More4, 11.25pm Horse opera stalwart Joel McCrea plays Cord, a trail boss jailed for five years after his men got a little carried away with celebrating and burned down a town. On his release, the townsfolk seek their revenge, but he’s saved by the town boss, and given a cattle drive. However, he also accepts another drive and plans a double cross. Everything changes when he hears what really happened on the night of his arrest.
BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) Film4, 1.05pm
Few film-making partnerships ever reached the heights of director Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger’s run in the 1940s. This is another stone-cold classic, featuring Jack Cardiff ’s Oscar-winning cinematography. A convent of Anglican nuns in the Himalayas led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) find themselves going offthe-rails in a strange old palace. Kathleen Byron steals the show as Sister Ruth, who falls in love and questions her celibacy.
STRANGERLAND (2015) Sky Premiere 9.45pm
Nicole Kidman returns to her native Australia alongside Joseph Fiennes, in this mystery drama. A family move to a small Outback town. When their teenage children go missing just before a massive dust storm, rumours about their previous lives sweep the town, and the locals begin to turn against them.
WEDNESDAY BRAVEHEART (1995) Film4, 9pm
Mel Gibson’s gory take on the life of Scottish nobleman William Wallace, who rebelled against England and fought for his country’s freedom, hasn’t lost its ability to enthrall the viewer. Following the murder of his wife at the hands of English soldiers, Wallace leads a ragtag collection of Scottish fighters against the forces that march for King Edward I’s tyrannical reign. Sophie Marceau and Patrick McGoohan also feature.
50 DEAD MEN WALKING (2008) BBC1, 12.10am
Taut Troubles thriller, based on the autobiography of Marty McGartland. In 1980s Belfast, teenage hustler McGartland is recruited by the RUC to infiltrate and inform on the Provisional IRA. Due to his dislike of the terrorists he agrees, and begins a high-risk double life. When he realises that he’s about to be sold out by his handlers, he tries to run but is caught by the IRA. Jim Sturgess and Ben Kingsley star.
SILENT RUNNING (1972) Channel 4, 2am
Classic sci-fi drama, the directorial debut of 2001: A Space
Odyssey effects genius Douglas Trumbull, with an ecological message that has stood the test of time. Bruce Dern is outstanding as a lone crewman on the Valley Forge, a huge spacecraft carrying all that remains of Earth’s plant life following an apocalypse, with just three robots for company. He receives instructions to destroy his precious cargo, and the robots prepare to obey.
ThUrSDAY MAGIC MIKE (2012) E4, 9pm
A risque premise is turned into quality comedy here by director Steven Soderbergh, with the aid of Channing Tatum. Mike (Tatum, drawing on his real-life experiences as a teenage stripper) has been earning his crust by disrobing for the patrons of the Xquisite All-Male Revue. But he’s forced to reassess everything when a younger recruit joins the team. Alex Pettyfer and Olivia Munn also star.
THE CAMPAIGN (2012) RTE2, 9.30pm
Comedy starring ‘frat pack’ regulars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. Inept congressman Cam Brady (Ferrell) commits yet another gaffe, and two billionaire brothers decide to increase their influence in the district by putting up a rival candidate. Their candidate is the equally inept tourism director, Marty Huggins (Galifianakis). However, with a ruthless campaign, Huggins is soon within striking distance, which is when the mud-slinging and increasingly vicious insults really begin to fly.
THE READER (2008) Film4, 1.25am
Multi-nominated actress Kate Winslet finally received her Oscar for this adaptation of best-selling novel Der Vorleser. Tram conductor Hanna brings a young sick boy, Michael, home when she finds him with a fever in a town on the Rhine in 1958. The two embark on an affair, before she vanishes from his life. A decade later, Michael, now a law student, uncovers the dark past of his former lover.
FrIDAY THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004) E4, 8pm
Disaster movie director Roland Emmerich uses the weather to destroy civilisation as we know it. Climatologist Jack Hall is ridiculed for his global warming ideas. Suddenly he is proven right in the most dramatic of ways, and as survivors wait for help, he sets out to find his son, who is trapped in a frozen-over New York. Dennis Quaid and
Jake Gyllenhaal star.
WAR OF THE WORLDS (2004) TV3, 9pm
Steven Spielberg returns to one of the canonical texts of science fiction, and brings Tom Cruise along for the ride. HG Wells’ novel is updated to the present day. Docker Ray (Cruise) is facing another tense weekend with his estranged young children. Soon a stream of pulses herald the start of an alien invasion, and Ray must save the children and himself from the attacks.
THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976) TG4, 9.05pm
Cult 1970s western, starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson. A rancher kills the friend of a horse thief, prompting a wave of rustling in retaliation. Desperate to stop this, he hires a man to hunt down the gang, but the man has his own way of doing things.
PLAYING FOR KEEPS (2012) Channel 4, 1.40am
Gerard Butler plays a washed-up footballer who falls on hard times and takes charge of his son’s soccer team. But will he be able to rekindle the love of his former wife Stacie (Jessica Biel) while fighting off the amorous advances of many of the soccer mums?
SATUrDAY HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) RTE1, 6.35pm
Delightful animated comedy in which young Viking Hiccup is brought up to view dragons as his greatest enemy. He would rather use his head than his physicality (or lack of ) to bring them down, but when he comes across a rare, wounded dragon, an unlikely friendship blossoms.
SYRIANA (2005) TG4, 11.10pm
George Clooney picked up his acting Oscar as a CIA operative in this juicy tale of four men whose lives intertwine against the background of the less salubrious side of the oil industry. A giant American oil firm is losing control of its fields in the Middle East when the ruling family begin to grant drilling rights to the Chinese, and take underhand steps to undermine the new Emir.
THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? (1969) RTE1, 1.20am
Jane Fonda leads the cast of this classic drama, directed by
the great Sydney Pollack. A man wanders into a dance marathon during the Great Depression, and is quickly recruited as a partner for Gloria (Fonda). The lives of the couple interact and are manipulated by tragic consequences. Michael Sarrazin co-stars.