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Our movie guy, James Finnegan, picks some movies to watch on TV today…
First up is Sabrina (Saturday 2.40pm RTE1), not the 1954 Billy Wilder version starring William Holden, Humphery Bogart and Audrey Hepburn, but the more recent Sidney Pollack directed version.
It is always a challenge to remake a beloved classic, but thanks to some imaginative casting, this is a real joy with a definite Cinderella vibe.
Sabrina (Julia Ormond) is the daughter of the Larrabee family chauffeur. She catches the eye of playboy David Larabee (Greg Kinnear) although it is obvious to everyone bar the characters themselves that his rather more serious and sombre brother Linus (Harrison Ford) would be the better match.
However, if it was that obvious to them, it would have been a much shorter film and not as much fun to watch.
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Missing Link (Saturday 6.30pm RTE1) is an animated story of a eight foot tall furry Yeti/Sasquatch creature (voiced by Zach Galifiankis) who is tired of being alone.
He wants to find and join his long lost family in the legendary Shangri-la. He enlists the aid of fearless explorer Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) whose intentions are more personal with this amazing creature, who turns out to be more civilised than the humans
With other vocal talent including Stephen Fry and Zoe Salana this is this weeks film for all the family.
GoldenEye (Saturday 7.30pm RTE2) is Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as James Bond.
His mission is to recover an obital satellite weapon that can devistate entire cities and is connected with the theft of an experimental helicopter than can continue to operate in nuclear pulse conditions.
The trail leads him to a criminal mastermind with an obsessive hatred of England as well as connections to Bond himself
Directed by Bond veteran Martin Campbell, it also stars Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupo, Alan Rickman and Judi Dench making her first appearance as “M”.
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Incidentally, Brosnan’s second Bond appearance in Tomorrow Never Dies is on tomorrow (Sunday 5.55pm RTE2).
There is truly nothing like a Dame, as Judi Dench (again) and Maggie Smith appear in a real feel good film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Saturday 9.30pm RTE1)
Seven English pensioners decide to retire to Jaipur in India based on the brochure and advertisements for a luxurious sanctuary for “the elderly and beautiful” run by Sonny (Dev Patel).
Unfortunately the reality is of a ramshackle and dilapidated site. However the immigrants are eventually won over by the enthusiastic Sonny.
Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) juggles all the subplots very well, aided by the distinguished cast which also includes Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Tom Wilkinson, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup all in excellent form
The American President (Saturday 10.05pm TG4) has a script from Aaron Sorkin, and you can see familiar characters and themes to later appear in “The West Wing”
President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) is a widower with a young daughter. He is in a re-election campaign against Bob Rumsen (Richard Dreyfuss).
So when he starts dating an environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) their romance and careers are in trouble.
Also staring Martin Sheen, Anna Deavere Smith and Michael J Fox this is a personal favorite that I highly recommend. Enjoy and stay safe!
