The best films on the box this week
FRIDAY
MACHETE (2010) (Film4, 11.35pm)
DANNY Trejo cuts a swagger as Machete, an assassin for hire who barely escaped death at the hands of drug lord Rogelio Torrez (Steven Seagal).
Desperate to make ends meet, Machete accepts a job from spin doctor Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey) to kill Senator John McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), who is on the presidential campaign trail.
As he prepares to pull the trigger, Machete realises he has been set up. On the run, he seeks refuge with his priest brother, Padre Cortez (Cheech Marin).
SATURDAY
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (ITV2, 6.45pm)
A PROLOGUE tells of history of the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron to ensnare the world. When he is vanquished, the Ring is lost.
The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) finds it and later the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) learns Sauron can only be defeated by casting the Ring into the Cracks of Doom. Bilbo’s nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood) becomes the Ringbearer on the quest to destroy it.
SUNDAY
SUSPICION (BBC2, 1.30pm)
CARY Grant fans automatically think of a suave and sophisticated charmer – and that’s exactly what audiences get in this thriller.
However, director Alfred Hitchcock had planned to portray him as a sadistic murderer, until the studio ordered him to shoot a new ending.
It’s not one of either Grant’s or Hitchcock’s best films together, but it’s a little underrated. Plus, it’s still always worth a repeat viewing, if only to imagine what might have been.
MONDAY
THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS (Film4, 3.30pm)
INGRID Bergman takes the lead role in this drama based on a true story. She plays Gladys Aylward, who dreams of becoming a missionary in China.
Without the right qualifications, she nevertheless saves up and earns enough to get her to the country where she runs a remote village’s inn.
She becomes invaluable to the locals, but realises where her true fate lies when she must lead a group of children through hostile territory in pre-WWII China.
Much of the film was shot in the Welsh village of Portmeirion.
TUESDAY
ALIEN (Film4, 9pm)
DESPITE being a revamp of B-movie It! The Terror From Beyond Space, director Ridley Scott and his team of designers created a sci-fi classic that once seen is never forgotten.
John Hurt was hired at the last minute as the illfated Kane; Jon Finch fell ill during filming and had to be replaced. Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton also star.
WEDNESDAY
THE BABADOOK (Film4, 1.20am)
CARE home worker Amelia (Essie Davis) is still haunted by memories of dead husband.The only person who shares Amelia’s sense of loss is her young son Samuel (Noah Wiseman), who is exhibiting signs of ADHD.
Each night, Amelia lulls her boy to sleep with a bedtime story. One book, a gothic pop-up entitled Mister Babadook, sends a chill through mother and son, and Samuel senses a ghoulish presence...
THURSDAY
FATHER GOOSE (Film4, 1.35pm)
A HARD-DRINKING beachcomber languishing on a small South Sea island is assigned to look for Japanese spy-planes by theAustralian Navy during WWII.
When his path crosses with a teacher and her pupils marooned on a nearby shore, he pilots them to his own home.
An excellent comedy from Ralph Nelson, with great chemistry between Cary Grant and Leslie Caron.