Thursday March 15
Waitress [e.tv.20.30]
Friday March 16
Zilch
Saturday March 17
Love & Other Drugs [M-Net.21.00]
THE WAYLONS IN CIVVIES
White Chicks [e.tv. 20.00]
The Hunchback (of Notre Dame) [e.tv.01.50]
Sunday March 18
Due Date [M-Net.20.05]
How Do You Know [M-Net.21.40]
The Promotion [M-Net.23.35]
Zack and Miri Make a Porno [M-Net.01.05]
White Chicks [e.tv.13.35]
Monday March 19
127 Hours [M-Net.22.30]
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son [M-Net.03.00]
Tuesday March 20
COSTNER IN KEVIN'S GATE
Waterworld [M-Net.09.30]
Love & Other Drugs [M-Net.00.00]
Wednesday March 21
A SECOND CHANCE FOR WOODY AND FRIENDS
Toy Story 3 [M-Net.09.30]
***
On local television, we normally catch up with last year’s Oscar nominees and winners about 10 months after the event. Unfortunately, after a while, some of these movies, like a nasty rash, stubbornly refuse to go away and are shown on different channels over and over again.
NEWMAN AS A YOUNG SINGER/SONGWRITER; ALA BILLY JOEL AND ELTON JOHN. FILMS CAME LATER
Toy Story 3 [M-Net. Wednesday. 09.30], which won a best song Oscar for Randy Newman last year, the movie had a surprisingly early and brief showing, last year. Newman won his second Oscar for We Belong Together; prolific as well as talented, Randy Newman has a total of 20 nominations.
ONLY JOHN WILLIAMS AND DISNEY HAVE NOTCHED UP MORE NOMINATIONS THAN ALFRED NEWMAN
Here's a snippet of trivia, movie music runs in the Newman family; Randy's uncle Alfred was one of the greatest composers of early film music; Alfred Newman received 45 nominations in a career spanning four decades.
TOM MEETS WOODY
Toy Story 3 seems to be back for a second run, which is great; it is always nice to see the special movies more than once.Toy Story 3 has all the bitter sweet sentiment that makes the Toy Story Trio so special. These movies strike such a poignant note because the toys sadly reflect real life.
GROWING OLD IS NOT FOR...THE FAINTHEARTED
Playthings, like all of us, grow old, and with age, can come feelings of uselessness and redundancy. The film, like its predecessors, may look and sound like a film geared for children, and although children do enjoy them, they are not really children’s films at all, are they?
A PENSIVE DANNY BOYLE
127 Hours [M-Net. Monday.22.00] earned James Franco a well deserved Oscar nomination in 2010; this is another film by Danny Boyle, whose middle name is versatility. The emotive music is by Slumdog Millionaire Oscar winning composer A.R. Rahman.
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
Briefly, the story is about a fervent outdoorsman, Aron Ralston, who went hiking, fell, and was ensnared when a boulder pinned his right arm against a canyon wall. Ralston then spent the next 127 hours trying to break free. It takes talent of a very special kind to make a watchable movie about an incident like that.
FRANCO'S PERFORMANCE IS MESMERIZING
Boyle excels himself, using as his tools, the strength of Franco’s performance, flashback and the trapped climber’s own fever induced hallucinations. The movie is excellent, but begs the question, how can someone be stupid and, dare I say, arrogant enough to go hiking alone without telling anyone where he was going.
RALSTON WITH HIS SCREEN SELF-JAMES FRANCO
But then, in a way, the accident had a positive spin; today Aron Ralston is well known world wide and is able to make a living both as a writer and a one armed motivational speaker.
A YOUNG KATE BURTON WITH HER FAMOUS FATHER RICHARD; HERE IN THE TV SERIES ELLIS ISLAND
The supporting cast of 127 Hours is littered with famous relations, Amber Tamblyn, daughter of dancer Russ, Kate Burton daughter of actor Richard and Kate Mara, sister of Oscar nominee Rooney. Do I need to add that 127 Hours is not for the squeamish and even for those of you with stronger constitutions don’t even think about preparing meaty snacks.
TASTY
Talking about food, Waitress [e.tv.Thursday.20.30] is an original, well made comedy with dramatic overtones or should that read drama with comedic undertones.
ADRIENNE SHELLY ON THE FAR RIGHT
The cast is splendid, the script pithy, even the pies look good enough to eat. Sadly, writer/director Adrienne Shelly, who was headed for great things, became a statistic when she was murdered in New York on 5 November 2006, some six months before the film was released. What an awful waste.
BETTER BODY LANGUAGE THAN IN BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Comedy plots come in all shapes and sizes; a first must be a story about a Viagra salesman; loosely based on Jamie Reidy’s Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman; thinking about it, the title change to Love & Other Drugs [M-Net.Saturday.21.00 and Tuesday.00.00] is an apt one.
HATHAWAY AND GYLLENHAAL STRIKE A GOOD MATCH
Like many romantic comedies of this kind, the script has little to do with drugs and everything to do with love and commitment.
JILL CLAYBURGH IN HER HEYDAY
Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are appropriately light and dark at just the right moments, they have solid support from Oliver Platt, veteran George Segal and one of the more likeable and talented stars from the 70s, Jill Clayburgh; who sadly succumbed to cancer, in 2010, aged 66. The film is dedicated to her memory.
WINNERS ALL-BROOKS, SHIRLEY AND JACK
Comedy romantic generally works well or doesn’t work at all. How Do You Know [M-Net.Sonday.21.40] is one that should but doesn’t. Director James Brooks has an impressive track record, he won Oscars for Shirley MacLaine, himself, and Jack Nicholson for Terms of Endearment and later for Helen Hunt and Jack again in As Good As It Gets.
OWEN WILLIAMS IN WOODY MODE
Brooks wrote, as well as directed How Do You Know, a movie that stutters, fluffs and finally misfires.Jack is wasted, Reese looks stunned rather than stunning, Owen Wilson, so good playing Woody Allen, now that Woody is too old to play Woody is here merely mattered and a trifle mannered while Paul Rudd appears strangely wide eyed and slightly witless.
NICHOLSON WON HIS FIRST OSCAR FOR ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST IN 1975
Jack Nicholson’s Oscar record is almost as impressive as Meryl Streeps; he has been nominated 12 times, including 3 wins. As I’ve often said, never write him off, Jack may, someday, feel like doing it all again, I can just see him, grinning, leery eyed, waving his 4th Oscar above his head.
SEAN WILLIAM SCOTT FACES UP TO JOHN C RILEY
The Promotion [M-Net.Sunday.23.35] is at best, just a little jaded, John Riley gives his normal , neatly tucked performance, and there is a very funny cameo from Jason Bateman, but, apart from that, the happy ending feels tacked on and a little tactless too.
BOB AND ZACH WITH SONNY
Did Todd Fielding merge to of his previous efforts and come up with Starsky and Hutch go on a Road Trip? No, Due Date [M-Net.Sunday.20.05] is much better than that, with skillful sliding interaction between Robert Downey and Zach Galifianakisas. Funnyman Zach has some well timed moments as Downey’s unlikely and unwanted traveling companion.
LAYING PLANS
When Kevin Smith made his name with Mallrats back in 1995, he was all of 25, when he made Zack and Miri Make a Porno [M-Net. Sunday.01.05] in 2008, he was nearly forty; too late now to mature, I guess. For the record, Zack is played by Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks is cast as Miri.
AN EARLY CROSS DRESSER
For some reason, people find men dressed in women’s clothing, not a drag at all; but uproariously and irresistibly funny. Way back, Charley’s Aunt patented this one joke formula and this old warhorse of a play is still an Am Dram standby.
PRETTY WOMAN
Since then, think about Arthur (Old Mother Riley) Lucan, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Eddie Murphy and Tyler Perry, actually, the list is endless.
A LITTLE HOMELY BY COMPARISON
This week, we have the Wayans at full tilt in White Chicks [e.tv.Saturday.20.00 and Sunday.13.35] and Martin Lawrence as Momma in Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son [M-Net. Monday.03.00]. A funfest for fans; will he/she/ they be back? Bet on it.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1831
'Freak' of the week time; Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a creation of French writer Victor Hugo, a story where horror, drama and pathos meet in a unique way. Almost from the time pictures learned to move, filmmakers have loved Hugo's deformed bell ringer.
BRITISH ACTOR CHARLES LAUGHTON
There is a version on show this week; from the guides it is impossible to tell which one;let’s see- surely not Lon Chaney from 1923, maybe Charles Laughton from 1939, hopefully not Anthony Quinn from the late 50s, maybe the dark Disney animated version, with Tom Hulce as Quasimodo and Demi Moore as Esmeralda made in 1996
SALMA HAYEK
Or… and my money is on that 1997 version, briefly released as Hunchback [e.tv.Saturday.01.50], with Salma Hayek as the gypsy Esmeralda and Richard Harris as Frollo. The classic story is always gripping, even with the often used soft focus ending.
KEVIN COSTNER BLOWING EXPENSIVE BUBBLES
Flop of the week isn’t really a flop at all, it just became budget breakingly expensive. Waterworld [M-Net.Tuesday.09.30] started the flood (sorry) of futuristic films that have been standard fodder for a while now. Kevin Costner is at his peak here, in that brief period when he could dance with anything. The plot is a bit leaky, but certainly worth a look.
ANGIE AS FOX
Angelina Jolie is so talented; she rises above her material, even when that material is pretty good to begin with. In Wanted [SABC2.Monday.22.00]. Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy and Terence Stamp are all present and correct, all playing ‘Secret Society, Secret Society’ with flair and aplomb; Angie as Fox gives an already sharp movie an extra edge.
ADRIENNE SHELLY AS DAWN
My pick is Waitress [e.tv.Thursday.20.30], whenever a talented person dies young; one always feels a deep sense of regret; all that originality and creatively dies with them.