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

Sunday 6/3/12

10:00 AM Showtime Extreme
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010 HK-CHI): Directed by legendary HK filmmaker Tsui Hark, this engaging and impressively mounted period piece stars Andy Lau (Fulltime Killer, The Warriors) as the title character, a disgraced detective given a new professional lease on life by heir to the Chinese throne Wu (Carina Lau, no relation) when her accession is threatened by two cases of spontaneous combustion and a construction project gone horribly wrong. Set in 640 AD, Hark’s film is a throwback to the kitchen sink films of an earlier Hong Kong movie era, when fantasy and reality could be equal partners and mystery, comedy, and political sub-plots could blend together in one heady cinematic mix. Though a little too long (119 minutes), Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame still offers plenty of fun and lots of surprises.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
A Man and a Woman (1966 FRA): BAH-DA-----da dadadadada, DA-DA-DA-daddadaddada, da-da-da-daddadaddada...come on, now, hum along! You’re all familiar with Francis Lai’s legendary theme "song" for A Man and a Woman, but how many of you have actually seen this Claude Lelouch joint? Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant star as Anne and Jean-Louis, a widow and widower who meet cute at their children's school and proceed to develop a special relationship. The film was a huge boxoffice success in France and abroad and went on to win two Academy Awards, but it also suffered criticism for its lightweight appraisal of the lives of two beautiful, well off people. True enough - but there’s something commendable about the film’s effortless simplicity and Aimee is awfully easy to look at, so I’ll give it a pass. It’s followed at 1:00 AM by The Appointment, a 1969 Sidney Lumet drama in which Omar Sharif plays an Italian lawyer who suspects his wife (Anouk Aimee) might be a top-of-the-line prostitute.

Monday 6/4/12

4:05 AM Showtime Extreme
Trollhunter (2010 NOR): Yes, this film could easily be considered the Norwegian Blair Witch Project, with its "this is all true" prologue and its reliance on shaky cam, but you know what? It’s a lot more satisfying because you actually get to see the monster/s. I know, it sounds crazy, but it works.

Continued:       1       2       3       4