The Herald - The Herald Magazine
THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS
SATURDAY
American Made (2017) (Channel 4, 9pm) Premiere
WA pilot Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is haemorrhaging enthusiasm for his job as he provides for his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) and children. He makes a little money on the side by smuggling Cuban cigars into America in his hand luggage. This illegal practice is rumbled by CIA handler Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), who coerces Barry into working for the US government by flying reconnaissance missions over
Central America to take photographs of the emerging communist threat.
The Midwife (2017) (BBC4, 10.45pm)
Catherine Frot stars as Claire, the uptight, hard-working midwife of the title. Catherine Deneuve plays the free-spirited Beatrice, who is the former mistress of Claire’s father. When Beatrice is diagnosed with cancer, she decides it’s time to make amends for some of her past actions, but Claire, who is still angry about the way Beatrice treated her family, is initially wary. Eventually an unlikely bond starts to develop between the women.
SUNDAY
Spartacus (1960) (ITV4, 3.55pm)
Here’s a welcome chance to see the late Kirk Douglas in his most iconic role. The slave Spartacus (Douglas) is spared from a death sentence by the wily Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), who trains the condemned man at his academy as a gladiator to fight to the death for the entertainment of the rich and the powerful, including Gracchus (Charles Laughton) and his scheming successor Crassus (Laurence Olivier).
Allied (2016) (Channel 4, 11pm)
Wing commander Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), a Canadian intelligence officer posted to London during the Second World War, parachutes behind enemy lines to assassinate a German ambassador. He joins forces with glamorous French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), who is already embedded in Casablanca. Sparks fly as a faux romance kindles deep desire. Allied is an old-fashioned espionage thriller, which explicitly doffs its fedora to the film Casablanca.
MONDAY
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
(Film4, 6.40pm)
Time-travelling teen Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) finally gets out of the Fifties and into 85 - 1885, that is. His old friend, eccentric scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd, has gone back to the days of the wild west, where he’s fallen in love with a schoolteacher - and fallen foul of a gang of thugs. It’s up to Marty to rescue him, but with only 19th-technology at their disposal.
Training Day (2001) (ITV4, 10.30pm)
LAPD Detective Sgt Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) operates above the law and believes that officers should use any method - no matter how extreme - in the pursuit of justice. New recruit Jake Hoyt
(Ethan Hawke) is assigned to train under Alonzo, and to learn from him. Jake bears witness to corruption and extreme prejudice, and he begins to question whether the LAPD is really the right place for him.
TUESDAY
A Taste of Honey (1961) (Sony Movies Classic, 9pm)
A fun-loving teenager (Rita Tushingham) finds an escape from her appalling home life by embarking on an affair with a black sailor Jimmy (Paul Danquah). But once he’s returned to sea, young Jo discovers she’s pregnant. She moves out of her booze-addled mother Helen’s (Dora Bryan) house and sets up home with a gay friend ((Murray Melvin). For a spell they’re blissfully happy, until Helen turns up on the doorstep. Trouble then brews - leading to an emotional confrontation.
Beetlejuice (1988) (5* , 9pm)
AFTER Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) are killed in a car crash, they discover they will be stuck haunting their beloved home for the next 125 years. That wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact their house has been purchased by an obnoxious realestate developer (Jeffrey Jones), his sculptor wife (Catherine O’Hara) and goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder in a star-making performance). When the Maitlands fail to scare the interlopers away, they turn to ‘bio-exorcist’ Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) for help. Despite the waferthin premise, Tim Burton’s supernatural comedy is huge fun.
He only appears for 17 minutes in total, but Keaton dominates the movie as the eponymous slobbish spook, and the bouncy Danny Elfman score keeps things ticking over nicely.
WEDNESDAY
Cop Land (1997) (ITV4, 10.30pm)
Sylvester Stallone shed pounds from his wage packet and piled them on to his midriff to star in this gripping thriller, which reminds us that there’s more to him than Rocky and Rambo. He plays Freddy Heflin, a portly, halfdeaf New Jersey sheriff patrolling a small town that has become a haven for New York police officers. Freddy idolises his cop neighbours, so he faces a major integrity crisis when an Internal Affairs investigator (Robert De Niro) arrives to look into a potential police cover-up. Harvey Keitel, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport and Ray Liotta round out an outstanding cast.
120 BPM (2017) (Film4, 11.05pm)
DIRECTOR Robin Campillo powerfully conveys the raw emotions of Aids activism in 1990s Paris in his award-winning drama. Frustrated by the lack of research into the virus, a group of impassioned French activists plans a series of headlinegrabbing stunts to provoke the establishment into action. United under the banner ACT UP, these young men and women challenge the status quo with fervour. Sean (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) is a longstanding member of the group and HIV positive, while Nathan (Arnaud Valois) is a new arrival and HIV negative. While ACT UP’s most outspoken members Thibault (Antoine Reinartz) and Sophie
(Adele Haenel) clash over the most effective methods to shame pharmaceutical companies, Sean and Nathan fall head over heels in love against a backdrop of protests and forceful interventions.
THURSDAY
Knocked Up (2007) (ITV2, 9pm)
Writer/director Judd Apatow scores a hit with this likeable comedy about the consequences of a drunken one-night stand. Hapless slacker Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) meets journalist Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) in a night club, and after a few drinks, one thing leads to another... Fast-forward eight weeks, and Alison turns up on Ben’s
doorstep with a shock in store she’s pregnant. The unlikely duo vow to stand together and care for the child, but are they really up to the task?
Crank (2006) (ITV4, 10.30pm)
HIT man Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) wakes in his Los Angeles apartment to a message from a rival assassin stating that he’s been injected with a deadly poison and has just an hour to live. With time ebbing away and his life with it, Chev heads out into the seamy underbelly of the city with just one burning desire: revenge. He seeks medical advice from Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam) who tells him the only way to delay death is to keep his adrenalin pumping. So Chev does everything he can to keep his heart rate up, including gulping down caffeine drinks and engaging in furious al fresco sex with his girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart).
FRIDAY
Die Hard 2 (1990) (Film4, 9pm)
NOTHING’S ever easy for tough cop John McClane (Bruce Willis), is it? Especially not on Christmas Eve... A simple trip to the airport to meet his wife turns into a perilous adventure when he finds himself in the midst of struggle with terrorists. They’re fighting for the release of a notorious drugs baron, but McClane’s not just going to lie down and let them get what they want. He’s going to fight them all the way. It’s not in the same class as the first film, but Die Hard 2 is still a thrilling piece of action and adventure.
The Big Sick (2017) (BBC2, 11.05pm)
Pakistani-American comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani, playing a fictionalised version of himself) hones his craft in Chicago, while working as a taxi driver to pay the bills. After one comedy gig, Kumail meets spunky audience member Emily (Zoe Kazan) and there is a palpable spark of attraction. Soon after, Emily contracts a serious infection and doctors induce a medical coma. It’s left to Kumail to inform Emily’s parents,and the trio bonds awkwardly in the hospital waiting room and cafeteria. Based on Nanjiani’s real-life courtship of his wife, who co-wrote the script, The
Big Sick is a small, perfectly formed gem.