Film and television critic Philip Wakefield assesses the best movies on offer on the box this week, for Tuesday, May 20 to Monday, May 26.
Tuesday, May 20
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
2003, AO, 8.30pm, TV2
Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu return in a sequel that’s more fun than the original, thanks to cool cameos (John Cleese, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Willis, Jacyln Smith, the Olsen Twins ...), sly send-ups (CSI, Mission: Impossible 2, Flashdance, Terminator 2, GoldenEye, Raiders Of The Lost Ark ...) and stunts as stunning as the stars’ physiques.
Wednesday, May 21
Hollow Man
2000, AO, 8.30pm, Prime
Paul Verhoeven’s freaky, funny peeping-tom spin on The Invisible Man stars Kevin Bacon as a brat pack scientist who masterminds a top-secret, hi-tech technique to make himself invisible. While his colleagues race against the clock to make him re-appear, he turns his vanishing act into a sinister unseen menace, graduating from prankster to rapist to murderer. Hollow Man comes unstuck in the third act with a ludicrous finale but at least it's not as transparent as the special effects. Elisabeth Shue co-stars.
Thursday, May 22
An Inconvenient Truth
2006, PGR, 8.30pm, Sky Movies
Politicians are renowned for their hot air but none can rival Al Gore’s ability to make the world think the sky is falling. The former vice-president of the United States has run a lifelong campaign about the dangers of global warming and, thanks to this Oscar-winning documentary, is now regarded as the oracle of climate change. After acknowledging he’s failed for the last 30 years “to get the message across,” Gore makes a persuasive, impassioned case using a lifetime of research, hi-tech stats and almost Clintonesque charm.
Friday, May 23
Along Came Polly
2004, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies Greats
Ben Stiller plays an uptight insurance risk assessor whose carefully laid plans for the future are shattered when he's cuckolded on his honeymoon and then falls for a commitment-phobic free spirit (Jennifer Aniston) whose outlook on life couldn't be more different. The cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin and Hank Azaria in fantastic form while the predominantly physical humour is leavened by the leads’ sweet chemistry.
Saturday, May 24
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
1997, 7.30pm, TV3
Whereas Jurassic Park imbued you with wonder, The Lost World will fill you with dread in much the same way as director Steven Spielberg’s first jeopardy jaw-dropper, Jaws. Less would have been more - the onslaught of special effects and Godzilla-like terror is overwhelming - but the excitement and suspense are sensational. The original’s Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite star.
Mona Lisa Smile
2003, AO, 8.30pm, TV One
British director Mike Newell’s cliched, feminist life’s lessons twist on Dead Poets Society stars Julia Roberts as a radical ‘50s arts teacher who inspires her pearls-and-twin set students at a posh girls’ college to see beyond motherhood and housekeeping. Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles are excellent but can't disguise the fact they’re too old for their parts while Roberts’ character is a Jean Brodie before her prime.
Chasing Liberty
2004, AO, 8.35pm, TV2
Romantic-comedy about the daughter of the President of the United States backpacking through Europe with a companion she doesn’t realise is working undercover for her security-anxious father. Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode star in a pleasant but unremarkable teen take on Roman Holiday. Sitcom vet Andy Cadiff (The War at Home, My Wife and Kids) directs.
Hannibal
2000, AO, 10pm, TV3
Grotesquely silly but sumptuously produced sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs, in which Julianne Moore succeeds Jodie Foster as FBI serial killer-stalker Clarice Starling. The third movie to feature fiendish foodie Hannibal Lecter gives him star treatment but is so stylistically overwrought and puerile in its plotting that the result is more risible than bloodcurdling. Ray Liotta co-stars; Ridley Scott directs.
The Net
1995, AO, 10.45pm, TV2
Sandra Bullock plays a computer geek whose everyday existence is wiped out with the stroke of a delete key when she taps into a hi-tech plot to bankrupt the economy. The premise is chilling but the execution is chocabloc with bells-and-whistles when what should have been ringing in the filmmakers’ ears were alarm bells about credibility.
American History X
1998, AO, 10.50pm, TV One
Impressive but fatally overwrought race drama about the son of a murdered firefighter (Edward Norton) who avenges his death by becoming an ardent disciple of a white-power hatemonger. Only after a stint in prison for killing two black youths does he realise the futility of racial hatred and upon his release, tries to divert his impressionable younger brother from following the same path.
Sunday, May 25
Doc Hollywood
1991, AO, 1.05am, TV2
Michael J Fox comedy that works both as a laugh-out-loud hoot and a warm, wondrous fable about a gentler, kinder world where people matter most. Fox plays a hotshot doc en route to Beverly Hills fame and fortune when a detour to Hicksville USA traps him into becoming the town’s GP for a week. Thus the scene is set for a brash city slicker-versus-canny-country bumpkins contest. Woody Harrelson and Bridget Fonda co-star.
Enough
2002, AO, 9.30pm, TV2
Even the most ardent of Jennifer Lopez fans will have had enough of her after this preposterous thriller about an abused wife on the run with her daughter from the husband from hell. Michael Apted directs; The OC’s Billy Campbell, ER’s Noal Wyle and Juliette Lewis co-star.
Monday, May 26
The Departed
2006, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies
Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winnng gangster drama is a a re-make of Infernal Affairs fused with a loose dramatisation of a notorious Irish Mob boss’ reign in Boston. It doesn’t surpass Scorsese’s badfellas masterpiece, Goodfellas, but is mean streets ahead of just about everything he’s made since. Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholson star.
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