Your Movie Planner

SUNDAY

A Knight’s Tale (2001) PG ● 1.30PM, CH4 ★★★★

Entertaining medieval romp in which jousting is the name of the game. Heath Ledger stars as the non-nobleman forging ahead under the assumed title of Sir

Ulrich von Liechtenstein, with Resident Alien’s Alan Tudyk (above) as his not so trusty squire.

Mamma Mia! (2008) PG ● 4PM, UTV ★★★★ Delightfully fun and over-the-top transfer of the stage musical, fully festooned with the songs of Abba. Meryl Streep proves she can belt out a tune, with Julie Walters and Amanda Seyfried among the fabulous cast.

People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan (2021) 15 ◆ 8PM, SKY PREMIERE ★★★

PREMIERE Asim Chaudhry’s Chabuddy G (left) eyes the big time for his crew when one of their songs becomes a hit in Japan. This spin-off from the hit sitcom follows the boys on the hunt for a new record deal.

Act Of Union (2021) 15 ◆ 11PM, TG4 ★★★★

Neil Clerkin’s film draws on new interviews and archive footage to explore the conflicting narratives surrounding the Troubles, hearing from former IRA volunteers and Loyalist paramilitaries among others.

La La Land (2016) 12 ◆ 11.05PM, BBC1 ★★★★

A modern musical set in the mad, mad world of Los Angeles and its many aspiring stars. Emma Stone (above) and Ryan Gosling are the beautiful couple who meet and fall in love, falteringly, amid a series of dreamlike song-and-dance routines.

MONDAY

Blanche Fury (1948) U

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11AM, FILM4 ★★★★

Stewart Granger is a dashing and devious cad in this Gothic melodrama. Seducing Valerie Hobson’s Blanche, he aspires to take over the Fury estate, and persuades her to help him to murder her husband. However, there’s more than one Fury heir to dispose of.

Signs

(2002) 12 ◆

9PM, GREAT! MOVIES ★★★

Eerie suspense from M. Night Shyamalan, starring Mel Gibson (above, with Rory Culkin) as a widowed father of two, who gets the creeping suspicion that his small town is receiving visitors from the stars.

The Rhythm

Section (2020) 15 ◆ 9PM, FILM4 ★★★ PREMIERE Blake Lively (right) stars as a woman who is picked up from rock bottom with a mission of revenge against the man responsible for the terror attack that wiped out her family. Jude Law co-stars as the agent training her to become an assassin.

Atonement (2007) 15 ◆

9.30PM, TG4 ★★★★★

Joe Wright brings Ian McEwan’s novel to the screen in grand, sweeping style. Saoirse Ronan is remarkable as Briony, a 13-year-old girl who discovers her sister (Keira Knightley) has fallen for a servant’s son (James McAvoy) and accuses him of a crime he didn’t commit, unaware her actions will have major repercussions.

Predators (2010) 15 ◆

10.30PM, ITV4 ★★★

The bloodthirsty aliens return for another outing, using humans — including Laurence Fishburne, Adrien Brody and Alice Braga — for hunting practice. It’s brutal, but for many fans, it represented a return to form.

The Hangover (2009) 15 ◆ 11.35PM, SKY COMEDY ★★★★

Riotous comedy starring Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper as the friends waking up to a bizarre scene in their Las Vegas hotel room. The sequels follow over the next two days.

TUESDAY

Sabotage (1936) PG ● 11.55AM, TALKING PICTURES TV ★★★★

Alfred Hitchcock followed his 1936 thriller Secret Agent with this loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent. John Loder is the detective investigating a cinema owner and taking an equally keen interest in his wife (Sylvia Sidney, above).

Man On Fire (2004) 18 ▲ 9PM, FILM4 ★★★

Always good value, Denzel Washington goes through the motions in this thriller. He plays a jaded former CIA agent who now works as a mercenary. On bodyguard duties for a wealthy family, he is shocked into action when his nine-year-old charge is kidnapped in Mexico.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) 12 ◆ 9.30PM, RTé2 ★★★★

Director Taika Waititi delivers the third and best of the Thor movies. This time around, Chris Hemsworth’s imprisoned warrior (below) is attempting to make it home before Asgard is destroyed by his evil sister.

A Monster Calls (2016) 12 ◆ 11.15PM, BBC2 ★★★

In this dark fairytale, 13-year-old Conor (Lewis MacDougall) is the dreamer caring for his terminally ill mother (Felicity Jones). As her health fails and he struggles with the thought of losing her, he is visited by a monster whose stories offer comfort .

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015) 12 ◆ 11.50PM, BBC1 ★★★

Britt Robertson plays a gifted teen (right) who sets out, with George Clooney’s grown-up boy genius, on a mission to unearth the secrets of Tomorrowland — an enigmatic location caught between time and space.

WEDNESDAY

Dead Reckoning (1947) U ● 3.45PM, FILM4 ★★★★

Classic film noir in which men are men and women are feminine and potentially fatal. Humphrey Bogart plays a man called Rip Murdock, an army veteran investigating the disappearance of a comrade, with Lizabeth Scott as his beautiful downfall.

Daddy Day Camp (2007) PG ● 7.15PM, GREAT! MOVIES ★★

This follow-up to Daddy Day Care replaced Eddie Murphy with Cuba Gooding Jr, who had failed to cash in on his Oscar win for 1996’s Jerry Maguire. Here, there’s more mayhem with children (above) as Charlie (Gooding) and Phil (Paul Rae) take them to summer camp.

Van Helsing (2004) 12 ◆ 10.30PM, ITV4 ★★★

In this gung-ho action horror, Hugh Jackman’s monster-hunter Gabriel Van Helsing heads to Transylvania to help gypsy princess Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale, right) in her family’s quest to rid the world of the vampire Dracula.

Tomb Raider (2018) 12 ◆ 11PM, CH5 ★★★

Based on the video game character launched in 1996, this action adventure stars Alicia Vikander as the athletic Lara Croft (below), who follows a trail of clues when she investigates the disappearance of her father.

Brassed Off (1996) 15 ◆ 11.20PM, FILM4 ★★★★

It’s the romance, the comedy and the brass- band music that sell this coal-town tale. Tara Fitzgerald is the Yorkshire lass returning to her roots, where she plays the flugelhorn with conductor Pete Postlethwaite, and falls for the tenor horn (Ewan McGregor).