All of the best movies on the telly this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
First of all, there are some great movies in the cinema this weekend.
The new releases include Ladybird and I, Tonya, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, you can hear our reviews of them right here, from the 44:05 mark:
However, for the rest of the time you’re spending on the couch on this particularly cold and breezy weekend, then here are the 15 movies we recommend you check out.
FRIDAY
Alien – Film 4 – 21:00
Pretty much the original haunted-house-in-space movie, except the ghost is a monster with a big penis for a head, and a toothed vagina for a mouth, that gives you wicked bad indigestion. Still one of the best horror movies ever made.
While We’re Young – BBC Two – 23:05
Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts play a middle-aged couple who are afraid that they’re getting out of touch with their fun side and befriend a much younger couple (played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) in an attempt to relight that youthful spark. But it isn’t long before they find trying to be young more than a little exhausting. A very funny comedy about failing to age gracefully.
The Duke Of Burgundy – Film 4 – 01:25
A love-story about BDSM that is about 1,000,000 times sexier than Fifty Shades Of Grey could ever dream of being. What begins as a very precise relationship between two lesbian lovers slowly spins out of our understanding into something else entirely. Maybe one of the most sensually erotic films you’ll ever see.
SATURDAY
Babe – ITV2 – 15:10
“That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.” Did you know that Babe was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar back in the day? And that the script was co-written by the same guy who created Mad Max? Well, now you do.
Cool Runnings – RTE 2 – 16:45
We’re sure the fact that the Winter Olympics are happening around now is just a coincidence. Not that you need an excuse to watch this admittedly great movie.
Aliens – Film 4 – 21:00
Let us settle this eternal debate right now: Alien is a brilliant horror movie, and Aliens is a brilliant action-thriller movie, and they’re both worthy of utmost admiration, but Aliens is just better. It just is. We’re sorry if you disagree, but the Earth is flat, fire is hot, and Aliens is better than Alien.
Jack Reacher – Sky One – 21:00
Tom Cruise plays the titular former-military man-turned-private investigator who gets caught up in a plot involving an elite sniper, friends being falsely accused of murder, and a fantastic three-way fight scene in a bathroom too small for anyone to get a decent punch in.
What Richard Did – RTE 2- 22:00
Before he went on to the likes of Frank and the Oscar-winning Room, director Lenny Abrahamson directed this sombre drama involving a well-off secondary student (played by the then up-and-coming Jack Reynor) who has his life turned upside down after a random act of violence.
Dredd – Channel 4 – 22:50
One of the most under-rated and incredibly over-violent (that is a compliment, by the way) action thrillers of the last few years, with Karl Urban perfectly cast as the angry chin who attempts to rid a futuristic high-rise apartment block of deadly drug-dealers, led by Game Of Thrones’ Lena Headey.
SUNDAY
Ghost Town – Comedy Central Extra – 15:00
Ricky Gervais plays a somewhat unlikeable dentist who dies for seven minutes, but when he is revived, he discovers that he can now see and hear ghosts everywhere he goes. They all want something from him, but one in particular (played by Greg Kinnear) wants help with his now widowed wife (played by Tea Leoni), who Gervais begins to fall for.
Legally Blonde – ITV2 – 19:00
“Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend. And SNAP!” Reece Witherspoon doesn’t get enough attention for her comedy chops, and this bright pink comedy doesn’t get enough love for being a very decent supplier of laughs.
Alien 3 – Film 4 – 21:00
Nobody argues that the third movie is the best of the series (and if they do, they’re wrong), but the David Fincher-directed entry is still better than it is given credit for, with a shaven-headed Sigourney Weaver going up against a prison-planet full of evil men, who may or may not be a bigger threat than the alien that crash-landed there with her.
Pitch Black – Syfy – 21:00
For most folk, this was their introduction to one Mister Vin Diesel. He plays a highly violent convicted criminal, being transported to prison when the spaceship he’s on crash-lands on a planet full of aliens that can only come out at night. He, and the other survivors of the crash, must endure a long eclipse and escape the planet.
Shutter Island – Channel 4 – 23:05
Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo are sent to a secluded island, home to a mental institution, to investigate the disappearance of a patient, even though there was no way out of the institution, and no way off the island. A full-on mind-bender from Martin Scorsese, filled with a great cast giving amazing performances.
Point Break – BBC One – 23:30
Keanu Reeves is the undercover cop sent to take down Patrick Swayze’s bank robbing extreme sports gang, but instead, he gets swept up by the leader’s charisma and kind of falls in love with him a little bit.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
