This Week on Australian TV

I only managed to watch one of the movies from last week. That was Platoon and my thoughts (however brief) can be found here (down the bottom). Faithful was unwatched by me because I was at court and missed it. The Year of Living Dangerously was unwatched because I screwed up the recording. However, it wasn't in widescreen so it's no big loss. This week has some great titles I'm looking forward to (maybe) watching.

Thursday:
Nothing today. Some Bill Pullman movie from 1996 I've never heard of before called Mistrial, It co-stars Blair Underwood, is a made-for-tv movie. Need I say more? A few others are on but nothing of note.


Friday:
Kate & Leopold (2001) gets a Friday-night screening. Between movies like Paperback Hero, Swordfish, the two X-Men movies and Van Helsing there weren't many opportunities to see Hugh Jackman all scrubbed up looking look (not that the rough and ragged Hugh we all know and love is disappointing). This is also the last movie of Meg Ryan's before she went eroticly kooky and then gave up entirely. The movie looked bland if sunny when I saw the trailer a billion times at the cinema, and I remember the stories about it involving an incestuous relationship between the pair. I might give it a go purely for the Golden Globe nominated Jackman.

Friday also has a bunch of movies I've never heard of before and, er, Porky's II.

Saturday:
The big one tonight (1.30am) is The Big Sleep from 1946. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I love the tag-line for this movie - "The Violence-Screen's All-Time Rocker-Shocker!" hah! This has been on my DVD Queue for ages but it's never been sent so I suppose I'll try and catch it.

The other movies screening today I have all seen (with one exception). Last Saturday channel 9 aired Elia Kazan's classic East of Eden and this week they air my favourite movie of all-time Rebel Without a Cause. Nice one. Also on is Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool which I was a mild fan of. Then there is A Civil Action which I didn't particularly find that great. How did Robert Duvall get an Academy Award nomination for this? Don't answer... I can already guess. David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner airs tonight and that was pretty good. The only other movie that's on is Wild Wild West starring the ungodly combination of Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh and Salma Heyak. Oh, and BAI LING! I don't understand movies that cast Bai Ling. It's odd. The fact that it's IMDb rating is 4.0 speaks volumes. Wild Wild West is also the "winner" of 5 Razzie Awards including Worst Picture. Way to go! I love that it that Kevin Kline was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor and Actress for when he (I'm assuming) dresses up as a prostitute. Nice.

Sunday:
Jennifer Aniston went Oscar-hunting in 2002's The Good Girl. I always saw this on the shelf at Blockbuster but never picked it up for some reason. I don't know why. I actually like Jennifer and i adore me some Jake Gyllenhaal. I'll have to tape this because Sunday is Eurovision night and that's where it's at y'all.

Right after The Good Girl is a movie I didn't even know existed! Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) starring Jane Russell and directed by Richard Sale. The name and star make it sound as if it's some sort of sequel to classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes from two years prior. But... i don't think it is. In fact, I don't think it has any connection to that one other than the two things I mentioned. How odd, but I suppose they did that back then, right? Aaanyway. Maybe I'll just let the tape record this as well. The IMDb User Comment at the top of the page reads "The Worst Musical of All Time, but the Most Entertaining" lol, GREAT!

The Card (1952) starring Alec Guinness gets a 4.30am timeslot, but could be worth setting the VCR for. It's got a 7.4 average on IMDb and from all accounts is pretty good. Plus, it's only 85minutes long! I always jump at the chance to catch up on good movies from the 1950s.

Sunday also bestows us with the classics Small Soldiers starring Kirsten Dunst and the voices of Tommy Lee Jones and, er, Jay Mohr. Those dolls were CREEPY AS FUCK! The Academy Award Winning (lol) A Guy Thing premiers before The Good Girl. You know the nth romcom starring either Julia Stiles or Selma Blair between 1998 and 2004. There was once a time where I had hope for Julia Stiles, about the time of 10 Things I Hate About You. It only resurfaces when I see her in the Bourne franchise and I get the inkling that her agent is working FOR her and getting her away from these projects. I wonder how her next one will go.

The only other title of note is the Snakes on a Plane-ishly title My Date With the President's Daughter. I'm sure, unlike Snakes, this one doesn't include venomous creatures, airplanes or Samuel L Jackson sprouting "I've had enough of these motherfucking snakes" or whatever it is. Sad.

Monday:
There is literally nothing on today that I have even heard of let alone would want to watch.

Tuesday:
Ditto

Wednesday:
SBS's Wednesday Night Movie makes a return with L'Homme du Train (2002) from director Patrice Leconte (whose The Girl on the Bridge I absolutely adore) and starring Jean Rochefort. It won a whole swag of awards (mostly Best Foreign Language type awards) and got some quite rapturous reviews upon release so I might check it out.

Fact: 2 of the movies I mentioned in this entry had the alternate title of The Promoter. They would be Against the Ropes and The Card. Strange.