THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS

Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel. Bugsy (Beatty) is sent to Los Angeles to take over the West Coast rackets, where he falls in love with a glamorous starlet (Bening). The film then centres on the gangster’s business venture to turn Las Vegas into a gamblers’ paradise. Beatty, who so often relied on his good looks and charm to breeze his way through films in the early part of his career, is charismatically dangerous as the renowned criminal, and fully deserved his Best Actor Oscar nomination. There’s also some good support from the likes of Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley.

The Butterfly Effect (2004) (Sony Movies, 10.55pm)

A student finds the journals he kept during his troubled childhood and discovers that by reading them, he has the ability to go back in time. He hopes by doing this he will be able to change traumatic events and keep the promise he made to his childhood sweetheart, but unfortunately his attempts to tamper with the past only make the present even worse. The grim subject matter means this movie isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it is an intriguing sci-fi thriller which puts a new spin on the old idea of time-travellers interfering with fate. Ashton Kutcher proves he can do more than play laid-back charmers in the lead role, and there’s a very strong supporting cast that includes Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz and Callum Keith Rennie.

THURSDAY

The Missing (2003) (Sony Movies, 9pm)

Oscar-winning director Ron

Howard steps back in time to 19th century Mexico for this atmospheric adaptation of Thomas Eidson’s novel The Last Ride. Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett) lives in a remote log cabin with her two daughters and handyman lover Brake (Aaron Eckhart). Having

John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy and Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel in the heart-warming Stan & Ollie on Friday on BBC1 at 8.25pm