Top Films: w/c Saturday, August 12

Top Films to watch, week beginning Saturday, August 12

Saturday 12/08/23Big (1988) **** (ITV, 3.05pm)Twelve-year-old Josh (David Moscow) is humiliated when he’s turned away from a fairground ride for being too short and makes a wish to be big – which is granted when he wakes up the next morning in the body of a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks). With the help of his best mate Billy (Jared Rushton), the newly grown-up Josh moves to New York and gets a job at a toy company, where his enthusiasm impresses his boss (Robert Loggia) and cynical executive Susan (Elizabeth Perkins). But is Josh really ready for all the complexities of adult life? Hanks, who picked up his first Oscar nomination for his performance, is absolutely pitch perfect in this funny, bittersweet fantasy.

Margaux (2022) *** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 6.05pm) PremiereArtificial intelligence targets humankind for extinction in a high-tech horror thriller directed by Steven C Miller. College friends Clay (Richard Harmon), Devon (Jordan Buhat), Drew (Jedidiah Goodacre), Hannah (Madison Pettis), Kayla (Phoebe Miu) and Lexi (Vanessa Morgan) approach graduation with feelings of regret that they didn’t maintain close bonds from their high school days.The group makes amends by renting a smart house, which is equipped with a virtual helper named Margaux that can cater to their every whim with a 3D printer. Hannah feels uneasy about the artificial intelligence but her warnings go unheeded and Margaux ruthlessly targets the visitors one by one for a grisly demise.

Casino Royale (2006) **** (ITV, 8.30pm)Daniel Craig made a fantastic debut as Bond in this thriller. It finds the secret agent on the trail of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), an international criminal planning to use a high-stakes poker game as a means of funding terrorist organisations across the world. This offering was huge success and had fans who had been sceptical about Craig’s casting eating their words. Judi Dench is one of the very few constants between the Brosnan era and the dawning of Craig. She brings the same dry wit and gravitas to the role of M, dismayed at her fledgling agent’s ability to bring her department into disrepute once again. Meanwhile, Mikkelsen is suitably creepy as the villain of the piece and Eva Green is memorable as 007’s love interest, Vesper Lynd.

Highlander (1986) **** (BBC1, 11.45pm)A band of immortal warriors pit themselves against each other through the centuries, ultimately clashing in New York City in a dramatic final showdown from which there can be only one survivor. If you can stand the constant chopping and changing between centuries and some questionable accents, this fantasy adventure starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery is great fun. Pop promo veteran Russell Mulcahy delivers one of his finest movies – not difficult when you consider he also made atrocious Kim Basinger vehicle The Real McCoy and yawnsome The Shadow. Nevertheless, it’s also Christopher Lambert’s finest hour, and a genuine cult classic, with some top Eighties songs to boot, courtesy of Queen.

Sunday 13/08/23A Man Called Otto (2022) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 1.45pm & 8.00pm)Six months after the loss of his schoolteacher wife to cancer, misanthropic widower Otto (Tom Hanks) prepares to take his own life. During the suicide attempt, Otto is interrupted by heavily pregnant Marisol (Mariana Trevino) and her husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Ruflo), who are moving into a house across the street with their two cherubic girls. Despite Otto’s best efforts to scare off Marisol with his brusque demeanour, she breaks down his defences with kindness and home cooking. A Man Called Otto is an entertaining English-language remake of the 2015 Swedish comedy drama A Man Called Ove, which transplants the eponymous grouch from Scandinavia to the snow-laden American Midwest. Director Marc Forster’s picture casts a warm glow and ultimately teases out Hanks’s nice guy persona.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) *** (ITV2, 5.20pm)This 1920s-set Harry Potter prequel finds zealots called the Second Salemers, led by Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton) and her adopted son Credence (Ezra Miller), preaching hell and damnation in New York. British magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives in the Big Apple at the height of this paranoia, carrying an enchanted suitcase with hidden pocket-dimensions full of endangered critters. So, it’s a very bad time for a non-magical baker called Jacob Kowalski (scene-stealer Dan Fogler) to accidentally pick up Newt’s luggage and release otherworldly species in breach of the Statute of Secrecy. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a visually sumptuous – if often surprisingly bleak – fantasy, with a charming lead performance from Redmayne.

Ammonite (2020) **** (BBC2, 10.00pm) PremierePioneering 19th-century palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) is not credited properly for her discoveries by a patriarchal scientific community, which proudly displays her painstakingly excavated work in museum cabinets in London. Fellow palaeontologist Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) arrives in town with his young wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), who is in the grip of “mild melancholia”. He entreats Mary to take care of Charlotte in the hope that the bracing sea air and walks along the coastline will improve his wife’s disposition and reignite her maternal spirit. Ammonite is a beautifully crafted period romance, and the actresses expertly plumb despair and longing in wordless sequences, captured in bold strokes by cinematographer Stephane Fontaine.

Cape Fear (1991) **** (BBC1, 11.30pm)Brutal rapist Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is released from jail following a long stretch and immediately hunts down the man he blames for his incarceration – his lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), who was so horrified by Cady’s crimes, he failed to mount much of a defence. What takes place next is a nasty game of cat-and-mouse in which Cady becomes increasingly unhinged as he plots his revenge on Bowden and his family. Many movie buffs still prefer the original 1962 film, which took a more restrained approach to the plot and starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum (who both have cameo roles here). However, judged on its own merits, Martin Scorsese’s remake is a stylish thriller with a terrifying performance from De Niro and an eye-catching one from an Oscar-nominated Juliette Lewis as Bowden’s teenage daughter.

Monday 14/08/23Steel Magnolias (1989) **** (Film4, 6.40pm)Have your hankies at the ready for this weepie based on Robert Harling’s play – although luckily, there are plenty of laughs too. Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis and Daryl Hannah play six seemingly mismatched friends who congregate at the local beauty salon in a small southern town to share their hopes, dreams and disappointments. But much of the drama centres on Shelby (Roberts), a young bride who decides she wants a child against medical advice. Roberts, who was a year away from her star-making turn in Pretty Woman, received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, but the whole ensemble is on great form.

The Piano (1993) ***** (BBC2, 11.15pm)New Zealand writer-director Jane Campion had previously scored arthouse success with Sweetie and An Angel at My Table, but her striking drama The Piano became both a critical darling and a surprise box-office hit. Holly Hunter stars as Ada McGrath, a mute Scottish woman who is forced into an arranged marriage with a New Zealand frontiersman Alisdair (Sam Neill). Ada communicates through sign-language, which is interpreted by her young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin), and by playing her beloved piano. Alisdair doesn’t see the need for the instrument and allows it to fall into the possession of his gruff neighbour George (Harvey Keitel), which leads to a passionate affair between him and Ada. Hunter and the then 11-year-old Paquin deservedly won Oscars for their remarkable performances.

Tuesday 15/08/23Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ***** (ITV4, 9.00pm)Having destroyed a cyborg assassin sent to kill her – and had a child with the late soldier sent to protect her – Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is now locked up in a psychiatric institute. Thankfully, she is broken out by her young son John (Edward Furlong) and a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). The bad news is a liquid metal killer (Robert Patrick) is out to murder them all. Considering state-of-the-art effects have a shorter shelf-life than milk, James Cameron’s ground-breaking movie still looks amazing after 30 years. Furlong grates as John, but the stunts, editing and score are top-notch, Hamilton deserves full marks for such a committed performance and Schwarzenegger is as effective a good guy as he was an implacable villain.

The Others (2001) **** (BBC3, 10.00pm)On the island of Jersey during the Second World War, Grace (Nicole Kidman) waits patiently with her children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley) for the return of her husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston). The family lives in a large Victorian mansion, a place of secrets and strange voices on the wind. The sudden arrival of three new servants – Mrs Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), Mr Tuttle (Eric Sykes) and mute Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) – has a dramatic effect on the house, catalysing a series of increasingly bizarre episodes. Written and directed with brio by Alejandro Amenabar, The Others is an intelligent psychological thriller which unsettles without recourse for gore or bloodshed. Kidman is magnificent as the mother whose grasp on her sanity gradually slips.

Wednesday 16/08/23Jason and the Argonauts (1963) ***** (Film4, 3.05pm)This 1963 movie is one of the best-loved fantasy adventures of all time – and it’s nearly all down to Ray Harryhausen’s animated special effects, which include a seven-headed monster and a horde of sword-wielding skeletons. The story is pretty great too, drawing on Greek mythology to tell the tale of Jason, the son of an overthrown king who must embark on an epic sea voyage in a bid to find a golden fleece and regain his kingdom. Leads Todd Armstrong and Nancy Kovack are a bit on the bland side – both had their voices dubbed – but Patrick Troughton and Honor Blackman manage to hold their own against the stop-motion villains.

The Godfather (1972) ***** (Film4, 9.00pm)Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) presides over an influential Mafia clan, but his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) claims to want nothing to do with his father’s criminal activities. However, when their dad is hospitalised following an assassination attempt by a gangster who didn’t take kindly to Vito’s refusal to get involved with the drugs trade, his sons step in to keep the family business ticking over– and it’s Michael who proves to be the most ruthless. Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster movie is a masterpiece. Although it was Brando’s iconic performance as the patriarch that snagged the Oscar and launched a million bad impressions, Pacino is arguably even better as Michael, and the supporting cast is bursting with talent, including James Caan, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton.

Thursday 17/08/23In the Line of Fire (1993) **** (ITV4, 9.00pm)Bodyguard Frank Horrigan is still haunted by his failure to save JFK from an assassin’s bullet. Thirty years later, a psychopath torments Frank, telling him he’s going to kill the US President, and wants the ageing agent to try to foil his plan. Nobody takes heed of Frank’s concerns – until disaster looks set to strike in Dallas. Following the massive success of his Oscar-winning Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood decided to take a break from directing and accepted the lead role in this gripping thriller, which could have been written specifically for him. This is one of Clint’s most exciting projects and the man who usually plays mean and moody characters adds a rare degree of warmth to his role. Rene Russo, John Malkovich and Dylan McDermott co-star.

The Lost City of Z (2016) **** (GREAT! movies, 9.00pm)British artillery officer Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) is offered a mission mapping uncharted territory in Bolivia with the help of local tribesmen. Percy accepts and abandons his wife Nina (Sienna Miller) to venture into the unknown with aide-de-camp Corporal Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson). Percy returns home with a strong conviction that he has stumbled upon proof of a lost civilisation that will astound the academic elite. A second expedition in the company of wealthy adventurer James Murray (Angus Macfadyen) teeters on the brink of disaster, but Percy pushes forward, terrified of the consequences of failure. Shot on location in the Colombian rainforest, The Lost City of Z is a handsome tribute to one man’s struggle against himself and Mother Nature.

Friday 18/08/23Heat (1995) ***** (BBC1, 10.40pm)Two men on different sides of the law are on a collision course in Michael Mann’s stylish, absorbing and much-imitated thriller. Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a career criminal who refuses to be tied down so he can commit himself entirely to his ‘work’. His archenemy, dogged cop Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), has destroyed two marriages and is well on his way to sacrificing a third to his job, which is tracking men like McCauley down. As McCauley prepares for the fabled ‘one last heist’ to see him into retirement, Hanna pulls out all the stops to get his man – even as the pair develop a grudging respect. Even if you think Heat is too long, make sure to watch the iconic scene where Pacino and De Niro face off in a diner.

Bridesmaids (2011) **** (ITV, 10.45pm)Annie (Kristen Wiig) used to own a bakery but she has fallen on hard times and now works as a jewellery saleswoman. Her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) reveals she is getting married and asks Annie to be her maid of honour. Without two dimes to rub together, organising a bridal shower and bachelorette party to remember will be tricky for Annie, especially since one of the bridesmaids is socialite Helen (Rose Byrne), who splashes cash as if it is going out of fashion. Fellow bridesmaids Megan (the scene-stealing, Oscar-nominated Melissa McCarthy), Becca (Ellie Kemper) and Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey) witness the fallout as Annie and Helen vie for Lillian’s affections in this hilarious and ultimately touching comedy.