MOVIE PLANNER
SUNDAY
Sense And Sensibility (1995) U
■ 1.40PM, RTÉ ONE ★★★★
Emma Thompson stars in her own adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel about sisters who fall for two very different men. Kate Winslet also stars in Ang Lee’s acclaimed drama.
Tomorrowland: A World Beyond
(2015) (12) ◆
2.40PM, RTÉ2 ★★★
A curious teenage girl and a former genius inventor embark on an adventure to save the earth. Fantasy adventure, starring George Clooney.
Suicide Squad
(2016) 15 ◆
9PM, RTÉ2 ★★★
Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn (above) steals the show in this hyper stylish fantasy adventure involving a bunch of super villains on a mission. Will Smith and Jared Leto do their best to claim some of the limelight.
Spotlight
(2015) 15 ◆
9.30PM, RTÉ ONE ★★★★ Oscar-winning fact-based drama, starring Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton. It involves journalists (below) investigating a conspiracy to cover up child abuse in the Catholic church. With Rachel McAdams.
Bad Neighbours (2014) 15
◆
11PM, CH4 ★★★★
Comedy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are the couple resorting to dirty tricks after a bunch of party animals disrupt their lives.
Paths To Glory (1957) PG
◆
12.45AM, BBC2 ★★★★
Kirk Douglas stars in this classic anti-war drama directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb. Douglas plays the leader of a group of French soldiers in the First World War who is forced to defend his men after they refuse to take part in a suicidal attack.
MONDAY
Half A Sixpence (1967) U
●
2.55PM, BBC2 ★★★
Money is not the source of all happiness in this musical, directed by American George Sidney (Kiss Me Kate, Pal Joey). Tommy Steele is endlessly upbeat as the humble draper’s assistant who inherits a fortune, but risks losing what really matters.
Christmas Lights (2007)
6.25PM, VIRGIN THREE ★★★
Robson Green and Mark Benton shine in this comedy about two brothers-in-law whose obsession with competing festive decorations endangers their friendship.
The Inbetweeners 2 (2014) 15
◆ 9PM, E4 ★★★
Sequel in which the four close-knit friends are as dissatisfied as ever with their lives. Will, Neil and Simon jet off to visit Jay, who is on a gap year Down Under – and with the old gang reunited, awkwardness and hilarity ensue.
Batman v Superman (2016) 12
◆ 9PM, SKY ONE ★★★
The two mighty heroes (Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, below, with Gal Gadot) have an aggressive falling out in this boisterous movie. Into their testosterone-fuelled stand-off steps Wonder Woman (Gadot), joining the fight to face a virtually indestructible foe.
Frost/Nixon
(2008) 15 ◆
9.30PM, TG4 ★★★★
Ron Howard’s fact-based drama features Frank Langella and Michael Sheen (below), as Richard Nixon and David Frost in this reconstruction of the pair’s televised tete-a-tete.
Sabotage (2014) 15
◆
11.35PM, CH5 ★★★
Arnold Schwarzenegger as you’ve never seen him before, as a dirty agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration. He steals from the cartel he’s been tracking, making enemies on both sides of the law.
TUESDAY
Carmen Jones (1954) U
●
3.35PM, BBC2 ★★★★
Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (above) star in this vibrant adaptation of the 1943 Oscar Hammerstein musical, a reworking of Bizet’s Carmen. Directed by Otto Preminger, with an all-black cast, it was a massive box-office hit.
Secret Santa (2003) PG
●
6PM, VIRGIN THREE ★★★
Family drama, starring Jennie Garth and Steven Eckholdt. A reporter attempts to find an enigmatic benefactor who gives a town’s poor residents gifts each festive season. With Charles Robinson.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) 12
◆ 8PM, E4 ★★★
A story recently told again in 2019’s Dark Phoenix, this is the third film in the original series. Famke Janssen stars as Jean Grey, the mutant who struggles to control her immense power – and flips to the dark side.
Bullitt (1968) 15
◆ 9PM, ITV4 ★★★★ Star and motor vehicle are in perfect harmony as Steve McQueen (right) races through the streets of San Francisco in Peter Yates’s classic crime thriller. McQueen is the cop who drives his car up and down that city’s vertiginous streets in one of cinema’s most magnificent car chases.
Ashby (2015) 15
◆
11.25PM, FILM4 ★★★
Offbeat cross-generational comedy starring Nat Wolff as the schoolboy moving to a new town with his mother (Sarah Silverman). He embarks on an unlikely friendship with his new neighbour (Mickey Rourke), a retired CIA assassin.
The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death (2014) 15 ◆ 1.05AM, CH4 ★★★ The bell tolls for more visitors to Eel Marsh House in this sequel to the popular 2012 horror. Helen McCrory (right) and Phoebe Fox are the teachers fleeing the London Blitz with their young charges.
WEDNESDAY
Daddy Long Legs (1955) U
●
3.15PM, BBC2 ★★★
Leslie Caron dances with Fred Astaire in this comedy musical. Caron is the Frenchwoman falling for Astaire’s wealthy American, several years her senior, who paid for her schooling.
Julie & Julia (2009) 12
◆
4.45PM, SONY MOVIES ★★★★ Cleverly intertwined comedy drama starring Meryl Streep as revolutionary 1960s chef Julia Child, who caused a stir in the kitchens of France and beyond. Amy Adams co-stars as Julie Powell (below), the cook inspired by Child’s recipes.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) 12 ◆ 8PM, 5STAR ★★★★
An update of the 1960s TV series, with Armie Hammer (below) and Henry Cavill ably filling the shoes of David McCallum and Robert Vaughn as operatives from rival agencies. It’s action-packed, stylishly directed by Guy Ritchie, and the leads have great chemistry.
GoodFellas (1990) 18
▲
10PM, ITV4 ★★★★★
Martin Scorsese’s modern classic is a beguiling and bloody sprawl through the rise and fall of mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). A dizzying look inside the insulated world of New York gangsters and their families.
Girl Most Likely (2013) 12
◆ 10.30PM, TG4 ★★★
Engaging comedy, starring Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening. A once-successful playwright has to return home and reconnect with her family when her career ends in disaster. With Matt Dillon.
Tanu Weds Manu (2011) 12
◆ 2AM, CH4 ★★★
Hindi-language comedy in which Manu, a doctor living in London, reluctantly returns to India to find a bride.
THURSDAY
Pygmalion (1938) U
●
2.30PM, TALKING PICTURES ★★★★ George Bernard Shaw’s play is now widely known as My Fair Lady (from the Lerner and Loewe stage hit). Leslie Howard is the phonetics professor who teaches Wendy Hiller’s flower girl Eliza Doolittle (below) how to elongate her vowels and succeed in life.
Call Me Madam (1953) PG
●
3.25PM, BBC2 ★★★★
Ethel Merman was a gregarious performer who was successful on Broadway, but struggled to find her groove in Hollywood. Call Me Madam was another smash hit for her on stage in 1950, and she again makes Sally Adams her own in this splendid film.
Hercules (2014) 12 u 9PM, 5STAR ★★★ Dwayne Johnson follows in the footsteps of Kevin Sorbo and Arnold Schwarzenegger to take on the role of the mythic strongman. The film focuses on the hero’s life after his 12 labours as he leads a band of muscly mercenaries, including Ingrid Bolso Berdal’s Amazonian Atalanta (right), to Thrace.
Pale Rider (1985) 15
u
10PM, ITV4 ★★★★
Clint Eastwood’s character in this classy western, which he also directs, is a nameless rider who is drawn into someone else’s battle – this time, by a teenager (Sydney Penny) who is praying for her community’s salvation.
I Am Not A Witch (2017) 12
u
11.15PM, FILM4 ★★★★
A young girl in a remote village in Zambia is given a stark choice: admit she is a witch, or be turned into a goat… Unsurprisingly, the youngster opts for the former, and is exploited by a corrupt official.
Lead With Your Heart (2015) PG
● 12.05AM, TG4 ★★★
William Baldwin and Celeste Desjardins feature in this romantic drama about two teenagers who hatch a plan to make their parents realise how much they need each other.
FRIDAY
Top Hat (1935) U 3.35PM, BBC2
●
★★★★
Magical musical with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in one of their electric collaborations. As with many of their onscreen alliances, Astaire’s American dancer annoys Rogers’s British model to begin with, before finally using his toetapping charms to win her over.
The Water Diviner (2014) 15
u 9.30PM, RTÉ2 ★★★
Period drama, directed by and starring Russell Crowe (below). He plays an Australian who travels to Turkey after the First World War to find out what happened to his sons.
Cosmopolis (2012) 15
u
11.45PM, BBC2 ★★★
Robert Pattinson started to shed his tweenie Twilight image with this adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel. Pattinson’s handsomely detached capitalist sits in the back of a stretch limousine, while violence erupts outside.
Analyze That
(2002) 15 u
12AM, RTÉ ONE ★★★
Fun comedy sequel, starring Robert De Niro as a Mob boss who feigns a breakdown to get out of jail, and is released into the custody of his psychiatrist (Billy Crystal). Lisa Kudrow provides able support.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) 15
u 12.10AM, CH4 ★★★
Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy is back, and still struggling to move with the times. Out of a job, he ditches his wife and former co-anchor (Christina Applegate, above, with Ferrell), and takes on newfangled 24-hour TV news.
Eye Of God
(1997) 15 u
1.05AM, TG4 ★★★
Kevin Anderson stars in this drama about an impoverished ex-con living in Oklahoma who marries a local girl without telling her of his criminal past.
SATURDAY
The Santa Clause (1994) (U)
● 6.45PM, RTÉ ONE ★★★★
A divorced father accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and is forced to deliver the presents himself. Fantasy comedy, with Tim Allen.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) 12
u
9PM, CH4 ★★★★
Tom Cruise is back in action for this fun addition to the franchise. This time, the agents of the Impossible Missions Force become fugitives to bring down a shadowy organisation. Rebecca Ferguson (above, with Cruise) also stars.
The Expendables 2 (2012) (15)
u 9PM, VIRGIN ONE ★★★
The mercenary team battles a rival band of hired guns who have killed one of their number. Action thriller sequel, starring Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Wah-Wah (2006) (15)
u
9.15PM, TG4 ★★★
A boy growing up in 1960s Swaziland finds an unlikely friend in his stepmother. Coming-of-age drama, with Nicholas Hoult and Emily Watson.
The Holiday (2006) 12 u 9.30PM, RTÉ2 ★★★ Cameron Diaz (right) and Kate Winslet head the cast of the festive romantic comedy as two women on opposite sides of the Atlantic who decide to swap homes over Christmas, and unexpectedly find love.
The Uninvited (2009) 15
u
12.10AM, BBC1 ★★
Emily Browning stars in this psychological horror as a troubled teen whose mother died in a fire. Along with her sister, she becomes convinced that her dad’s new girlfriend started the deadly blaze.
The White Countess (2005) (PG)
● 12.40AM, RTÉ ONE ★★★
A relationship develops between a blind former American diplomat and a Russian refugee in 1930s Shanghai. Period romantic drama, with Ralph Fiennes.