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It’s a great weekend if you are following golf, rugby, horse racing and soccer, but there are still some cinematic treats on offer says our movie guy, James Finnegan…
Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart and Jack Black return in the adventure sequel Jumanji: The Next Level (Saturday 6.35pm RTE1) as they attempt to rescue one of one of the own, Spencer, who has gone back into the game, but who cannot leave on his own.
Unfortunately, there have been others sucked into the game, and all the players will have to brave different sectors of the game going from snowy mountains to arid deserts before they can make their escape.
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The Town (Saturday 9.45pm TG4) is a crime drama, directed by and starring Ben Affleck.
He plays the leader of a Boston (The town of the title) gang that specialises in taking down Banks and security vans in well planned and executed jobs.
He takes a bank manager Claire, played by Rebecca Hall, hostage during a heist while the gang makes their escape.
The masked Affleck falls for her, as you do, and lets her go, only to begin dating her, obviously without the mask, so she has no idea who he is.
Also starring Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Chris Cooper, Pete Postlethwaite and John Hamm as the cop trying to catch them, this is quite entertaining unless you are involved in promoting Charlestown, Boston which seems to have a higher proportion of criminals in the population outside of Cabot Cove.
It is hard to come up with two other actors born to play Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy other than Steve Coogan and John C Reilly in Stan and Ollie (Saturday 9.50pm TG4).
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The legendary comedy duo are facing an uncertain future as their style of film making and storytelling is falling further out of fashion, plus they are not getting any younger.
They undertake a gruelling tour of the variety halls of 1954 UK and Ireland (I defy you not to react to their entry to Cobh). Old grudges come to the fore and they have a bitter split until tragedy brings them back together as friends, if not performers.
This is definitely my Film of the Day, not least because of all the comic pairs, there has never been any funnier than Laurel and Hardy.
The Patriot (Saturday 10.30pm RTE2) is one of those films that purport to be historically accurate, but actually play fast and loose with the facts.
Retired solider Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) has turned his back on the military to become a farmer in South Carolina.
He takes up arms again in response to the death of his son by the British in the American War of Independence. This brings him up against Colonel William Tavington (Jason Issacs) who is creating a reign of terror in the surrounding area.
Also starring Joely Richardson, Heath Ledger, Chris Cooper and Tom Wilkinson, this is directed by Roland Emmerich with a John Williams soundtrack. Enjoy!
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