The Herald - The Herald Magazine
THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS
SATURDAY
Alien: Covenant (2017) (Channel 4, 9pm)
Set approximately 10 years after the 2012 prequel Prometheus, Alien: Covenant joins the dots to the original trilogy with strong echoes of Sigourney Weaver’s exploits as Ripley, somewhat meekly mimicked here by Katherine Waterston. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation vessel Covenant is bound for a remote planet. They stumble upon a distress signal broadcast from a nearby planet that sensors reveal would make an idyllic new home, and set out to investigate. But they are not alone on this new world...
Fast & Furious 7 (2015) (STV, 10.45pm)
The seventh instalment of The
Fast and the Furious franchise begins directly after events of
Fast & Furious 6 with corrupt British soldier Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) on life support in a London hospital. Owen’s older brother Deckard (Jason Statham) seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and their crew. Dean hacks into the computer of federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to ascertain the whereabouts of the team and doles out a near fatal pummelling to Hobbs in the process.
SUNDAY
The Finest Hours (2016) (BBC2, 10pm)
Boatswain’s Mate First Class Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) meets sassy telephone exchange operator Miriam Penttinen (Holliday Grainger) in November 1951. Their whirlwind romance leads to a marriage proposal a few months later. Soon after, the oil tanker SS Pendleton breaks in half during a fierce storm, condemning the 41 survivors to a grim fate. Engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) galvanises the terrified crew and attempts to buy them some time. Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana), who oversees the lifeboat station at Chatham, Massachusetts, orders Bernie to assemble a three-strong team and attempt a rescue.
Notting Hill (1999) (Channel 5, 10pm)
Hugh Grant plays London bookshop owner Will, who has a chance encounter with the biggest movie star in the world, Anna Scott (a perfectly cast Julia Roberts). A spark develops, but can love overcome
their very different lifestyles and the pressures of media intrusion? The leads make a great couple, and there’s also scene-stealing support from Rhys Ifans as Will’s oddball flatmate and a bit of Hollywood satire thrown in to stop it becoming too similar to Four Weddings.
MONDAY
The American (2010) (Sony Movies, 9pm)
Following a bungled assassination attempt in Sweden, hitman Jack (George Clooney) telephones handler Pavel (Johan Leysen), who suggests the assassin should lay low in the Italian town of Castelvecchio. Jack drives to the remote community and on the spur of the moment, he disobeys orders and sets up camp in nearby Castel Del Monte. The American is a slow-burning study of solitude, and director Anton Corbijn makes excellent use of the stunning European locations.
The Green Mile (1999) (More4, 10pm)
The delicate equilibrium of a 1930s Death Row block is disrupted by the arrival of a gentle giant called John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), convicted of raping and murdering two 10-year-old girls. Over time, the new inmate befriends one of the guards, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), who has seen many guilty men pass through and who suspects that Coffey may be serving time for a heinous crime he did not commit.
TUESDAY
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) (Sony Movies Classic, 3.15pm)
William Wyler’s drama was a huge hit on its release in 1946 - it won seven Oscars and became the highest-grossing film in the UK and US since Gone with the Wind - and it remains a powerful experience today. It follows three servicemen as they struggle to return to civilian life following the Second World War.
The Hatton Garden Job (2017) (Film4, 9pm)
Fact is handcuffed to fantasy in this British crime drama directed by Ronnie Thompson, which draws inspiration from the 2015 “heist of the century”. A criminal (Matthew Goode), known as Basil in news coverage at the time, is released
from prison as the puppet of the Hungarian mafia. He is indebted to Erzebet Zslondos (Joely Richardson), wife of a notorious war criminal, and must conjure up a huge payday if he wants to avoid a shallow grave.
WEDNESDAY
Get Out (2017) (Film4, 9pm)
Gifted African-American photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is nervous about a road trip to meet the parents of his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams). When he arrives at her parents’ pristine community, he is warmly welcomed, but something about the neighbourhood feels out of kilter and Chris is unnerved by the passive behaviour of the Armitages’ black groundkeeper Walter (Marcus Henderson) and maid Georgina (Betty Gabriel).
The Commuter (2018) (5STAR, 9pm)
Former NYPD detective Michael McCauley (Liam Neeson) heads home on New York City’s busy Metro-North Railroad. An enigmatic woman called Joanna (Vera
Farmiga) slinks into the opposite seat and strikes up a cryptic conversation. She intimates there is a brown paper bag containing $25,000 hidden in one of the toilets and Michael can earn a further $75,000 if he agrees to find a passenger called Prynne, who is travelling to Cold Spring station in Zone 7. Curiosity piqued, Michael takes the cash then hesitates when he consults his rusty moral compass.
THURSDAY
Split (2016) (Film4, 9pm)
Popular high school student Claire Benoit (Haley Lu Richardson) celebrates her birthday with her classmates, including best friend Marcia (Jessica Sula) and creepy outcast Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). On the way home, a socially awkward misfit called Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy) overpowers Claire’s father and kidnaps the three girls, spiriting them away to a bunker.
The hostages discover that Kevin exhibits 23 distinct personalities, including a germ-phobic brute called Barry, a clucky British mother hen called Patricia and a nine-yearold boy called Hedwig. Split is a tantalising psychological thriller with a tour-de-force performance from McAvoy.
Rocky Balboa (2006) (ITV4, 9pm)
The sixth film in the franchise finds Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) living back in his old neighbourhood, grieving for his late wife Adrian, and running a restaurant where he entertains customers with stories of the old days. But when a computer simulation suggests that Balboa in his prime would have beaten the current heavyweight champion, the publicists lure him back into the ring for an exhibition bout. Some people might have been sceptical about the prospect of Stallone putting the gloves back on, but Rocky Balboa turns out to be an unexpected treat. Rather than turning to the increasingly daft sequels for inspiration, this drama has the spirit of the early Rocky films – and paves the way for Stallone’s Oscar-nominated reprisal of the role in Creed.
FRIDAY
The Untouchables (1987) (ITV4, 9pm)
A fresh-faced Kevin Costner made the jump from B-movie wannabe to A-list star with this blockbusting thriller. He plays Elliot Ness, the
FBI agent fighting underworld crime and police corruption in an effort to throw vicious gangster Al Capone (Robert De Niro) in the clink. Brian De Palma’s film may be one of the best gangster movies of all time, and there has never been a more stylish gunfight than in the stunning climax. But from the very start, this is a lesson in exquisite film-making, from the magnificent supporting cast, including Sean Connery to the superb score, by way of great dialogue and multi-layered characters.
Easy Rider (1969)
(Sony Movies Classic, 9pm)
Two hippie bikers (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) travel across America on their way to the
Mardi Gras in New Orleans. In their quest to find a different way of living, they encounter other similarly nonconformist souls, including a disillusioned lawyer (Jack Nicholson) who ends up travelling with them, but also come up against bigotry and intolerance. The ultimate biker movie, this cult classic was responsible for co-writer and director Hopper’s rise to stardom and was made on a shoestring. Dated but daring.