Friday December 14
Hot Shots! [e.tv.20.30]
NOT EVERYONE IS A MIKE JUDGE FAN!
Idiocracy [e.tv.01.00]
Saturday December 15
Abduction [M-Net.02.05]
National Treasure: Book of Secrets [SABC3.19.30]
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York [e.tv.20.00]
DEMI IN HER DAY
The Juror [e.tv.22.25]
Sunday December 16
TAKE AND DOUBLE TAKE
Jack and Jill [M-Net.20.05]
Monday December 17
The Way Back [M-Net.22.30]
Raider’s of the Lost Ark [e.tv.20.30 and 0045]
Tuesday December 18
The Muppets [M-Net.09.30]
A Better Life [M-Net.01.45]
Abduction [M-Net.00.00]
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [e.tv.20.30]
Wednesday December 19
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [e.tv.20.30]
THAT'S A SHOT OF RADIO CITY IN THE BACKGROUND. JUST IN CASE YOU FEEL LOST
Well, ‘tis the season to be jolly… well almost, and if you are drinking your second (eggnog), (at) Home Alone, then enjoy them and it. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York [e.tv.Saturday.20.00] Also, it would not seem like Christmas, if the first three Indy movies were not floating about.
HARRISON FORD-AGED ABOUT 12
Believe me, after the three or four large alcohol enriched beverages, you won’t even remember that you have seen them before, at least twice. Raiders of the Lost Ark [e.tv.Monday.20.30 and 00.45] … and The Temple of Doom [e.tv. Monday.20.30] ...and The Last Crusade [e.tv.Wednesday.20.30]
CHRIS WITH COSBY REGULARS DENISE, THEO AND COCKROACH
Funny, how familiar old famous faces can be, I have been watching old Cosby Shows, for want of something better to do and last night, up pops Christopher Plummer; acting out excerpts from Julius Caesar, what an unexpected treat. Thinking of Chris, I began to remember The Sound of Music…and found links all over the show on TV this week.
ELEANOR PARKER SUFFERS BRAVELY; HERE CRADLED BY GLEN FORD
Long before she played The Baroness and toyed with the affections of Captain von Trap and Max, Eleanor Parker starred as Australian opera singer, Marjorie Lawrence who bravely battled polio and the collapse of her career in that superior soapy Interrupted Melody [TCM.Monday.16.40] released in 1955.
EILEEN FARRELL WAS HER VOICE
The magnificent voice of Eileen Farrell sings for Parker, while the arias sore and the tears flow.
REMEMBER THEM?
Lindsay Crouse who was once married to David Mamet and more famously perhaps, played lesbian cop, Kate McBride in Hill Street Blues.
LINDSAY'S DAD FOOLS AROUND WITH HIS WRITING PARTNER HOWARD LINDSAY
Anyway, here’s the link… her dad was Russell Crouse; he wrote the libretto (text) the aforementioned The Sound of Music with Howard Lindsay and named his daughter Lindsay in his partner’s honour.
WILLIAM HURT REALLY IS A NASTY PIECE OF WORK IN MR BROOKS
Crouse appears down the cast list of Mr Brooks [e.tv.Thursday.22.35 and 02.40], with Kevin Costner as a serial killer, Demi Moore as a cop and William Hurt as Costner’s evil alter ego; offbeat movies don’t come any weirder than that!
A YOUNG(ER) ALEC BALDWIN
Crouse and Demi Moore are also in The Juror [e.tv.Saturday.22.25], made some 20 years earlier, in 1996. The movie is a bit ho-hum, with Alec Baldwin gleefully usurping most of the action and Joseph Gordon-Levitt showing tons of early promise. Lindsay Crouse doesn’t have a great deal to do in either movie, which is a pity.
CHARLIE SHEEN IN SEND UP COSTUME; THIS TIIME FROM HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX
If you salivate over your tabloids, then, I don’t need to tell you that neither Demi Moore nor bad boy Charlie Sheen has a tattoo ‘I love AK’ anywhere about their bodies. Like his father, Charlie Sheen is a gifted natural actor, never more so than in Hot Shots! [e.tv.Friday.20.30]
LLOYD BRIDGES AND YOUNG COSTAR
The movie, made way back in 1991, costars Cary Elwes and Lloyd Bridges. This fun little piece dates a bit but still resonates with anyone who enjoys sending Tom Cruse sky-high. A twist of casting sees Charlie’s future 2 and ½ Men costar Jon Cryer playing a character named ‘Wash-Out.’
POOR KATHRYN GRAYSON-OUR MARIO WASN'T THAT KEEN ON SOAP EITHER
For registered masochists, there are two Mario Lanza movies on TCM, this week, each one worse than the other. Lanza eat like a pig, drank like a fish, abused drugs, and chewed garlic during the love scenes; he couldn’t act and couldn’t really sing either. He died in 1959, aged just 38.Watch either That Midnight Kiss [TCM.Sunday.00.20 and 10.55] or The Seven Hills of Rome [TCM.Monday.15.00], to see what I mean.
JILL SHOWS A LITTLE 5 'O CLOCK SHADOW
It gets worse, I’m afraid. Adam Sandler plays both Jack and Jill [M-Net.Sunday.20.05] in the movie of the same name and set a new cringe record. Jack and Jill blew a huge raspberry swepting the boards at last years Rassie Awards. Needless to say, the movie is pretty awful.
HE CERTAINLY IS A PRETTY BOY!
After Abduction [M-Net. Saturday.02.05], one fears for the acting future of Taylor Lautner; now that The Twilight Saga has almost run its course. Will Beefcake Suffice? Time, I guess, will tell.
MUCH BETTER-CHRIS WEITZ DIRECTS JOSE JULIAN AND DEMIAN BICHIR
Back in the day when The Twilight Saga was quite the thing, Chris Weitz directed New Moon; he regained a little credibility last year, when he made A Better Life [M-Net.Tuesday.01.45], a gentle story about poverty, hope and human endeavor.
FATHER AND SON
Mexican born actor Demian Bichir gives a poignant performance that won him a well deserved Oscar Nomination in 2011. There are flashes of humour, spiced together with love and unconditional sacrifice. The movie isn’t easy viewing, but has moments of satisfaction and pure pleasure.
ANOTHER FATHER ...?
Edge of the City [TCM.Saturday.00.20 and 08.50], made in 1957, is a long ago look at crime and poverty with excellent performances from John Cassavetes and a young Sidney Poitier. Just for the record, Edge of the City has the distinction of being the first feature film made by Hollywood great, Martin Ritt.
AND SON ??
Look at Poitier and see how easy it could be to fool Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing in Six Degrees of Separation, that ‘king of con’ shown two weeks back. Remember, that Will Smith movie was based on fact.
THE WAY BACK IS BASED ON A 1956 NOVEL BY SLAWOMIR RAWICZ CALLED THE LONG WALK
Australian director Peter Weir, probably best known for directing the cult movie Picnic at Hanging Rock, directs The Way Back [M-Net.Monday.22.30], which may or may not be a true story. A trek of 4,000 miles from an internment camp in Siberia to freedom in India sounds highly unlikely, but sometimes the strangest stories are the really true ones.
THE CAST GIVE THE MOVIE DEPTH AND LIFE
The Way Back is long and episodic, but it does gnaw at the imagination and there are some strong performances from Ed Harris, Jim Sturgiss, Colin Farrell and Saoirse Ronan.
HELEN MIRREN IS A BIT OF A NATIONAL TREASURE HERSELF
Ed Harris and Helen Mirren are a welcome addition to the cast of National Treasure: Book of Secrets [SABC3.Saturday.19.30], the sequel to National Treasure. Nicolas Cage and Jon Voight star once again and once again the pace is fast and peppered with cleverly wrought twists and turns.
GARBO ABOUT TO DRINK HER VISKEY
I was reading about the technical advances that have been used in The Hobbit, quite, quite amazing. Some 80 years ago, the greatest technical innovation since pictures began; happened. Sound came to the Silver Screen. Careers ended while others began.
GARBO-HERE WITH MARIE DRESSLER. DRESSLER'S TALKIE CAREER WAS CUT SHORT BY CANCER IN 1934
In 1930, the cinema going public held its breath as Swedish born Greta Garbo uttered her first words in Anna Christie [TCM.Friday.05.00]. Hear what she says on TCM Strangely enough, when Anna Christie is revived on Broadway or elsewhere, the actress concerned often plays Anna with a foreign accent, I know the late Natasha Richardson did. Such is the power of Greta Garbo.
A WORLD THAT IS REALLY DUMB AND DUMBER
Idiocracy [e.tv.Friday.01.00], a film by Mike Judge, shoots Luke Wilson into a future where, because of breeding habits, intelligence levels in humans have plummeted. The movie is laid back and very funny, but be warned… it could so easily come true. If it hasn’t already!
OLD FRIENDS RETURN
The Muppets [M-Net.Tuesday.09.30], the first Muppet feature for twelve years, won best song Oscar last year for Man or Muppet and is a truly heart warming film for everyone. Enjoy.
BOGIE AND HIS BABY
To end on a TCM high note. To Have and Have Not [TCM.Saturday.05.00] was written by Ernest Hemingway, Howard Hawks directed, William Faulkner wrote the screenplay and Humphrey Bogart aged 44 met and matched Lauren Bacall aged 19. Watch them set the screen on fire. My favourite quote is
‘You know how to whistle don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and…blow’
THE MOVIE HAS A FEEL OF DE SICA'S BICYCLE THIEVES
My pick is A Better Life [M-Net.Tuesday.01.45]
TCM
Friday
Anna Christie [05.00]
Saturday
HOAGY CARMICHAEL PLAYED THE PIANO IN TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
To Have and Have Not [05.00]
Edge of the City [08.50 and 00.20]
Sunday
That Midnight Kiss [00.20 and 10.55]
Monday
The Seven Hills of Rome [15.00]
Interrupted Melody [16.40]