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New Year films
SATURDAY
Inside Out (2015) (BBC1, 3pm)
A young girl, Riley’s mood is shaped by five coloured emotions – golden Joy, blue Sadness, purple Fear, red Anger and green Disgust – which bicker behind a control desk inside her head. When Riley turns 11, her parents relocate from Minnesota to San Francisco, and Sadness unwittingly challenges Joy for dominance.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017) (STV, 8.30pm)
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his fellow Guardians face a razortoothed beast that intends to steal the Anulax Batteries belonging to high priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) and her Sovereign people. As a reward for bravery, the heroes take delivery of a prisoner: Gamora’s estranged sister, Nebula (our own Karen Gillan). Soon after, The Guardians encounter Ego (Kurt Russell), who claims to be Peter’s missing father.
SUNDAY
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) (BBC1, 10.40am)
Adapted from Dav Pilkey’s series of colourful children’s books, David Soren’s energetic computeranimated adventure is like a pair of oft-worn Y-fronts: saggy and frayed in places, but structurally sound. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie embraces puerile humour with a goofy grin and repeatedly trots out poop gags to keep youngsters in the audience sniggering with glee.
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017) (Film4, 11.45pm)
Shy teenager Enn (Alex Sharp) and best friend Vic attend the gig of a local band, the Dyschords, who are managed by the formidable
Boadicea (Nicole Kidman).The young men subsequently head to an after-party at a mansion, which is filled with the most bizarre creatures. It transpires that these alluring denizens are extraterrestrials, who are temporarily on Earth to take part in an ancient rite of passage.
MONDAY
The Apartment (1960) (BBC2, 1pm)
Lonely clerk CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon) comes up with an unusual
way to climb the career ladder – he lends his apartment to his superiors to use for their extramarital liaisons. However, while he may be promised promotions, he starts to have misgivings when he falls for the charms of elevator operator Fran (Shirley MacLaine), who turns out to be having an affair with Baxter’s smarmy boss (Fred MacMurray).
Iron Man 3 (2013) (BBC1, 11.35pm)
Robert Downey Jr returns as the billionaire-inventor-superhero Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, but we now find him to be a nervy insomniac prone to panic attacks. He does at least have his former assistantturned-CEO Pepper Potts
(Gwyneth Paltrow) on hand to soothe him. A definite improvement on Iron Man 2, this enjoyable superhero sequel meets the high standards we’ve come to expect from Marvel.
HOGMANAY
The Queen (2006) (STV, 12.45pm)
Before he created the Netflix drama The Crown, Peter Morgan wrote this compelling account of the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, which won Helen Mirren an Oscar for her portrayal of Her Majesty the Queen. Mirren elegantly captures the sadness, fortitude, anger and frustration of a monarch struggling to reconcile her thoughts of Princess Diana with the immense adoration of the people.
Spectre (2015) (STV, 8pm)
The new Bond film, No Time to
Die, is finally due to arrive in April, so now is a good time to catch up on the previous instalment. It sees the newly appointed M (Ralph Fiennes) battling political forces, including Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), to protect the integrity of MI6 following a merger with MI5. Spectre, fronted by the enigmatic Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). Spectre is a robust tale of espionage and dark family secrets that can’t quite live up to its tour-deforce opening at a Mexican day of the dead parade.
NE’ER DAY
Pete’s Dragon (2016) (BBC1, 11am)
A little boy called Pete (Levi
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