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Our movie guy, James Finnegan, takes a look at the pick of flicks on the box this coming week…
Let’s start our reviews this week at what is now the traditional visit to Hogwarts with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Saturday 6.35pm RTE1).
Harry, Ron and Hermione are back for their fifth year. The Ministry of Magic does not take Harry and Dumbledore’s warning of the return of Lord Voldemort’s return seriously.
They have, however, appointed a new “Defence against the Dark Arts” professor, Dolores Umbridge (played with great relish by Imelda Staunton). She and Harry are at odds almost immediately.
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There are the usual set action pieces, including a Duel of Magic between Dumbledore and Voldermort and even a hint of romance for Harry, in this darker than usual episode in the tales.
On the day that the trailer is released for his latest Western drama “Cry Macho”, we get the opportunity to see one of Clint Eastwood’s early joint acting and directing classics The Outlaw Josey Wales (Saturday 11.40 pm RTE1).
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Josey Wales (Eastwood) is a Missouri farmer. His family is murdered by Union soldiers during the Civil War. Wales joins up with a Confederate gang, and rapidly makes a name for himself as a gunfighter.
At the end of the war, the majority of this gang, not including Wales, surrender to the victorious Union officers, but there is treachery afoot. Wales finds himself an outlaw on the run pursued by both Union soldiers and bounty hunters.
On to another more recent conflict, The Hurt Locker (Monday 9.30 TG4) is the story of a crack US bomb disposal unit deployed in Iraq during the second year of that war.
They are assigned a new Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) who is either extremely brave or extremely reckless. Unfortunately this attitude puts his whole team at serious risk.
This is a tense, suspenseful and uncompromising war film that won multiple awards including the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow.
Argo (Friday 9.35pm RTE One) is another of those unbelievable but true life stories. There are six Americans in hiding in the Canadian embassy during the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis.
They had to be extradited as soon as possible, with the Revolutionary Guard on high alert looking for them. Their lives were at stake and the clock was ticking.
In an idea borne out of desperation, CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) came up with an audacious plan, or, as they say in the film “the best bad idea we’ve got”. The six were to be a Canadian film crew scouting locations in Tehran for a sci-fi epic called Argo.
In order to give this plan legitimacy, Mendez enlisted the aid of Hollywood Make Up artist John Chambers (John Goodman), a former CIA operative and Film Producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) so anyone checking into the story would be convinced of its accuracy.
Winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, this is well worth a watch. Enjoy and stay safe!
