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Our movie guy, James Finnegan, on some movies on the box on Saturday…
“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines”…
So begins Ludwig Bemelmans’ first book about Madeline (Saturday 1pm RTE2), who is one of those twelve little girls, and the inspiration for the story, look and style for this charming family film.
Madeline, who is wonderfully played by Hatty Jones, is an orphan and the smallest of the dozen who line up in height order before going for their school walks.
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The school is run by Miss Clavell (Frances McDormand) which is next door to a property purchased by the Spanish Embassy.
Meanwhile, kind Lady Covington (Stephane Audran), who provides for the school, dies in the hospital, and her husband Lord Covington (Nigel Hawthorne) starts leading potential purchasers through the house as he wants to sell it for an embassy.
When it appears that the school will be sold, Madeline decides to run off and join the circus. She then discovers a plot to kidnap Pepito, the son of the Spanish Ambassador, who although being a rather unpleasant character, does not deserve that fate.
Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer, this has themes from all four books in the Madeline series, and is a charming and endearing watch
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (Saturday 6.35pm RTE1) tells the tale of two youngsters who unwittingly unleash all manner of monsters from a locked manuscript (called with stunning originality “Haunted Halloween”) that they find in an abandoned house – where would Halloween films be without abandoned houses?
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In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Saturday RTE2 9.50pm), the crypto-zoological agency Monarch takes on an army of huge monsters, including the films titular star Godzilla, who also goes up against Mothra, Rodan and the major biggie baddie, the three headed King Ghidorah.
Obviously working on the principle that if less is more, think how much more, more would be.
It stars Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Charles Dance and Sally Hawkins who I can only hope were well recompensed for their time and talent for appearing in this, the third Hollywood contribution to what must be now well over thirty Godzilla films.
In Halloween (Saturday 10pm TG4), director David Gordon Green breathed fresh life into this particular horror franchise.
Forty years ago, Michael Myers terrorised Haddonfield by going on a killing spree, fifteen years after murdering his sister.
After a prison bus crashes, Mike is on the loose again, but this time survivor Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is ready and waiting for his return.
This film was followed by ‘Halloween Kills’ and the recently released ‘Halloween Ends’, let alone the other non-referenced sequels, so there is no shortage of knife wielding adventures for those looking for same.
In an incidental piece of useless information, the original Michael Myers trademark face mask was one of William Shatner painted white! You’re welcome. Happy Halloween everyone!
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