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You know what? This is genuinely one of the stronger ‘movies on TV’ listings for a Monday we’ve seen in quite a while.
Enjoy!
The Kid Who Would Be King – Film4 – 6.40pm
Fantasy epic in which a young boy seeks to follow in King Arthur’s footsteps.
Get Carter – ITV4 – 9pm
Michael Caine heads up a vintage British gangster film.
Legally Blonde – RTÉ 2 – 9pm
Reese Witherspoon stars as a student who enrols at Harvard in a bid to prove to her ex-boyfriend that she’s actually rather intelligent, thank you very much. Legal-themed comic hijinks ensure in what has come to be increasingly regarded as a cult favourite.
Mission: Impossible II – Film4 – 9pm
Limp Bizkit did the theme tune. John Woo slowed the pace. Tom Cruise surfed a motorbike.
The second adventure for Ethan Hunt is pretty much regarded as the runt of the Mission: Impossible litter and it definitely pales in comparison to recent instalments of the series, but this writer contends that M:I:2 is better than its reputation suggests.
Terminator Salvation – Sky Showcase – 9pm
Aka the film where Christian Bale had a shouting match on the set with a lighting operator. That’s arguably the most interesting thing about this Terminator entry, considering that Bale reportedly demanded script changes that led to a much more generic hero role.
Salvation has some nice touches – the apocalyptic future setting is effective, the late Anton Yelchin is superb casting as a young Kyle Reese, Sam Worthington isn’t dreadful in his role – but the more it goes on the more mind-numbing it becomes, culminating in a disappointingly safe ending.
Oh and fair play to the trailer for spoiling what could have been a really cool mid-film reveal!
The Gift – TG4 – 9.35pm
Our main choice this evening for you, and the ‘hidden gem psychological thriller’ we shouted out in the headline above.
Happily married couple Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall find their lives turned upside by the sudden re-emergence of Gordo, a strange old school friend with some dark secrets.
Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty) plays Gordo, but he also writes and directs this tense horror-thriller that was met with strong critical acclaim – it currently boasts 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 out of 100 on Metacritic – upon release in 2015.
30 Days of Night – Legend (formerly The Horror Channel) – 10.45pm
Gory, inventive vampire siege tale with Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster and a pretty damn terrifying Danny Huston.
Revolutionary Road – BBC One – 11.15pm
Good news Titanic fans – Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are back onscreen together!
Bad news – Revolutionary Road is an extremely downbeat movie! It’s not bad, though. Sam Mendes directs the stars in a notably heavy drama focusing on a married couple in 1950s America that seem to have the perfect life – yet all is far from rosy in this particular picket fence-lined garden.
Alien 3 – ITV4 – 11.15pm
David Ficher’s attempt at the Alien franchise. Even he doesn’t like it but there’s actually a lot of diamonds in this patch of intergalactic rough.
Ghost in the Shell – Film4 – 11.25pm
Scarlett Johansson’s casting in this live-action Manga caused a lot of understandable controversy and the movie itself is only alright but hey at least Michael Pitt is having fun.
Wild – Film4 – 1.30am
Reese Witherspoon walks for miles and miles in this Oscar-bait drama.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
