This Week on TV

I didn't end up watching any of the films from last week, but I taped Gentlemen Marry Brunettes and The Card and thought I taped The Good Girl but it didn't start until an hour later (for a random "Prison Break" repeat AT 10:30 AT NIGHT!) so I missed it. And I think I'll watch The Man on the Train when it airs tonight.

This week has the regular assortment.

Friday:
Peppermint Candy (or Bakha Satang. 2000) from Korean director Chang-dong Lee. I've heard good things about this movie and it's IMDb rating is 8.2! I might try and record this as I wouldn't be able to watch it at the time. This has been on before though so if I miss it it's not like I won't get to see it in 6 months.

Not many movies use parentheses in their titles (like i'm using now). They're frequent in song titles but movies it's rare because, well, they're pointless. One movie that bucks the trend is the, ahem, classic 2004 TV movie starring Denise Richards and Dean Cain I Do (But I Don't). Yes, that is indeed it's title (and HELLO Lifetime!). I know! I don't know what they were thinking either. Crazy. I personally love the fact that third billed to the movie is an actress by the name of KAREN CLICHE (no joke!) and the plot of the movie is thus: "Denise Richards plays Lauren, a divorced wedding-planner who falls for the groom-to-be". Get it? Her name is Karen CLICHE and the plot is lame and cliched! The only movie with this Karen Cliche woman that I have seen is Steal which was truly abysmal. Way to go KAREN CLICHE (I love your name).

Also in the realm of horrible titles is What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) starring Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito and directed by Sam Weisman (who doesn't live up to his name, i guess). The only reason I even know about this movie is that is opened on the same weekend as Moulin Rouge! in the US and I was watching THAT box-office weekend very carefully (having seen it the week prior to the US release and immediately falling for it). Lol, see how I've already changed the topic to something different (and better). Exactly my point. What's the worst that could happen? Watching this movie.

Saturday:
Jet Lag (2002) is a romantic comedy from France starring Juliette Binoche, Jean Reno and an airport. Could be fun fluffy stuff. It should at least be better than The Terminal!

Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More (1965) airs tonight. I didn't too much like A Fistful of Dollars but I might check this out as a means of connecting it to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly which I actually do want to see and I'd feel odd having seen the first and third parts of the trilogy.

Hollywood legend Robert Towne (whose wrote Shampoo which I watched just last week) directs Tequila Sunrise (1988) starring Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer (My Pfeiffer Blogathon entry here if you missed it), Kurt Russell, Raul Julia, JT Walsh and Arliss Howard. With that cast I'll definitely try to sneak a peak!

Prior to Tequila Sunrise channel 9 is airing the unholy combo of Look Who's Talking Too (1990) and Collateral Damage (2002). Their IMDb ratings of 3.7 and 5.1 respectively speak for themselves, really, don't they? Why on earth did they drudge out Look Who's Talking Too to torture us with?

Sunday:
The German The Miracle of Bern (2003) airs tonight as soccer fever hits peak levels here in Australia and (I'm assuming) around the world as countries prepare for the World Cup. I couldn't really give three hoots about soccer but sometimes sports I dislike can be turned into decent movies.

The big movie tonight though is the world premier of Answered by Fire (2006), an Australian mini-series directed by Jessica Hobbs (director of various episodes of various Aussie tv shows such as "Love My Way") and starring David Wenham as a Peace Keeper in 1999's East Timor as the vote for indipendence draws closer, yet more violent. Tonight is part 1 and part 2 airs next Sunday in the same timeslot. It has been getting astonishing reviews and hopefully I won't forget this mini-series as the commercials made it look wonderful.

Even though I already own The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on DVD I always love seeing it appear on TV as it makes me wanna watch it again. Who DOESN'T love this movie? Are you saying this is an ABBA turd?

Also airing today is Can't Hardly Wait (1998) - that teen movie that came out when so many others were yet was one of the few to try and harken back to the John Hughes classics of the '80s. Unfortunately, it failed. But it was still mildly entertaining if extremely "whatever" inducing.

Monday:
Minnie Driver's career officially died some time around High Heels and Low Lives (as well as, the poster indicates, her weight). Will she make a return? I thought her small but delightful role in Phantom of the Opera may have helped but I don't think it did. Her lookalike Ashley Judd at least seems to have given up her crime thrillers for a while.

Wednesday:

The Oscar-nominated Foreign film from Aki Kaurismaki The Man Without a Past airs tonight in the traditional SBS Wednesday night European spot. Is apparently quite great and it won three awards at Cannes as well as a swag of others. I've never seen anything by Aki Kaurismaki so maybe this is a great place to start...?