FILM hIGhLIGhTS
SUNDAY CHICKEN RUN (2000) TV3, 5.05pm
Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha and Phil Daniels are among the vocal cast of Nick Park’s claymation comedy. Devastated by their potential fate at the farm they call home, Ginger and her fellow chickens think their prayers have been answered when handsome cockerel Rocky flies into the coop. But is he really the action hero that he seems to be?
MR BEAN’S HOLIDAY (2007) ITV2, 7.15pm
Rowan Atkinson reprised arguably his most famous role for this comedy, which sees his bumbling buffoon head to Cannes after winning a holiday. However, on his way to France, Bean accidentally separates a young boy from his father, and has to do everything that he can to reunite the pair, while a series of outrageous accidents make his path across the country anything but smooth. Willem Dafoe is also among the cast.
PURSUIT (2015) TV3, 9pm
Ruth Bradley, Barry Ward, Liam Cunningham and Brendan Gleeson head the cast of Paul Mercier’s crime thriller. Grainne, the daughter of a crime boss is supposed to marry one of her father’s lieutenants, but is actually in love with his bodyguard — a set of circumstances that inspire a wild chase across all of Ireland.
MONDAY THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) E4, 9pm
Jennifer Lawrence heads the cast of the first film of the franchise that established her as a star. Based on Suzanne Collins’s trilogy of novels, it charts the life of Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to take her sister’s place in The Hunger Games, a televised competition which features teenagers from the districts of the city they live in do battle to the death. Liam Hemsworth also stars.
BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (2013) TG4, 9.30pm
Director Steven Soderbergh’s biographical drama charting the life of singer Liberace and his lover Scott Thornson received two Golden Globe nominations and drew critical acclaim for the performances of Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in the lead roles.
MAN ON FIRE (2004) Film4, 11.50pm
Denzel Washington unleashes his inner action hero in Tony Scott’s violent, explosive thriller. Burnedout CIA assassin John Creasy is asked to become a bodyguard for a Mexican family. Despite having no interest in the role, he agrees, just for something to do. Initially he can’t stand to be around Pita, the nine-year-old in his care, but she eventually breaks down his defences and he enjoys being with her. However, when she’s kidnapped by gangsters, he sets out on a bloody quest to save the girl and kill anyone involved.
TUESDAY DIE HARD (1988) Film4, 9pm
All-action classic, starring Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia and Alan Rickman. New York cop John McClane is visiting his wife, who is at her company’s Christmas party, when terrorists take everyone there hostage. McClane, trapped inside the building with no police back-up available, goes on a one-man mission to bring down the baddies and rescue his wife. Yippee-ki-yay...
TRAPPED (2002) 3e, 9pm
Director Luis Mandoki’s crime thriller, starring Kevin Bacon, Charlize Theron, Courtney Love and Dakota Fanning. A pair of professional kidnappers snatch the young daughter of a doctor and his wife, giving them only 24 hours to secure the money that will buy her safe return. With time running out, and the health of their asthmatic daughter at risk, the couple do everything that they can to save their little girl.
FAST FIVE (2011) Film4, 11.40pm
Justin Lin directs this instalment of the prolific action series, in which regulars Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are joined by star of the genre, Dwayne Johnson. Brian O’Conner and Dom Toretto, whom Brian broke out of jail, flee to Brazil to pull one last job that will earn them their freedom. However, federal agent Luke Hobbs sets his sights on the pair, and when Hobbs targets crooks, he always gets his man...
WEDNESDAY THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (2005) ITV2, 9pm
Judd Apatow’s surprisingly warm romantic comedy, starring Steve Carell and Catherine Keener. A 40-year-old electronics store worker’s colleagues discover that he’s never been intimate with a lady, and set about solving his ‘problem’. However, Andy, who’s happier at home with his comics than he is in bars, isn’t so keen on their methods, and things get even more complicated when he meets single mother Trish. Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are also among the cast.
THE DESCENDANTS (2011) More4, 9pm
Alexander Payne directs this drama, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’s novel of the same name, which won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a couple of Golden Globes. It follows Honolulu-based lawyer Matt King, who finds his life turned upside down when his wife has a boating accident and slips into a coma. Trying to unite his two daughters, both of whom have issues of their own, he has to
come to terms with learning that his wife was having an affair. George Clooney and Shailene Woodley star. GRAVITY (2013) RTE1, 9.35pm
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star in Alfonso Cuaron’s epic sci-fi drama, which scooped an impressive seven gongs at the Academy Awards. Brilliant medical engineer Dr Ryan Stone is on her first space mission. Tethered to veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, they embark on what should be a routine spacewalk when disaster strikes, casting the pair of them into open space and completely destroying their shuttle.
ThUrSDAY SALT (2010) Film4, 9pm
Angelina Jolie heads the cast of Phillip Noyce’s twisting espionage thriller. She plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who is accused of being a sleeper agent by a Russian defector who claims that she is planning a huge act of terrorism. Going on the run in an attempt to prove her innocence, she is pursued by the agency’s finest, all desperate to stop whatever she has planned. But is everything really as it seems? Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor also star.
WE’LL TAKE MANHATTAN (2012) BBC4, 11pm
Sascha Bailey and Frances Barber star in director John McKay’s drama chronicling the relationship between Cockney photographer David Bailey and model Jean Shrimpton as they’re sent on an assignment in New York, and spend a wild week in the Big Apple.
THE INTERNATIONAL 3e, 11pm
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts star in this crime thriller about an Interpol agent and a district attorney looking to bring a powerful and corrupt bank to justice.
FrIDAY PS I LOVE YOU (2007) TV3, 9pm
Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler star in Richard LaGravenese’s tear-jerker about a young woman whose husband tragically passes away. However, before he died, he wrote his wife 10 letters to help her through the heartache, the first of which she discovers on her 30th birthday.
GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm
Director Paul Feig took a huge risk when rebooting a beloved classic such as Ghostbusters — a decision that was magnified when he plumped for an allfemale cast. The film follows four paranormal investigators (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones) as they set out to stop the plans of a mad scientist who is summoning spectres in order to bring about an apocalypse.
SATUrDAY TOP CAT BEGINS (2016) Sky Cinema Premiere, 6.20pm
Origin films are all the rage, with almost all of the superheroes having their own line in spinoffs that explain how they came to have their powers, and what motivates them to fight their eternal battles with the baddies. But not all origin movies are about villains, and not all heroes wear capes, as this animation, which explains just how Top Cat got his start in life, proves. Jason Harris and David Hoffman offer their voices.
LUCY (2014) Channel 4, 9pm
Luc Besson’s sci-fi blockbuster stars Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. Lucy is asked to drop a parcel to a businessman. However, she’s captured and forced to become a drug mule, carrying a powerful new drug in her stomach. When the bag breaks, the drug is released into her body, and it begins to unlock the full potential of her mind, which she uses to go on a quest for justice.