TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for March 1 2011 through March 7 2011
By John Seal
March 1, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 3/1/11
8:00 AM Encore Mystery
With a Friend Like Harry (2000 FRA): I’ve recommended this film on previous occasions, but it’s well worth watching more than once so bear with me (and it) one more time. With a Friend Like Harry (also known less euphoniously as Harry, He’s Here to Help) is a superior Hitchcock-ian thriller starring the always terrific Sergi Lopez as the unctuous high-school chum of Michel (Laurent Lucas), a happily married man living an idyllic existence in the French countryside. The two are reunited by happenstance, and Michel invites Harry home, where his old chum recites one of Michel’s old school poems and starts obsessing about his friend’s need for more creative downtime. Michel doesn’t have any interest in verse anymore, but Harry insistently starts to remove all the societal and familial barriers on behalf of his friend, resulting in some bloody deaths and one very unhappy ex-poet. Sacré bleu! Also airs at 3:00 PM.
8:30 AM Flix
Mandela (1996 SAF-USA): What can I say about Nelson Mandela that hasn’t already been said? The man spent decades in prison and then helped create a new multi-racial democracy whilst averting what seemed likely to be an incredibly bloody civil war. This Oscar-nominated documentary takes a look at the great man’s life, paying particular attention, naturally, to his days in the Robben Island penal colony and throughout his struggle against apartheid. It’s stirring stuff, albeit with an understandable hagiographic bent.
Wednesday 3/2/11
1:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964 ITA): Comedy anthologies were all the rage in mid-sixties Italian cinema, and here’s one of the best. Written by Stevie Wonder, Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday is one of the most memorable soul singles of ’69. Oh, wait—let me rephrase that. Directed by Vittorio de Sica, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is one of the most memorable anthologies of ’64. It relates three stories of contemporary Italian love and lust, each featuring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in different roles, and each focused on the amorous affairs of a different woman. The stories themselves are nothing to write home about—they’re slightly above average sex farce—but the film looks amazing thanks to Giuseppe Rotunno’s widescreen Technicolor cinematography, and there’s a wonderfully bright and lush score courtesy composer Armando Trovajoli. And, of course, fans of Loren will not be disappointed.
6:10 AM Flix
The Devil and Max Devlin (1981 USA): Just goes to show what terrible tricks one’s memory can sometimes play: I was sure Richard Pryor was the star of this rarely seen Disney live action comedy, which makes its widescreen television debut this morning. But no—it’s Mr. Jello Pudding himself, Bill Cosby, here essaying the role of Barney Satin, an associate fallen angel who lays claim to the soul of car crash victim Max Devlin (Elliott Gould) on behalf of Beelzebub. Seems Max has been a naughty boy in life and must now pay for his misdeeds in the afterlife, but Barney makes him an offer he can’t refuse: if Max can bring him the souls of three innocent people, he can have his own back. This one’s strictly for the kiddies or fans of the Cos, who eschews his normal, avuncular style here for something a touch more malevolent.
11:45 AM Encore Mystery
The Least of These (2009 USA): Some folks aren’t going to take too kindly to this documentary, which casts a baleful eye on Texas’ treatment of ‘illegal immigrants’. Too bad: The Least of These is a powerful and unsettling film about the Lone Star State’s Hutto Detention Facility, where Texas houses asylum seekers, undocumented aliens, and their families as they await determination of their legal status. Think it’s cool to send pre-pubescent kids to jail? Then you will love Hutto. All others will be suitably disgusted.
10:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984 GB): Other than the first two Johnny Weissmuller movies, this is the only really decent film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' pop culture phenomenon - sorry, that Disney version is pretty overrated. What's even more remarkable is that the ape-man is played by the acting-challenged Christopher Lambert, star of numerous awful Highlander films. On the other hand, Weissmuller was probably the WORST actor to ever step in front of a camera (did anyone else sit through those Jungle Jim movies TCM aired a year or two ago?), so Lambert doesn't look so bad in comparison. What makes this version as enjoyable as it is? There's a quality supporting cast (Ralph Richardson, Nigel Davenport, James Fox, and Ian Holm), excellent cinematography by Kubrick colleague John Alcott, and a (relatively) close screen adaptation by Robert Towne. Towne also manages to bring a patina of intellect to otherwise uninspiring source material; Burroughs' prose is horribly flowery and badly outdated, relying on long discredited theories of race and breeding to tell his tale. Director Hugh Hudson made his name with the gauzy nostalgia of Chariots of Fire, but this is the better film.
Thursday 3/3/11
3:05 AM HBO Signature
Cinco Dias sin Nora (2008 MEX): Jews...in Mexico? They do exist, of course, but until now have been pretty much persona non grata on the big screen. Cinco Dias sin Nora changes all that, and stars septuagenarian sex symbol Fernando Lujan as Jose, a man forced against his will to deal with the funeral of his late (divorced) wife Nora, who’s committed suicide, inconveniently, on Passover. Lujan is the heart and soul of this wry character study, in which his character—a dyed-in-the-wool atheist—has to make some compromises with the faith of his ancestors. A huge festival hit, the film won seven Mexican Academy Awards (which for some reason aren’t listed on IMDB).
5:30 PM Showtime
Ahead of Time(2009 USA): And while we’re on the topic of elderly Jewish people, here’s a fascinating documentary about a genuine feminist trailblazer. Now 99 (98 when the film was completed), Ruth Gruber became America’s youngest PhD in 1931 at the tender age of 20. She spent time in the Soviet Union writing for the New York Herald Tribune, worked for the Roosevelt Administration, and traveled extensively through the fractious Middle East—all before she celebrated her 40th birthday. The born in Brooklyn Gruber has seen it all and been everywhere, and Ahead of Time features a super added bonus: narration by fellow nonagenarian Eli Wallach! Also airs at 8:30 PM.
7:00 PM HBO
Twelve Monkeys (1997 USA): Director Terry Gilliam briefly flirted with popular success with Twelve Monkeys, a dystopian fantasy starring box-office biggies Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. Willis plays James Cole, a convict sent back in time from 2035 to ‘the present day’ to discover the source of a virus that has wiped out 99% of Earth’s (future) human population. His story, unsurprisingly, does not sit well with Earth’s 1996 residents, and he’s promptly sequestered in a mental hospital, where he meets insane genius Jeffrey Goines (Pitt). Goines has a special link to the virus, as well as connections in the shadowy world of animal rights activists, who (unintentionally) have played a role in the propagation of the bug. Though I can’t stand Pitt, he’s worth suffering through in Twelve Monkeys, one of Gilliam’s very best works. Also airs at 10:00 PM.
Friday 3/4/11
2:45 AM More Max
Fourteen Hours (1951 USA): And after Twelve Monkeys, of course, comes Fourteen Hours, a superior Fox suspenser about a man threatening to commit suicide. Richard Basehart plays the potential jumper, whilst the calming presence of Paul Douglas enters the picture as the friendly cop who tries to talk him down. Well directed by action specialist Henry Hathaway and featuring a great supporting cast (including Grace Kelly, Frank Faylen, Agnes Moorehead, and Howard da Silva), Fourteen Hours earned an Oscar nom for Best Art Direction, because nothing says great art direction quite like a window ledge.
9:00 PM Sundance
Death Bell (2008): Yay, Asia Extreme is back! I haven’t seen this delightfully titled South Korean slasher flick yet, but what little information I can find suggests it’s a North Asian knock-off of Saw. Which, of course, will either be a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective and your propensity for exquisitely detailed torture devices. Also airs 3/5 at 2:30 AM.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Road Games (1981 AUS): I guess 31 Days of Oscar is over for another year, because as enjoyable as it is, this Aussie thriller certainly didn’t earn any Academy recognition. Written and directed by Richard Franklin (Patrick, Psycho II), Road Games stars real-life wild man Stacy Keach as truck driver Quid, the kind of guy who picks up attractive female hitchhikers when the opportunity presents itself. There’s a serial killer on the loose, however, and when Quid picks up attractive female hitchhiker Pam (Jamie Lee Curtis), the two swap theories about the crimes and find themselves stalking the baddie themselves. I wish I could report this was screening in widescreen, but such does not appear to be the case: however, TCM has surprised me in the past, and the film is rare (and good) enough to warrant a look regardless of aspect ratio.
11:30 PM Flix
The Medusa Touch (1978 GB): Richard Burton plays a man with a deadly psychic talent in this decent if inauspicious thriller, which makes its widescreen television debut this evening. Burton is John Morlar, a novelist with an unfortunate power: simply by imagining disasters, he can will them into existence. Morlar has had the gift since childhood, but is now in a coma thanks to getting bashed on the head by an unseen assailant. It’s up to Inspector Brunel (the strangely Gallic Lino Ventura) to solve the crime and hopefully stop the somnolent Morlar from killing again, intentionally or otherwise. Co-starring Lee Remick, Harry Andrews, Gordon Jackson, and Robert Flemyng, The Medusa Touch is one of the more unusual ‘sixth sense’ thrillers from a decade awash in them.
Saturday 3/5/11
7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Fighting Trouble (1956 USA): The Bowery Boys are back, if not by popular demand then surely by force of habit. At this point, the series was running on naught but fumes: the grief-stricken Leo Gorcey had gone into retirement after the death of father Bernard, leaving Huntz Hall to carry the banner alone. Unfortunately, every top banana needs a straight man, and Stanley Clements just doesn’t cut the mustard in Fighting Trouble. As for the story, it’s more of the same: the boys get mixed up with gangsters. This one’s for the hardest of hardcore fans only.
2:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
Sandcastles (1972 USA): Pretty boy Jan-Michael Vincent stars in this better-than-average made for television romantic fantasy. He plays Michael, a young man killed in an auto wreck whose ghost haunts a Southern California beach. He meets musical hippie chick Jenna (Bonnie Bedelia), who falls in love with him, but doesn’t realize he’s not of this Earth. Otherworldly complications ensue. Interesting footnote: according to TCM’s website, this was the first TV-movie made using a single camera videotape system. Believe it or not, TCM has more information about Sandcastles than Fox Movie Channel does! Also airs 3/6 at 1:00 AM.
6:00 PM Starz
The Last Station (2009 GER-RUS-GB): I missed this high falutin’ frock flick when it lit up arthouse screens in late 2009 and early 2010, but Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer earned themselves Academy Award nominations for their thespic turns as Mr. and Mrs. Tolstoy. We’ll all be the better for watching it, I’m sure. Also airs at 9:00 PM.
9:00 PM Sundance
Bunny and the Bull (2008 GB): I just wrote about this film when it popped up on Sundance late last year, but in case you missed it then, be sure to catch it now. I’ll simply repeat what I wrote on that occasion:
Not to be confused with the film Roger Ebert hated before he loved it (or at least liked it) — Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny — Bunny and the Bull is a comedic fantasia from Mighty Boosh creator Paul Ryan. Described by the director as a “comedy road movie set entirely in a flat," the film stars Edward Hogg as reclusive Stephen, a stay at home type who hasn’t left his apartment in months. When an infestation of mice upends his routine, Stephen’s sense of complacency is disrupted and he imagines himself back on last year’s European road trip with chum Bunny (Simon Farnaby). If you’re familiar with the surreal and non-sequitur-ish (is that a word?) nature of The Mighty Boosh, you know what to expect: if not, you’ll probably be puzzled beyond belief.
Also airs 3/6 at 2:25 AM.
Sunday 3/6/11
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Ginger and Fred (1986 ITA): Here’s a very late-period Federico Fellini flick that, while by no means up to the standards of La Strada or Juliet of the Spirits, is still worth a look. Marcello Mastroianni gets his second TiVoPlex shout-out of the week for his performance as vaudeville old-timer Pippo, whose old act with partner Amelia (Mrs. Fellini, Giulietta Masina, in her penultimate screen appearance)—impersonating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers—wowed ‘em back in the day. Now Pippo and Amelia have an opportunity to perform together one last time on a television variety show. Of course, this being a television variety show as imagined by Fellini, their co-stars are anything but normal: there’s a well-endowed cow, a monk who can float in the air, and (of course) assorted dwarves and transvestites. Yeah, you’ve seen it all before—but there’s a rosy nostalgic hue to Ginger and Fred that wasn’t so much in evidence in early Fellini.
Monday 3/7/11
5:20 PM Sundance
3Some (2009 ESP): Really, IFC Films? When you picked up the Spanish film Castillos de Carton for US distribution, you couldn’t think of a better English-language title than ‘3Some’? In Europe they called it, with good reason, Paper Castles. Earth to IFC Films: the Pussycat theatre chain went out of business years ago. Okay, so the film is about a love triangle, but c’mon. Also airs at 10:00 PM.