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Our movie guy, James Finnegan says there is quite a diverse selection of film types available with today’s television films…
Let’s start with Charade (Saturday 2.40pm RTE1) which has been described as the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made.
After Regina (Audrey Hepburn) falls for the dashing Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered.
Regina is stalked by three of her late husband’s World War II cronies, Tex (James Coburn), Scobie (George Kennedy) and Gideon (Ned Glass), who seem to think she knows the whereabouts of a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines.
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Re- enter Peter, but is he who he says he is, and why does he keep changing his story?
Directed by Stanley Donen, with a soundtrack by Henry Mancini, this is a light, charming film very much of its time, based around the undoubted charisma of the two leads.
A glorious family film is Shrek (Saturday 6.35pm RTE1) about an ogre, voiced by Mike Myers, who lives in a swamp, and who wants to just be left alone.
He is horrified when his peace and solitude is ruined by familiar cartoon characters – such as the Three Little Pigs, Bears and Blind Mice among others – who have been banished from Lord Farquaad’s kingdom.
Farquaad (John Lithgow) wants to marry the Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), but she is protected by a dragon. If Shrek slays the dragon, Farquaad will allow the swamp to return to Shrek’s sole occupancy.
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On the way to his quest, Shrek is joined by Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who gets all the best lines.
There are great in-jokes and witty repartee in this script, and is well worth enjoying again.
There are two action films on at the same time. Taken (Saturday 9.45pm RTE1) starring Liam Neeson as a former CIA Agent with a unique set of skills brought back into action when his daughter is kidnapped.
This turns out to be a big mistake on the part of the kidnappers, which ends out bad for them but also launched Neeson as a more mature action hero, giving hope to mature armchair adventurer men everywhere as well as begetting thousands of memes on social media.
Meanwhile Tomb Raider (Saturday 9.45pm RTE2) is the Alicia Vikander version of the computer game heroine which sees Lara Croft in search of her father and hidden lost treasures while fighting off all sorts of mercenary baddies and ancient traps.
Adrift (Saturday 10.20 TG4) is a fact based lost at sea adventure.
Tami (Shailene Woodley) and Richard (Sam Claflin) are hired to sail a fancy yacht from Tahiti to California, but Mother Nature is not respectful of these young loves adventures.
The film, through clever use of flashback and imaginative direction by Baltasar Kormakur, takes us on how these young people met, and how they face the challenges of their voyage home. Enjoy and stay safe!
