A few good films on TV this week.
TODAY
How Do You Know? (TV2, 8.55pm) is a rom-com from writer/director James L Brooks. Brooks is an absolute Hollywood legend, with several classic films on his CV – notably Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News – but this 2010 effort fell flat badly. Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson all star, with Witherspoon playing a woman torn between two men (neither of whom is Nicholson. Phew.) With that cast and Brooks in the director’s chair expectations were high, but the film misfired and flopped at the ticket counter. "More creative energy has gone into furnishing these characters’ apartments than devising credible emotional situations to put them in; the result is wholly undemanding, and best saved for a long-haul flight,’’ said The Scotsman.
TV2 follow up with The Social Network, which is David Fincher’s award-winning drama about the making of Facebook. Writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men) has a genius for breathless, cerebral and whipsmart dialogue, and this script is probably his masterpiece. Fincher directs with his usual cool precision and the result is a terrific film. But do you really want to watch a two-hour long and intensely talky film that doesn’t finish until 1.40am? Thought not.
At 8.30pm on Sky Premiere 300: Rise of an Empire gets a run. This is last year’s deliriously unhinged sequel to the already more-or-less insane 300. The film charts the sea battle at Artemisium, which was happening at the same time as the battle at Thermopylae that featured in the first film. Rise of an Empire isn’t quite as much fun as the original, but the cameo from Eva Green – as Artemisia; a female commander in the Persian navy – is an absolute hoot. Green’s scenery demolishing antics just about single-handedly save the film from slipping into one-note tedium.
TOMORROW
The Hunt (Maori TV, 8.30pm) is an award winning Danish drama from 2012. Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) plays a childcare worker who finds himself accused of indecent assault. It’s a tough film this, with enough drama and tension to overcome a few plotholes. In fact, for a film that comes so close to not working at all, The Hunt is a pretty stunning achievement. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award, but lost to Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. Though Mikkelsen did win Best Actor at Cannes.
BEST OF THE WEEK
At 10.30pm on Sunday on Sky Movie Classics, Bullitt is the 1968 film that re-wrote the rule book for police thrillers in general and car chase scenes in particular. Steve McQueen did most of his own driving, editor Frank Keller picked up an Academy Award for his hugely influential work and Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible) wrote the immortal score. If you haven’t seen Bullitt, make tonight the night you do.