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Friday 1/29/10

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Girls on the Loose (1958 USA): Four women disguised as men rob a bank and live to regret it in this unusual and surprisingly good second feature. The plot is cooked up by nightclub owner Vera (Mara Corday), who ropes in three X-chromosome accomplices, and the gang makes off with a cool $200,000. They bury the loot with the intention of leaving it untouched for several years, but panic soon sets in when a pistol-whipped bank employee sinks into a coma and a murder rap looms. Directed for Universal by actor Paul Henreid, Girls on the Loose can't avoid a morally uplifting, Code-enforced ending, but takes us on an exciting trip before we get there.

Saturday 1/30/10

2:00 AM HBO Signature
Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009 USA): The sad hollowing out of America's industrial base continues apace, but the end is getting nearer. This thoroughly depressing HBO original documentary takes a look at the final days of General Motors' Moraine, Ohio plant, a community mainstay that shuttered its doors for good at the end of 2008. Told entirely from the perspective of soon to be unemployed auto workers, the 40-minute Last Truck is either all too brief or blessedly short, depending on your point of view and/or level of empathy.

5:00 PM HBO
12 Rounds (2009 USA): Hey, it's January. If there's going to be dreck at the cinema, there'd better be some dreck at home, too. And director Renny Harlin knows from dreck. To prove it, he hired professional wrestler John Cena to star in 12 Rounds, a purported ‘thriller' about a New Orleans cop (Cena) on the trail of a terrorist (Irish variety). If you've ever watched any WWF sparring, you know Cena can't even act to wrestling's bog-level standards, never mind Hollywood's: the guy is a walking billboard for all-American butch militarism, and that's all he's got to offer. Well, besides those silly shorts he wears. Heck, the man makes Hulk Hogan look like George Clooney. I guess I just can't believe 12 Rounds is airing in HBO's primo Saturday night spot. Avoid. Also airs at 8:00 PM.

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