Film choice

300 (2006)

ITV2, 9.00PM ★★★

This epic tale of 300 Spartan warriors led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) into a seemingly unwinnable battle against Persian “god-king” Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) provides bloody and brutal viewing. It’s a film built on action rather than intelligence, but does not lack ambition, and is shot with visual flair. Butler is excellent and well supported by Games of Thrones’ Lena Headey who co-stars as his Spartan queen.

Avatar (2009)

FILM4, 9.00PM ★★★★

Remember when this looked like an embarrassing turkey? Tall blue people, environmental allegory, dodgy body-swap technology – no wonder the early buzz billed it as Ferngully:

the Last Rainforest meets Dances with Smurfs. We should have had more faith in James Cameron, whose digital wizards excel themselves with the Pandora junglescapes. The only real drawback is that its vast scale is diminished on TV.

Oldboy (2003)

HORROR CHANNEL, 12.40AM ★★★★

Park Chan-wook’s bloody revenge drama is not for the faint-hearted, though it has become a cult classic. A middle-aged man (Choi Min-sik) is kidnapped, held captive for 15 years, then released. Beefed up during his incarceration, he turns remorseless killer to find out who is to blame and what has become of his family. Warning to animal lovers: features a man eating a live octopus.