Film and television critic Philip Wakefield assesses the best movies on offer on the box this week, for Tuesday, June 24 to Monday, June 30.
Tuesday, June 24
Firewall
2006, AO, 8.30pm, TV2
Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code) makes life hell for bank boffin Harrison Ford in this hi-tech thriller: his gang holds the IT guru’s family hostage until he helps them to steal $100 million using little more than a fax scanner and an iPod. It’s far-fetched but fun and enthralling. 24’s Mary Lynn Rajskub and Virginia Masden co-stars; Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon) directs.
Wednesday, June 25
High School High
1996, AO, 8.30pm, Prime
Jon Lovitz stars in the kind of blackboard bungle comedy that his character in the mid-90s ‘toon, The Critic, would have given the thumbs-down. Two of the team behind The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, David Zucker and Robert LoCosh, wrote the screenplay.
Thursday, June 26
The Wrong Man
2006, AO, 8.40pm, Sky Movies 2
Released internationally as Lucky Number Slevin, this fractured, atmospheric underworld thriller eschews the usual genre suspects to ingeniously peel back the bewildering layers of a Tarantino-esque turf war with a mistaken identity twist. It may revel in one too many red-herring revelations but the sleight-of-hand artistry is breathtaking. Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis star.
Friday, June 27
What Women Want
2000, AO, 8.30pm, Vibe
Mel Gibson plays a chauvinistic ad executive who thinks he’s God's gift to women - and turns out to be just that after a freak accident leaves him able to read women’s minds. Initially he exploits this for his own benefit but ultimately uses it to do good, including advancing the career of his chief rival (Helen Hunt). It would have been funnier had the script played up the playboy angle but Gibson and Hunt largely deliver what undemanding viewers want.
Saturday, June 28
She's The Man
2006, PGR, 7.30pm, TV2
Amanda Byrnes comedy about a teenage girl who disguises herself as her twin brother to make the boys’ soccer team - only to fall for a guy who’s fallen for another girl who’s fallen for her in her new guise. Step Up’s Channing Tatum and The Covenant’s Laura Ramsey co-star in a middling teen twist on Twelfth Night.
Big Momma's House 2
2006, PGR, 7.30pm, TV3
Chuck’s Zachary Levi joins Martin Lawrence in a cross-dressing, saving-the-world sequel that’s even more feeble and fatuous than the first FBI agent-in-drag drag.
Pleasantville
1998, PGR, 8.30pm, TV One
The Truman Show meets Peggy Sue Got Married in this charming comedy about two 90s teenagers time-warped into a 50s sitcom where everything is black-and-white. The result is a humourous, hard-hitting mix of politics, pop culture, sweet romance and ingenious imagery that’s the stuff of must-see TV. Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Daniels, William H Macy, Joan Allen, JT Walsh and Don Knotts star.
40 Days and 40 Nights
2002, AO, 9.30pm, TV3
Crass romantic-comedy about a young man who decides to abstain from sex for Lent - only to meet the woman of his dreams. Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon are charming but can’t save what Village Voice memorably dubbed a "squeamishly risqué teen sexcom".
The Talented Mr Ripley
1999, AO, 9.40pm, TV2
Matt Damon's impoverished Mr Ripley would rather be a fake somebody than a real nobody, so through circumstance and deceit he befriends the revoltingly rich (Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law). An ability to absorb detail and expertly mimic those whom he yearns to be is what makes Mr Ripley so talented - and deadly. When he seems doomed to lose his ticket to high society, murder results and he stumbles upon a chilling new identity: that of an increasingly nimble serial killer who slays not for pleasure but to cover up one desperate lie after another ...
Alfie
2004, AO, 11.30pm, TV3
The signature line isn’t uttered until the innovative closing credits of this redundant re-make but by then you won’t give a toss about Alfie. As played by Jude Law, and relocated to Manhattan, the Vespa-riding womaniser is a Son of Alfie cliché stranded in a much more sophisticated sea of sexual politics. Omar Epps, Marisa Tomei and Susan Sarandon co-star; Charles Shyer directs.
Sunday, June 29
Poseidon
2006, AO, 8.30pm, TV2
The killer wave can’t come quick enough in this lame duck of a disaster movie that’s a technical tour-de-force but a damp squib dramatically. It completes director Wolfgang Petersen’s so-called “water trilogy” yet sails perilously close to being his Waterloo in the wake of Das Boot and The Perfect Storm. Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss and Emmy Rossum star.
Universal Soldier
1992, AO, 8.30pm, C4
A crude concoction of ugly violence, slapdash special effects and flagrant plagiarism, this shoot-‘em-up schlock stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as rival Vietnam grunts who kill each other, only to be re-animated 23 years later as the Government’s secret weapons in the war against terrorism. 10,000 BC’s Roland Emmerich directs.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
2005, AO, 11.30pm, TV3
Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie try to save the world in this novel blend of Flash Gordon gung-ho heroism and computer animation rooted in the Metropolis of nearly 80 years ago. The art deco visuals dazzle with their virtuosity, the special effects are fabulous and the corny but never campy dialogue is peppered with delights like “Good luck, Skip” and “Alert the amphibious squadron!” The performances are pitch-perfect, too, but the feeble plot betrays Sky Captain’s origins: a six-minute labour of love that writer/director Kerry Conran took four years to create on his Apple Mac.
Monday, June 30
Get Shorty
1995, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies Greats
Colourful black comedy starring John Travolta as a starry-eyed gangster who helps to keep the Mob from sleazy filmmaker Gene Hackman's door in return for getting to make his own movie. So unfolds an intricately plotted and slyly funny comedy. Danny DeVito, Rene Russo and Dennis Farina co-star.
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