Film Planner Big movies on the small screen
Saturday November 24
★★★★
Paddington (2014)
6.35pm RTÉ One
Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins take the lead roles as the London family looking after everybody’s favourite Peruvian bear in this charming tale. But the real star of the show is the marmalade-eating creature in the duffel coat, voiced by Ben Whishaw.
★★★★
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
9.00pm RTÉ 2
Thirty-six years after Mel Gibson first appeared, Tom Hardy is now the anti-hero for this high-tech, metal-crunching, Steampunk version of Wacky Races. Max is the pigeon whom all the baddies (including Charlize Theron) are endeavouring to stop.
★★★★
JFK (1991)
9.20pm TG4
Based on the memoirs of New Orleans DA, Jim Garrison, Oliver Stone’s drama is a fascinating mix of fact, fiction and conjecture. The strong cast includes Kevin Costner (as Garrison), Tommy Lee Jones, Sissy Spacek and Gary Oldman, as Lee Harvey Oswald.
Sunday November 25
★★★
Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
10.15am More 4
There’s a B-movie feel to this revenge western about a gunman hired to shoot a man who fought on “the wrong side” of the Civil War. That said, when Yul Brynner is the gunman, still wearing the black suit from The Magnificent Seven, you know it’s worth a watch.
★★★★
Reach For the Sky (1956)
3.00pm BBC Two
Kenneth More delivers the performance of his career as ace fighter pilot Douglas Bader, a man who lost both his legs during WWII but managed to rebuild both his life and his career. Muriel Pavlow and Nigel Green co-star.
★★★
Creed (2016)
7.20pm ITV 2
In this entertaining spin-off to the Rocky franchise, director Ryan Coogler casts Michael B. Jordan in the role of Apollo Creed’s son; a troubled youth who wants to follow in his late father’s footsteps but is equally determined to make it in the boxing ring on his own terms. And yes, Sly does pop up.
Monday November 26
★★★★
Mr Deeds Goes To Town (1936)
6.30am TCM
Frank Capra’s superb drama stars the director’s second favourite Everyman, Gary Cooper (Jimmy Stewart topped him) in the role of Longfellow Deeds, the smalltown poet who inherits a fortune and gives most of it away to the poor and needy. Jean Arthur co-stars.
★★★
Double Jeopardy (1999)
9.30pm TG4
Ashley Judd is sent down for her husband’s murder but begins to suspect that he may not in fact have shuffled off his mortal coil. Snappily directed by Bruce Beresford, the film co-stars Tommy Lee Jones but hinges on the excellent Judd.
★★★
Air Force One (1997)
11.00pm Channel 5
Wolfgang Petersen’s high-octane drama stars Harrison Ford as the US Prez who finds himself pitted against a bunch of nasty Russians (led by Gary Oldmanov) who hijack Air Force One but reckon without the resourcefulness of the First Citizen.
Tuesday November 27
★★★★
Planet of the Apes (1968)
3.45pm Sky Cinema Sci-Fi
This is the original of the species in which Charlton Heston toplines as the leader of a space expedition which crash lands on a planet run by apes and then has to come to terms with the fact that the Simians rule and Man must obey.
★★★★
Virginia City (1940)
7.00am TCM
There’s plenty to admire in this riproaring Michael Curtiz western, notably a gallant cowboy in the shape of Errol Flynn, surrounded by a cracking ensemble cast including Miriam Hopkins, Humphrey Bogart, Randolph Scott and Alan Hale.
★★★★
Earthquake (1974)
1.55am Channel 4
Charlton Heston leads the starry line-up (Ava Gardner, Lorne Greene, etc) for one of the first big disaster movies of the 1970s. Can the big man save the citizens of LA from a calamitous tremor? Watch out for the future Pam Ewing ( Victoria Principal) and her striking afro.
Wednesday November 28
★★★
The Perfect Storm (2001)
9.00pm Sky One
This powerful adaptation of Sebastian Junger’s best-selling novel chronicles the exploits of a shing crew as they experience the worst storm in living memory. A bearded and bu ed George Clooney makes a ne salty seadog, with Mark Wahlberg in support.
★★★★
Midnight Express (1978)
11.45pm Sky Cinema Greats
Alan Parker’s powerful, true-life drama concerns an American college student (Brad Davis) caught smuggling hashish out of Turkey and subjected to a brutal prison sentence as a result. Co-starring John Hurt, the award-winning drama is a harrowing portrait of incarceration.
★★★
Bad Teacher (2011)
midnight Virgin Media Two
Cameron Diaz has rarely been better than as the foul-mouthed, gold-digging High School teacher whose interest in her kids is con ned to how much money she can extract from them (and/or their parents) in order to fund a boob job.
Thursday November 29
★★★★
A Man For All Seasons (1966)
11.05am TCM
Robert Bolt’s Oscar-winning screenplay magni cently unravels the labyrinthine relationship between Sir Thomas More (Paul Scho eld) and Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) at a time when opposition to the latter’s policy of a quickie divorce leads to the former’s execution.
★★★★
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
4.00pm Sky Cinema Sci-Fi
Stanley Kubrick’s beautifully shot and undoubtedly profound sci- yarn gets a welcome showing on its 50th anniversary. Watch out for the director’s famous jump-cut that instantly shifts the narrative time-line from a prehistoric bone to a futuristic space craft.
★★★★
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
8.00pm Sky Cinema Select
George Clooney is in terri c form as one of a trio of convicts on the run in the Deep South. Set in the Depression era, this Coen Brothers yarn is lled with quirky dialogue and cool scenes..
Friday November 30
★★★★
Rocky (1976) 9.30pm RTÉ 2
Those who consider Sylvester Stallone to be merely a musclebound piece of wood would do well to watch this one. In addition to delivering a thoroughly convincing performance as the washed-up pug who gets his crack at the big time, Stallone actually wrote the Oscar nominated script.
★★★
Tara Road (2005)
midnight RTÉ One
Maeve Binchy’s best-selling yarn gets the big screen treatment. Two women, one American woman (Andie MacDowell) and one Irish (Olivia Williams) decide to swap houses at traumatic moments in their lives.
★★★★
Bullet To The Head (2012)
12.05pm Channel 4
Walter Hill’s action-fest has ageing hitman Sly Stallone (him agan) hooking up with eager young cop Sung Kang in order to take down some Louisiana bigwigs. Sly trades punches and punchlines with big bad guy Jason Momoa.