PICK OF TV MOVIES

SATURDAY

Rio Bravo (1959) (C5, 1.25pm)

A small-town sheriff must keep a murderer behind bars until a marshal arrives to deal with him. It sounds simple, but the only people on the lawman’s side are a drunk and an ageing deputy, while the prisoner is the brother of a powerful rancher who will stop at nothing to break him out. Throw in a young gunslinger and a mysterious beauty fresh off the stagecoach, and the scene is set for high drama. John Wayne gives one of his best performances as Sheriff Chance, and has a convincing chemistry with Angie Dickinson, even if she is half his age. There are also decent supporting performances from Dean Martin and then-teen idol Ricky Nelson, making for a film that manages to be funny and tense in equal measure.

Hellboy (2004) (STV, 10.20pm)

Demon Hellboy (Ron Perlman), raised by the Nazis in the final days of the Second World War but weaned from the dark side by paranormal expert John Hurt, joins a team fighting present-day fascist sorcery. Aided by a motley bunch of misfits, the hero has to juggle the demands of his role with his attempts to woo fragile friend Liz (Selma Blair), a conflict of interests that only adds fuel to his fiery temper. Acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro manages to remain fairly faithful to the comic-book while firmly attaching his own signature to the film, and strikes a careful balance between effectsladen action and character-driven scenes.

American Made (2017) (C4, 11.20pm)

Pilot Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is haemorrhaging enthusiasm for his job as he provides for his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) and children. He makes a little money on the side by smuggling Cuban cigars into America in his hand luggage. This illegal practice is rumbled by CIA handler Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), who coerces Barry into working for the US government by flying reconnaissance missions over Central America to take photographs of the emerging communist threat. During one covert flight, Barry meets members of the high-powered Medellin cocaine cartel, who exploit his greed by employing him to transport narcotics back to America. Based on a true story of outlandish lies, American Made recreates the late 1970s and 1980s with a swagger.

SUNDAY

You Only Live Twice (1967) (STV, 4.15pm)

When American and Soviet spacecraft go missing, both sides suspect the other - but British Intelligence believes a third party could be involved. Agent 007 (Sean Connery) is dispatched to Japan to investigate, where he comes face to face with Blofeld (Donald Pleasence, giving arguably the definitive take on the archvillain). Fans of the novel, the last published while Ian Fleming was alive, may be disappointed: the film bears little relation to it. For everyone else though, this is one of the better James Bond outings, thanks to a script by Roald Dahl, an explosive climax inside Ken Adam’s impressive set and some great special effects. Connery is terrific, as are the helicopter battle scenes and John Barry’s score.

Arrival (2016) (Film4, 9pm)

Twelve giant obloid spacecraft enter Earth’s atmosphere and descend over seemingly random locations. US Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) leads the American response and recruits emotionally scarred linguistics expert Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to decipher a coded language used by the visitors. Louise aligns with military scientist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to unravel the conundrum, while the CIA, led by Agent Halpern (Michael Stuhlbarg), considers the terrifying possibility that we are in the calm before an intergalactic storm. Based on a short story by Ted Chiang, Arrival is contemplative science-fiction drama anchored by Adams’ mesmerising performance, which imagines mankind’s shambolic reaction to first contact with an otherworldly race.

MONDAY

Let Him Go (2020) (Film4, 9pm)

Retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his horse trainer wife Margaret (Diane Lane) live on a ranch in 1960s Montana with their 25-year-old son James (Ryan Bruce), his wife Lorna (Kayli Carter) and their grandson Jimmy (Bram and Otto Hornung). A freak horse-riding accident forces the Blackledges to bury their boy and they watch helplessly as Lorna eventually marries another man, Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), who communicates with his fists. Without warning, Donnie spirits Lorna and three-year-old Jimmy away to his family home in North Dakota. Margaret is bereft and leads her husband on a cross-country odyssey to prise their grandson out of Donnie’s clutches. Let Him Go is a slowburning thriller of strained familial ties, torn from the pages of a novel by Larry Watson.

TUESDAY

The Favourite (2018) (Film4, 9pm)

Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is removed from the machinations of government, allowing her secret lover Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) to effectively control 18th-century Britain. While Sarah has the monarch’s ear, Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult) challenges her authority from his seat of power in Westminster. At the height of this battle of wits, Sarah’s lowly cousin Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) arrives at court and is employed as a scullery maid. Abigail recognises that the key to bettering her positioning lies in winning the queen’s favour, so she charms and beguiles Anne. Once Sarah discovers her cousin’s plot, she retaliates in venomous kind. The Favourite is

a brilliantly bawdy and boisterous dark comedy. Weisz and Stone savour every biledrenched syllable but Oscar winner Colman shines brightest.

Denmark (2019) (BBC2, 11.15pm)

If you’ve ever been tripped up by a TikTok video asking you to guess whether a room is British university accommodation or a Scandinavian prison cell, then this sweet, if slight, comedy-drama is for you. Rafe Spall gives a heart-felt performance as Herb, a depressed, unemployed Welshman who is struggling to make ends meet, can barely get his estranged son to speak to him and is tormented by a noisy neighbour. So, when he sees a documentary about the supposedly luxurious life of Danish convicts, Herb formulates a plan - he’s going to go to Demark with the sole intention of getting arrested. However, once he arrives in the country, he meets a barmaid and a stray dog who make him wonder if there could be another way to find happiness.