Film and television critic Philip Wakefield assesses the best movies on offer on the box this week, for Tuesday, August�12 to Monday, August 18.
Tuesday, August 12
Snakes on a Plane
2006, AO, 8.45pm, Sky Movies 2
Anaconda meets Airplane in this beaut B-grade hoot that lives up to its title�- and and so some. Yet it took producer Craig Berensen nine years to uncoil his pet project on the big screen door, in malice of the foolproof pitch: "Two of the biggest fears people have: Fear of flying and fear of snakes. Throw them together at 30,000 feet and see what happens." Samuel L Jackson, Julianna Margulies and Nathan Phillips star.
Wednesday, August 13
The Lives of Others
2006, AO, 8.30pm, Rialto Channel
In this Oscar-winning German film about a secret policeman�s fall from grace on the eve of the Berlin Wall collapsing, Ulrich Muhe plays an officer in East Berlin�s infamous Stasi force who bugs the apartment of a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his actress lover (Martina Gedeck). While spying on them, he learns of state-sanctioned skulduggery that turns him into an unlikely guardian angel whose bid to protect the duo leads to tragic consequences. The Lives of Others is a masterful, heartfelt human-interest drama-cum-subtle political thriller that lifts the iron curtain on the tactics that dictatorships use to keep their citizens in check. It�s slow but utterly chilling, suspenseful and moving.
Thursday, August 14
The Namesake
2006, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies
The Namesake is deceptively simple culture clash-cum-generation gap drama about an Indian family trying to assimilate into American society. Intimate, absorbing and thoughtful, it stars Kal Penn and Tabu as an immigrant couple who, after an arranged marriage, settle in suburban New York so they can offer their children the opportunities they never had. Their maturing relationship and cultural estrangement are subtly contrasted with their son (Kal Penn) and daughter�s (Sahira Nair) evolution into adults who have more of an affinity with Americana than their Indian traditions, creating a rift over roots that only grief can reverse.
Friday, August 15
Deja Vu
2006, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies
You�ve seen star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott work together before (Man on Fire) but there�s little else that�s familiar about their second collaboration. Scott is more restrained than usual as he focuses on the Einstein-ish intricacies of this ingenious but ultimately unconvincing time travel thriller about a government agent investigating the bombing of a New Orleans ferry with the help of Big Brother wizardry that puts him in the past and the present at the same time. Val Kilmer co-stars.
Saturday, August 16
Yours, Mine & Ours
2005, PGR, 7.30pm, TV2
Re-make of the Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda comedy that inspired The Brady Bunch, starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo as a widower and widow who marry and try to live together with their 18 children. Raja Gosnell directs a clich�d shambles that�s an even bigger dog than his previous movies, Scooby-Doo and its sequel.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
2005, PGR, 7.30pm, TV3
Keisha Castle-Hughes joins fellow Kiwis Temuera Morrison and Jay Laga�aia for the most recent instalment of the George Lucas franchise (and the fourth that he directed). Its high-definition TV premiere coincides with Thursday�s theatrical opening of the animated Star Wars: The Cone Wars, in which Sith�s Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L Jackson and Christopher Lee voice the same characters. Expect it to be just as two-dimensional.
Anger Management
2003, AO, 9.20pm, TV2
Analyse this: What draws top talent like Jack Nicholson, Marisa Tomei, John Turturro and Heather Graham to an Adam Sandler comedy? What was their rationale? Or, in the case of this middling romp about a cuckoo shrink (Nicholson) and his pent-up, put-upon patient (Sandler), irrationale? Despite being doggedly lowbrow, Anger Management is a likeable if lacklustre lark leavened by amusing cameos and occasionally droll exchanges between the protagonists.
One Hour Photo
2002, AO, 10.30pm, TV3
Robin Williams plays a photo-shop developer who confuses Polaroid with paranoid in this thoughtful thriller that stylishly eschews stalker clich�s for a chilling psychological portrait of alienation and loneliness. Williams delivers a terrific turn against type, gracing what could have been a creepy, cheesy caricature with credibility and compassion, while writer/director Mark Romanek focuses more on motivation than melodrama as he builds towards a surprising and telling climax.
Sunday, August 17
Spider-Man
2002, PGR, 7.30pm, TV2
Hollywood's first live-action take on the comic-book crimebuster was 20-years-in-the-making but worth the wait for those who think superheroes just haven�t been the same since Christopher Reeve first flew as Superman. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Willem Dafoe star; splatter pic marvel Sam Raimi directs.
Blade: Trinity
2004, AO, 10pm, TV2
The vampire slayer who makes Buffy look like a big girl�s blouse returns for more slice-and-dice bravado. Writer/director David S Goyer completes his bloodsucker trilogy with the help of a scribe who, believe it or not, is credited as Marv Wolfman! Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson and Jessica Biel star.
Monday, August 18
Swordfish
2001, AO, 8.30pm, Sky Movies Greats
Sleek but loathsome thriller that opens with bloodcurdling brilliance but thereupon turns tail to become just another preposterous cars�n�carnage chore with more torque than talk. Clearly aimed at men under 25, it boasts fast cars, faster trigger-fingers, a barely-dressed Halle Berry and a computer hacking plot that's barely decipherable. John Travolta and Hugh Jackman co-star.
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