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Our movie guy, James Finnegan, picks three movies to watch on TV tonight…
In amongst the multitude of rugby and soccer fixtures, there are still a few films that are well worth viewing on Saturday.
Paddington (Saturday 7pm RTE1) tastefully updates the traditional story of this long time children’s favourite.
A bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) from darkest Peru, with a taste for marmalade, arrives in London following an earthquake. However, the reality is somewhat different from the stories he had been told of life in England.
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He is taken in by the Brown family, and named Paddington after the train station in which he was found.
Little do they realise, that evil taxidermist Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman) also has her eyes on Paddington as a potential exhibit for the Natural History Museum.
Written and directed by Paul King and staring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Peter Capaldi, this film is a total joy from start to finish and is the very definition of perfect family viewing.
The American President (Saturday 9.40pm TG4) was written by Aaron Sorkin, and the themes, styles and even front of camera talent can be seen as early drafts of his later work on the “West Wing” television series.
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Directed by Rob Reiner, widowed US President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) begins a relationship with an environmental lobbyist, Sydney Allen Wade (Annette Bening).
This gives his opposition opponents the opportunity to attack the President’s moral and political leadership at a time when he is trying to pass gun control legislation and run for re-election.
Also starring Michael J. Fox, Martin Sheen, John Mahony and Samantha Mathis, this is a rather idealised version of American politics but is none the worse for that, especially in the US election year.
Continuing the patriotic theme, comes, well, The Patriot (Saturday 9.50pm RTE2) where retired solider Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) has turned his back on military life to become a farmer in South Carolina.
When his son is murdered by British soldiers during the American War of Independence, he takes up arms once again on a mission of vengeance and revenge, which brings him up against a sadistic Officer Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs)
The film also stars Joely Richardson, Heath Ledger, Tom Wilkinson and Chris Cooper and is directed by Roland Emmerich who is no stranger to action sequences. Enjoy!
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