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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 12/4/12

5:30 AM Sundance
Faintheart (2008 GB): I must be getting soft in my old age: this is the second romantic comedy I’ve recommended in the last month or so. As with my previous indiscretion, The Decoy Bride, Faintheart is a quirky British entry in the genre, earning its place in the TiVoPlex thanks to a good cast (Ewen Bremner & Eddie Marsan) and a unique set-up: its characters are deeply involved in historical reenactments such as the Battle of Hastings (1066 and all that). Yes, it’s pretty predictable but quite funny, and is also the only film ever produced (in part) by MySpace. Really! Airs again at 10:30 AM.

6:30 AM Flix
(The) Survivor (1998 USA-PUR, or 1987 USA-RSA): Did you know that Richard Moll has appeared in two crappy science fantasy movies with the same title? Well, technically one is called Survivor and one is called The Survivor, but that’s close enough for government work. One of them is a US-South Africa co-production; the other a US-Puerto Rico co-production, and which one of the two is going to show up on Flix this morning is not entirely clear to me. Whichever one it is, though, it’ll be positively Moll-tastic!

9:45 PM Starz In Black
Species (1995 USA): If you’re still in the mood for some silly sci-fi, consider this entertaining (and much more impressive) slice of hokum. Ben Kingsley headlines as Xavier Fitch, a brilliant scientist tasked with capturing a creature (Natasha Henstridge, lovely at first and then less so) consisting of equal parts human DNA and underpants gnomes from outer space. In order not to alarm the public, Fitch assembles a team to assist him, and what a team it is: there’s deep cover assassin Press (Michael Madsen in svelter days), empath Dan (Forest Whittaker), and anthropologist Arden (Alfred Molina). Can they stop the creature before it devours everyone in its path? Of course they can, but that didn’t stop the producers from dipping into the well again in 1998, when Species II (immediately following at 11:30 PM) came out.

Wednesday 12/5/12

10:30 AM Sundance
Pablo’s Hippos(2010 GB-COL): If you enjoyed the recently aired HBO documentary Sins of My Father, but felt that you needed to know more about Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, look no further. Pablos’ Hippos details what happens when a man with more money than sense becomes the seventh richest man in the world: he buys a menagerie complete with pet hippopotami. It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so tragic, as is made abundantly clear in this feature produced for BBC4, which examines how Escobar’s animal importing ‘cartel’ became almost as feared as the big man’s goon squads.

10:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
A Message to Garcia (1937 USA): Here’s an obscure Fox drama that, to the best of my knowledge, has never aired on Fox Movie Channel. What’s up with that? Constant airings of Speed 2: Cruise Control, and no time for A Message to Garcia? An historical mini-epic helmed by George Marshall, the film stars Wallace Beery as an army deserter who gets back in America’s good books by helping a fellow soldier (John Boles) deliver a crucial message during the Spanish-American War. Also on hand: Barbara Stanwyck (as Boles’ love interest - not Beery’s, unfortunately), Alan Hale, and John Carradine as the disembodied voice of President William McKinley!

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