New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

5:00 PM HBO
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009 USA): Even though my son is now a teenager, I still have a soft spot for animated kiddie movies - so I dragged the whole family off to see Monsters vs. Aliens during its early 2009 theatrical run. And, hey...it wasn't so bad! Though no one's idea of high art or even low camp, it's just a good old-fashioned blockbuster with some cute characters and an impressive array of voice talent, including Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, and Will Arnett. And I'm not too proud to admit I laughed out loud at the line "boys, set the terror level at code brown, 'cause I need to change my pants!" Also airs at 8:00 PM.

11:30 PM Sundance
A Christmas Tale (2008 FRA): Catherine Deneuve plays Junon, a woman in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, in this excellent family drama from director Arnaud Desplechin. The story takes place during a family Yuletide reunion, at which Junon must not only mend fences with estranged son Henri (Quantum of Solace's Mathieu Amalric) but find a suitable marrow donor. Guess who's compatible. Merry effing Xmas, indeed.

Sunday 3/14/10

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Magician (1926 USA): Director Rex Ingram is probably best remembered today for epics such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Ben-Hur (1925), but this picture proves he was equally adept at melodrama, too. Based, surprisingly, on a Somerset Maugham novel, The Magician tells the tales of an alchemist (Golem-director Paul Wegener) working feverishly to create a homunculus. And what do you need in order to create one? Why, virgin blood, of course; a helpful dwarf assistant to collect it; and an outlandish lab with all the latest bells and whistles. Interesting footnote: future British auteur Michael Powell served as Ingram's assistant director on this production.

11:30 PM IFC
Slaughterhouse (1988 USA): Or, as it was aptly re-titled for syndication, Bacon Bits. This fair to middling slasher stars Don Barrett as Lester, a hog farmer about to lose the old homestead to foreclosure. Son Buddy (Joe B. Barton) is a mentally challenged man-mountain who also happens to be a dab hand with the tools of the family trade, and Lester concocts a plan to save his forty acres: have Buddy kill off the bankers! So far, so good, but then a carful of annoying teenagers turn up, and Slaughterhouse gets diverted into well-worn slice and dice territory. It's not great by any means, but neither is it the worst the genre has to offer—and it does make its widescreen television debut this evening.

Monday 3/15/10

5:00 AM HBO Signature
Sleep Dealer (2008 MEX): I haven't seen this made-in-Mexico sci-fi pic yet, but it did extremely well on the festival circuit - including winning the Amnesty International Film Prize at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival - so I'll definitely be giving it a look. Plot synopses suggest it's a blend of bleak future and Matrix memes, with perhaps a dash of Brazil thrown in for good measure.

6:00 PM Playboy
Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (1978 USA): This week's Russ Meyer flick was the Oakland-born director's final theatrical release. It's very far from his best, but if you're an admirer of Uschi Digard or Kitten Natividad, they're both here; as is Meyer regular Stuart Lancaster as the delightfully named Man from Smalltown U.S.A. Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens is as close as Russ came to making a genuinely pornographic film, which is probably why it's considered one of his least satisfying efforts.

Continued:       1       2       3       4