The Herald - The Herald Magazine
PICK OF TV MOVIES
SATURDAY
Grease (1978) (C4, 4.20pm)
Following an idyllic holiday romance, 1950s teenagers Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia NewtonJohn) part company, believing they’ll never see each other again. They’re unexpectedly reunited when she enrols at his high school, but picking up where they left off proves difficult, as Danny has been boasting to his mates about his steamy summer fling and is a little too keen to keep his cool reputation. Some of the so-called teenagers would struggle to pass for 30, let alone 17, but who cares – we love this musical anyway. The songs are catchy, Travolta and Newton-John make a very cute couple, Stockard Channing steals scenes as bad girl Rizzo and the whole film has so much good-natured energy, it’s impossible not to be swept along.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) (C4, 9pm)
Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is one of the best protection agents in the business until a sniper takes out one of his clients. Michael loses his triple A rating and is relegated to shadowing low-value assets. Out of the blue, he is contacted by old flame Amelia (Elodie Yung). She is an Interpol agent, who should be shepherding hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson) to The Hague, where he is due to testify against an East European dictator (Gary Oldman). Amelia needs someone “out of the loop” to shadow Darius and prevent the fugitive from contacting his jailbird wife (Salma Hayek). The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a testosterone-saturated romp that borrows the basic premise of the 1977 Clint Eastwood thriller The Gauntlet and orchestrates mayhem around the fractious on-screen chemistry of its leads.
SUNDAY
Move Over, Darling (1963) (BBC2, 2.40pm)
Nick Arden (James Garner) is griefstricken when his wife Ellen (Doris Day) goes missing following a plane crash, but after five years he decides it’s time to finally move on. He has Ellen declared dead and marries Bianca (Polly Bergen), only for his first wife to turn up alive and well. If that wasn’t complicated enough, he discovers that Ellen spent those missing years on a desert island with only hunky Stephen (Chuck Connors) for company. This remake of the Cary Grant film My Favourite Wife had a troubled route to the screen – it was originally intended as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, who was fired, rehired and then died before filming could resume – but that doesn’t show in the delightful end product.
All the President’s Men (1976) (BBC2, 11.10pm)
Made only two years after the events it depicts, All the President’s Men won four Oscars, including Best Screenplay for William Goldman, the man who also wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Marathon Man. The stars of the two aforementioned movies, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, take the leads as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein respectively who, in 1974, were reporters on the Washington Post newspaper. The pair were assigned to investigate a break-in at the Watergate Hotel, but ended up unearthing scandal and corruption at the White House which resulted in President Richard Nixon’s infamous resignation. The film works because rather than going for an obvious documentary feel to the production, director Alan J Pakula shot it as an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
MONDAY
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) (Film4, 6.35pm)
Sonny (Dev Patel) and business partner Muriel (Maggie Smith) travel abroad to seek investment for a second hotel from business chief Ty Burley (David Strathairn) and return to India, mindful that funding is dependent on a review from a secret inspector. English traveller Lavinia (Tamsin Greig) and American novelist Guy (Richard Gere) arrive soon after and Sonny is convinced that Guy must be the inspector so he ignores Lavinia and lavishes attention on the writer. Meanwhile, Sonny is preoccupied with his impending nuptials to Sunaina and a simmering rivalry for his fiancee’s affections from a snake-hipped family friend. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is an entertaining if predictable sequel, which delivers the same winning formula of laughter and tears.
Man on Fire (2004) (Film4, 9pm)
Former CIA counter-terrorist operative John Creasy (Denzel Washington) moves to Mexico City where he reluctantly takes a job as a private bodyguard for precocious nine-year-old Pita (Dakota Fanning), whose family’s wealth makes her a target for kidnappers. Creasy surprises himself by striking up a tender friendship with Pita, so when the nightmare happens and the little girl is abducted and then killed, he
makes it his life’s work to track down the men responsible. Based on AJ Quinnell’s novel of the same name, Man on Fire is a film in two acts: an engrossing portrait of a broken man finding his way back to life through the eyes of a child; and a brutal revenge thriller. Both parts are compelling in their own ways, anchored by Washington’s lead performance.
TUESDAY
True Lies (1994) (C5, 10pm)
Suave superspy Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) spends his days battling international terrorism, but his bored wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) is under the impression he’s a computer salesman. She decides to spice up her life but gets more than she bargained for when she ends up in the clutches of a gang who have stolen a nuclear weapon. It’s up to her husband to save her and, if he gets time, the rest of the
world. The first two Terminator films proved that Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron are a dream team, and this movie is almost as good. The slender plot is little more than an excuse for a string of outrageous action set pieces, but they are so entertaining you really won’t care, especially as Curtis makes such a great foil for Schwarzenegger.
99 Homes (2014) (BBC2, 11.15pm) Writer-director Ramin Bahrani, who garnered numerous plaudits for his independent films Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, examines the American dream turned sour in this gritty character study. Corrupt real estate broker Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) earns his dollars by evicting down-ontheir-luck families from their homes. He targets Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), a construction worker and single father, who has fallen on hard times and is struggling to provide for his nine-year-old son, Connor. Having evicted Nash, Carver rubs salt into raw wounds by offering the family man a job as part of his cut-throat team. Reluctantly, Nash takes up the offer and is sucked into Carver’s vortex of greed.
WEDNESDAY
Stan & Ollie (2018) (BBC2, 9pm)
Directed by Scot Jon S Baird, Stan & Ollie is a handsomely crafted valentine to a double-act, who earned legions of adoring fans with pratfalls and slapstick. The film opens in 1937 California. Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Hardy (John C Reilly) demand a better deal from Hal Roach (Danny Huston), who has them under contract, and a subsequent wrangling for a bigger slice of the Hollywood pie creates a fissure in the duo’s relationship. Fastforwarding to 1953, Stan and Oliver tour England with a stage show of skits that promises to let them ‘go out with a bang...in Hull’. As the title suggest, Stan & Ollie is anchored by Coogan and Reilly, who are fiercely committed, catalysing an old-fashioned bromance that ensues after Oliver’s death.
THURSDAY
Calamity Jane (1953) (BBC4, 10.40pm) It’s whip-crack-away with Doris Day and Howard Keel in David Butler’s Oscar-winning 1953 musical inspired by the life of the rootin’ tootin’ heroine, replete with unforgettable songs like I Can Do Without You, A Woman’s Touch and Secret Love. Calamity Jane (Day) arrives in the aptly named Deadwood to discover the men at the local saloon in a state of unrest. In order to placate the drinkers, Calamity makes a bold promise that she will lure revered singer Adelaid Adams (Gale Robbins) to Deadwood. Wild Bill Hickox (Keel) scoffs at such a ludicrous notion and to underline his point, he makes a bet with Calamity: if she can get Adelaid to perform at the saloon, he will don the garb of a Sioux squaw. The battle lines are drawn and Calamity resolves to wipe the smug grin off Wild Bill’s weather-beaten face.
FRIDAY
Stuber (2019) (Film4, 9pm)
Mild-mannered Uber driver Stu get more than he bargained for when his latest passenger turns out to be an aggressive cop on the lookout for a vicious killer. Having just come out of laser eye surgery that morning, detective Vic is still virtually blind and cannot drive himself. But there’s a crime emergency to be dealt with – catching the heroin dealer who murdered his former partner – and before long the mismatched pair find themselves on a wild day of stakeouts and shootouts as they pursue violent criminals. Action comedy, starring Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani.