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Our movie guy, James Finnegan, says the Christmas movies are in full swing…
WELL, with a week to go before the actual Christmas weekend, you will not be surprised to see a few films with a Festive theme on offer today.
A few people may identify with the central character in Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Saturday 6.30pm RTE1).
In this live-action adaptation of the beloved children’s tale, the reclusive green Grinch (Jim Carrey) decides to ruin Christmas for the cheery citizens of Whoville.
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Joined by his hapless dog, Max, the Grinch comes down from his mountaintop home, cunningly disguised as Santa, and sneaks into town to take everything holiday-related from the Whos.
However, the bitter grump finds a hitch in his plans when he encounters the endearing Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen).
Directed by Ron Howard and with a narration delivered by Anthony Hopkins, there are some dark moments but most of the film is dominated by the wildly enthusiastic Jim Carey who is having a ball as the Grinch. The film also won the Academy Award for Make Up.
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In Die Hard (Saturday 9.20pm RTE2) John McClane (Bruce Willis) is a New York cop en route to Los Angeles to see his family.
He stops off at his wife’s place of work and quickly realises that armed men have taken over the building and have taken the corporation’s staff hostage during the Staff Christmas Party.
So begins an entertaining, though violent, cat and mouse chase between McClane and the villainous Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) through the building and environs.
Directed by John McTiernan, this was the start of a whole series of similar adventures, but this is the best. There are some who believe Christmas does not begin until this film is shown!
The Rose (Saturday 9.30pm TG4) was originally based on the life of Janis Joplin, but was changed at the request of her family.
Mary “The Rose” Foster, played by Bette Midler in her screen debut, is a rock singer, whose rise to fame runs concurrently with a downward spiral into drug addiction and alcoholism.
She is not helped by a miserable private life, and an overbearing manager Rudge Campbell (Alan Bates)
She wants to get home to Florida and perform for her home town audience. However, she takes off with her limousine driver Huston Dyer (Frederic Forrest).
The course of their relationship does not run smoothly, otherwise this would be a very different and indeed shorter film, plus be warned, you will not be able to get the famous theme song out of your head for a while.
Judi Dench stars as Joan Elizabeth Stanley, an elderly widow arrested for treason also known as Red Joan (Saturday 11.45pm RTE2).
It turns out she was recruited by the Soviet Union in the 1930’s to provide details of Britain’s nuclear weapons, which she does in the hope that neither nation would gain the edge in the nuclear race, ending up as the KGB’s longest serving agent in the British Government. Enjoy!
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