Film and television critic Philip Wakefield assesses the best movies on offer on the box this week, for Tuesday, July 1 to Monday, July 7.
Tuesday, July 1
A View From the Top
2003, AO, 8.30pm, TV2
Bottom-of-the-barrel airline stewardess comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow that the New York Post dubbed "the movie equivalent of airline food". Mike Myers, Candice Bergen, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo and Rob Lowe co-star.
Wednesday, July 2
You, Me and Dupree
2006, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies
Owen Wilson’s sly, bumbling charm doesn’t wear out its welcome as quickly as his houseguest from hell in this movie debut from the directors of TV’s Arrested Development, Anthony and Joe Russo. He plays a honeymoon crasher who moves in with his best mate (Matt Dillon) and ingratiates himself with his new wife (Kate Hudson) and father-in-law boss (Michael Douglas). Wilson’s fun but the dark promise of the male unbonding premise is lost amid the slapstick and sappiness.
Thursday, July 3
The Corporation
2003, G, 8.30pm, Rialto Channel
Tour-de-force indictment of corporate capital that chronicles the rise of the corporation and analyses its insidious impact on politics and populations. Authoritative, illuminating and chilling, The Corporation couldn’t be more different from Michael Moore’s left-wing rants with laughs - indeed, Moore comes across with more integrity and intelligence here than he does in his own films.
Friday, July 4
16 Blocks
2006, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies
Two of Hollywood’s best action practitioners, star Bruce Willis and director Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon), belatedly teamed for this corny but irresistible shoot-‘em-up that unfolds mostly in real time. Willis plays a bent, burnt-out cop who mounts one last stand in defence of his honour to save the life of a witness his crooked cronies want to kill. No matter how many times you’ve been around this block, Donner’s dynamite direction still makes it an exciting, suspenseful and surprisingly poignant trip.
Saturday, July 5
Scooby Doo
2002, PGR, 7.30pm, TV2
What saves Scooby Doo the movie from the dog house are its kaleidoscopic, cartoon-ish splendour, helter-skelter sight gags and stunning setpieces that not so long ago only could have been the domain of traditional animation. The computer-manipulated mutt sounds better than he looks but Matthew Lillard’s Shaggy and Linda Cardellini’s Velma are so pitch-perfect that you'll go “Zoinks!” in disbelief.
Just My Luck
2006, PGR, 7.30pm, TV3
It was just director Donald (Miss Congeniality) Petrie’s luck to get stuck with this lacklustre Lindsay Lohan lark about a New York socialist whose good fortune turns bad when she kisses a stranger at a masquerade ball. Chris Pine, who will play a junior James T Kirk in the next Star Trek movie, co-stars.
The Human Stain
2003, AO, 8.30pm, TV One
Set at the height of the Monica Lewinsky hysteria, this Philip Roth dramatisation stars Anthony Hopkins as a pioneering Jewish professor of classics whose fall from grace following an unintended racial slur about two of his students is reinforced by an affair with a university cleaner (Nicole Kidman) with a homicidal ex-hubby (Ed Harris). The tragedy that ensues should be writ large yet merely is of academic interest.
Planet of the Apes
2001, AO, 9.30pm, TV3
Tim Burton's re-make of the sci-fi favourite isn't quite the same chimp off the old Hollywood block - the ape planet isn’t Earth and the monkey suits convince more than the sets and performances. As for social satire, it’s been dumbed down to apes in frilly nightgowns who wear underarm deodorant while the ridiculously contrived ending was clearly born out of desperation to top the original’s. Mark Wahlberg and Tim Roth star; the original’s Charlton Heston has an ironic cameo.
Con Air
1997, AO, 9.40pm, TV2
A resourceful, ex-Army ranger (Nicolas Cage), who’s just finished serving seven years for justifiable homicide, is the authorities’ only hope of stopping a plane load of killer cons from flying out of the country. How he does so creates jumbo-sized tension and thrills, and preposterous but eye-popping pyrotechnic mayhem. John Cusack and John Malkovich co-star.
My House in Umbria
2003, AO, 10.40pm, TV One
A sterling cast headed by Maggie Smith, Ronnie Barker and Timothy Spall, and post-September 11 ramifications elevate this quaint character study beyond pedestrian, picturesque period drama. About a group of misfits - a retired British general, an orphaned American girl, a young German - who recuperate in an eccentric author’s Italian villa after a terrorist attack, it charms and intrigues but is too embryonic to edify.
A Perfect World
1993, AO, 11.40pm, TV2
In this atmospheric but fatally-overlong drama about a surrogate dad on the lam, Kevin Costner plays an escaped convict whose abduction of a young Jehovah’s Witness leads to their forging a bond that neither has experienced with blood kin. The resolution of their predicament, however, it as tragic as it is inevitable. Co-starring as the law on their tail is Clint Eastwood, who also directed.
Sunday, July 6
The Dukes of Hazzard
2005, AO, 8.30pm, TV2
Those good ol’ boy racers are back to rev up a new generation with their hillbilly hi-jinks. Sean William Scott and Johnny Knoxville play the iconic hellraisers of the ‘80s TV series in a Hollywood re-make that confirms the franchise has really gone to the Hoggs. Jessica Simpson co-stars as their leggy cousin Daisy while Burt Reynolds recaptures his own White Lightning days as their arch rival, Boss Hogg.
Thirteen Ghosts
2001, AO, 10.40pm, TV2
An impoverished widower and his family inherit a futuristic home occupied by 12 imprisoned ghosts and with a floor plan that's the work of the Devil ... 13 Ghosts’ filming is first-rate, the special effects and production design sensational, and the surround sound ear-popping. But despite all the hi-tech trappings, this is still a haunted house hoot at heart that can’t overcome wretched writing and feeble frights. Tony Shalhoub(TV's Monk) and F Murray Abraham star.
Monday, July 7
The Legend of Bagger Vance
2000, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies Greats
In this enchanting fairway-of-dreams fable about finding the sweet spot in life, Matt Damon plays a golfing legend whose game has been traumatised by The Great War. When his ex-sweetheart (Charlize Theron) organises a $10,000 exhibition tournament to save her family’s grandiose golf course from financial ruin, he reluctantly agrees to compete against Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. But only after coaxing from a nomadic caddy (Will Smith), who turns up to help him find his swing - and his way back to the 19th hole.
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