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1:10 PM Starz In Black
Make It Funky! (2005 USA): Released shortly after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, Make It Funky! documents the rich musical history and heritage of the Crescent City. The film's centerpiece is a 2004 concert featuring a plethora of rhythm and blues stars, including Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, and Snooks Eaglin, amongst others. Fellow Meter Art Neville provides narration and tells the story of mid 20th century Big Easy music, from Lloyd Price and Fats Domino to Dr. John and Robert Parker. If you love R'n'B, you'll definitely want to get down with Make It Funky!

Friday 06/08/07

7:00 PM Showtime
The Weather Man (2005 USA): Nicolas Cage's career has steadily been going down the crapper, at least artistically, but every now and then he manages to reclaim a little of the gravitas he displayed back in his glory days. Admittedly, the man has always courted popular success as well as critical acclaim - for every Birdy, there's been at least one Moonstruck - but of late a fat paycheck seems to be the major determinant in Mr. Cage's decision making process. Of course, success and acclaim aren't mutually exclusive things, and The Weather Man is a reasonably successful effort to blend the two. Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film features Cage as David Spritz, a television 'meteorological personality' trying to balance his family and work lives, and coming up short in both. It's the perfect metaphor for the actor's career, which probably explains why I quite like it, and is making its widescreen television debut this evening. It re-airs at 10:00 PM.

9:00 PM IFC
Creepshow 2 (1986 USA): This inferior sequel to George Romero's Creepshow makes its letterboxed debut this evening on IFC. This time the episodes involve a cigar store Indian who comes to life and doles out an ass kicking, a group of pot-smoking juvenile delinquents who come to a gooey end whilst on a rafting trip, and a hit and run driver whose victim refuses to go quietly into that good night. The stories - apparently cobbled together at lunchtime by Romero and Stephen King - are pretty stale, but you can't argue with a cast that includes George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, Lois Chiles, and Tom Savini. Also airs 6/9 at 12:30 AM.

Saturday 06/09/07

3:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Great Train Robbery (1979 GB): An unknown Michael Crichton film would seem to be an oxymoron, but The Great Train Robbery is the one that got away, and deserves a much wider audience than that which it found on its initial release. If you enjoy caper flicks, you won't want to miss this set-in-Victorian England adventure featuring Sean Connery as a master criminal out to, well, rob a train - a train that happens to be carrying a safe full of gold. It's reasonably suspenseful, flawlessly shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, features a good supporting cast, including Donald Sutherland, Michael Elphick, and Andre Morell, and airs in wide-screen this afternoon on TCM. All aboard!

Sunday 06/10/07

1:15 AM Sundance
R Point (2004 ROK): Sundance's Asia Extreme series is now deep into rerun territory, but of all the films aired during that estimable series, this is the one most worthy of a second look. Set during the Vietnam War, R Point follows a platoon of South Korean soldiers sent to rescue a group of missing compatriots who have come a cropper at the eponymous strategic location. As the soldiers search for their comrades, strange things start to happen - and an overgrown graveyard of French colonial soldiers starts to wield a strange influence upon them. Genuinely creepy, beautifully shot, and featuring some of the best sound effects I've ever experienced in any film, R Point is a brilliant spook fest that will raise a few goosebumps on all but the most horror-inured viewers.

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