The Queen
TV Films
TV Films
by Matt Nippert
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 23
The Addams Family (TV3, noon). Some inspired casting can’t quite disguise the inherent flimsiness of this remake of the ghouls-at-home sitcom. Anjelica Houston is a devilishly slinky Morticia Addams, while Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) is a deliriously depressed Uncle Lester. Even among the kids there’s star-power to burn: a young Christina Ricci plays Goth-girl Wednesday, and she’s bloody funny in a school Shakespeare recital. However, the 1960s TV show began life as a series of New Yorker cartoons drawn by Charles Addams and – despite the impressive design – the film can’t get away from being a succession of one-panel gags. (1991) 5
Possession (TV1, 8.30pm). Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart play professors who discover a letter from a Victorian poet – long held up as a model of marital fidelity – addressed to a woman who wasn’t his wife. Whereas most movie romance is based on plumbing and hormones, Paltrow and Eckhart take the brainy route by quoting poetry and talking (yes! talking!) to each other as they study their literary Lothario and apply their findings to contemporary life. Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by A S Byatt and directed and adapted by Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Nurse Betty), this is a fine example of lit-rom. (2002) 7
No 2 (TV2, 8.35pm). Local playwright Toa Fraser’s paean to Mt Roskill and the value of family and community wowed the crowd at Sundance – and for good reason. Roskill, an often-overlooked Auckland suburb, here looks like a slice of red-tiled sun-drenched multicultural paradise. But does Fraser keep it real? Listener reviewer Philip Matthews thought so: “Fraser knows Roskill like Spike Lee knows Brooklyn.” (2006) 8
Control Room (TV1, 10.40pm). March 2003 was a heady time for media in the Middle East: Iraq was being invaded, and the Qatar-based television network Al Jazeera was starting to be noticed by the rest of the world. This documentary tracks the tension between US authorities and the upstart news channel during the invasion, and manages to throw up plenty of surprises. Senior Al Jazeera producer Samir Khader confides that if he was offered a job at Fox News he’d take it so he could “exchange the Arab nightmare for the American dream”. (Coincidentally, Fox News gave then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a platform to call Khader and his colleagues liars.) And Josh Rushing, seen here as the candid spokesperson for the US Marines, has since quit the military and now works for Al Jazeera English. (2004) 7
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 24
Revenge of the Nerds (C4, 8.30pm). In the age of Bill Gates, nerds today are more likely to be seen as high-income innovators, but in 1984 they were considered social misfits with no friends. In what could be seen as a backlash to the American campus-high-jinks flick (or perhaps just as the son of Animal House), Revenge of the Nerds turns the practical jokes and ritual humiliation of university life back onto the popular crowd. It’s a fine blend of send-up and slapstick. The belching competition alone needs to be heard to be believed. (1984) 6
The Queen (Sky Movies, 8.30pm). The film that saved the British monarchy? This docudrama, set in the weeks following the death of Diana, makes even stuffy royals in the midst of a PR disaster appear human. Tony Blair-lookalike Michael Sheen plays the Prime Minister, and the Princess of Wales appears as herself in skilfully blended archival footage. But the real queen here is Helen Mirren, who gives an inspired, regal performance as Her Majesty Elizabeth II and deservedly took home the best actress gong at the Oscars. We were most pleased. (2006) 9
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26
The Commitments (MGM, 6.35pm). Given that the production of this film resembled Irish Idol, the end product is staggeringly good. Instead of recruiting actors who could sing, casting directors pulled the old Monkee trick: 3000 musos were auditioned and 12 were picked to play soul band the Commitments. Ponytailed lead Andrew Strong was 16 at the time, and despite his glorious voice (“Mustang Sally”, “In the Midnight Hour”), he hasn’t acted in a feature since. Between musical interludes, the action lags and Roddy Doyle’s working-class novel gets lost in squabbles over fame. This is more Hollywood than Dublin, but fun all the same. (1991) 7
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Sky Movies, 8.30pm). A prequel to a remake of a 1974 film about a killer with a power tool. Though earlier incarnations of Leatherface, the aforementioned saw-man, were hardly masterpieces, at least they didn’t rip themselves off. To wit: madman with chainsaw chops up sexy strangers who wander into his Texan slaughterhouse. Has mass murder ever been this dull? (2006) 2
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27
The Bone Collector (Prime, 8.30pm) Denzel Washington is a paralysed forensic detective and Angelina Jolie is a model-turned-policewoman who follows his direction. Together they take on a preposterous serial killer in this crime-thriller flick that induces more judders than shudders. Post-Seven, the genre took a gruesome turn, and here the villain feeds his victims alive to rats or cooks them using underground hot-water pipes. As queasy-making as this sounds, it almost appears Disneyesque compared with modern torture-thriller franchises Saw and Hostel. More “blah” than “Argh!” (1999) 3
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