Film choice

MultiChannel

STARSKY & HUTCH (2004)

Sky Movies 2/6, 8pm/9pm

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson revive the hugely popular 1970s cop duo in this affectionately kitsch semi-spoof, directed by Todd Phillips. Co-starring the rapper Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear and Vince Vaughn as a drug-dealing crime boss, Starsky & Hutch is huge fun for fans of Stiller and Wilson, but hardly essential viewing. (101min)

SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER AND . . . SPRING (2003)

BBC Four, 9.10pm

The Korean director Kim Ki Duk takes a surprising diversion from his usual bloodthirsty urban dramas with this elegant Buddhist parable, set in a beautiful floating temple on a picturesque lake. (103min)

Sunday, January 22

BLADE II (2002)

Channel 4, 10pm

Largely superior to its 1998 predecessor, the director Guillermo del Toro’s hyperkinetic comic-book sequel again stars Wesley Snipes as the half-human, half-vampire superhero. This time, Blade and his grizzled sidekick Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) join forces with their former bloodsucking enemies to battle a ruthless new breed of savage super-vampires. Michael Jackson dropped out of a planned cameo, but watch out for Luke Goss of the 1980s boy band Bros. (117min)

DON’T SAY A WORD (2001)

BBC One, 10.15pm

Michael Douglas and Sean Bean co-star in this fast-moving thriller. The daughter of a prominent New York psychiatrist (Douglas) is kidnapped by a dangerous ex-con (Bean) who demands a secret code to be extracted urgently from the memory of a trauma patient (Brittany Murphy). While the plot of Andrew Klavan’s bestseller is predictable enough, Don’t Say a Word turns out to be a superior suspense melodrama. (113min)

I WENT DOWN (1997)

BBC Two, 12.05am

A snappy Irish comedy thriller written by the hit playwright Conor McPherson and directed by Paddy Breathnach, I Went Down stars Peter McDonald as an ex-jailbird coerced into a sinister errand by a menacing Dublin godfather (Tony Doyle). Accompanied by the boorish Bunny (Brendan Gleeson), McDonald’s reluctant enforcer embarks on an eventful road trip to Cork. (107min)

MultiChannel

BEYOND THE SEA (2004)

Sky Movies 1, 8pm

An all-singing, all-dancing Kevin Spacey directs himself in the role of troubled easy-listening singer Bobby Darin in this slight but energetic musical biopic. During the project’s long gestation, the lead role had previously been offered to Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio. (118min)

Monday, January 23

AMERICAN GUERRILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES (1950)

Channel 4, 1.30pm

One of the German émigré director Fritz Lang’s lesser films, this jingoistic propaganda piece celebrates the Second World War victory of American-backed resistance forces against Japan during the struggle for the Pacific islands. Tyrone Power and Tom Ewell play US sailors building a clandestine communication network behind enemy lines. Shot on location, American Guerrilla in the Philippines is moderately gripping matinee fare. (105min)

BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

BBC One, 11.35pm

A characteristically lowbrow spoof directed by Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles is little more than a parade of amiably inane cowboy jokes, and yet it became the highest grossing western in Hollywood history.

The comedy legend Richard Pryor, who died recently, co-wrote the script and was initially set to star as Sheriff Bart. However, the studio balked at Pryor’s volatile reputation so the role went to Cleavon Little instead. Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn co-star. (93min)

MultiChannel

I HEART HUCKABEES (2004)

Sky Movies 2, 8pm

Proudly flaunting its intellectual pretensions, I Heart Huckabees is a quirky satire about a troubled ecological activist (Jason Schwartzman) who enlists a pair of “existential detectives” (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) after his environmental organisation is taken over by a Machiavellian supermarket executive (Jude Law).

Featuring a stellar ensemble cast including Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts, the writer-director David O. Russell’s multi-layered story aspires to be a whimsical hybrid of Zen parable and slapstick farce. If you can take the relentlessly smug and emotionally arid tone, it is a commendably original and ambitious comedy. (106min)

Tuesday, January 24

FLAMING STAR (1960)

BBC Two, 1.30pm

Often cited as Elvis Presley’s best film, Flaming Star is a liberal-minded western directed by Clint Eastwood’s film-making mentor Don Siegel. In a role originally written for Marlon Brando, Presley plays Pacer Burton, a cattle rancher’s son with Native American blood who is torn between warring white settlers and Kiowa braves.

Fresh out of the army, the young rocker gives an intense performance and keeps his singing to a minimum. Sadly, Siegel’s revisionist western was not a success and Presley spent the next decade making feeble bubblegum musicals. (101min)

WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968)

BBC One, 12.20am

When the 25-year-old British director Michael Reeves died of a drink and drugs overdose in 1969, he left behind just three films. His third, Witchfinder General, is now widely considered an unusually savage masterpiece of low-budget Gothic horror. Set during the English Civil War, it stars a deliciously sadistic Vincent Price as the notorious Matthew Hopkins, a murderous psychopath who abuses his witch-hunting powers for carnal pleasure and self-enrichment.

Ian Ogilvy co-stars as a Roundhead captain who vows revenge on Hopkins for destroying his family. (86min)

MultiChannel

CHIHWASEON (2002)

BBC Four, 11pm

The veteran Korean director Im Kwon Taek re-creates the turbulent rise and fall of the 19th-century painter Jang Seung-Up in this disjointed but passionate period piece.

Jang lived a dissolute life of sex, booze and self-destructive behaviour culminating in his fiery suicide in 1897. Behind its confusing flashbacks to Asian political history and overlong painting scenes, Chihwaseon is an engrossing variation on the evergreen theme of the tortured artist. (117min)

Wednesday, January 25

CAPTAIN BOYCOTT (1947, b/w)

Channel 4, 1.45pm

A true 19th-century figure whose name passed into the dictionary, Charles Cunningham Boycott is played by Cecil Parker in this lively historical romp. The tyrannical agent for an absentee English landlord in Co Mayo, Boycott angered farmers on his estate with high rents and mass evictions, eventually suffering ostracism by his community, backed by a local politician Charles Parnell (Robert Donat) and farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger). (92min)

JOHNNY ENGLISH (2003)

ITV1, 9pm

Expanding on a comedy character created by Rowan Atkinson for a series of credit card commercials, Johnny English blends gentle espionage spoof with lukewarm James Bond parody. Atkinson stars as the eponymous English, an incompetent spy faced with the task of stealing back the Crown Jewels from an evil French mastermind, played by John Malkovich in full pantomime villain mode. Natalie Imbruglia, Tim Pigott-Smith and Ben Miller co-star in the director Peter Howitt’s mildly entertaining lark, which boldly goes where Austin Powers and many others have gone before. (88min)

THE GODFATHER (1972)

Five, 9pm

Francis Ford Coppola’s operatic adaptation of the author Mario Puzo’s dynastic Mafia saga turned a generation of Method actors into superstars and defined the gangster film for decades to come.

Impeccably acted by a cast of heavyweights including James Caan, Robert Duvall and an Oscar-winning Marlon Brando, it stars Al Pacino in a career-making role initially declined by Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. Exquisitely photographed in sombre hues by Gordon Willis, The Godfather spawned two official sequels and countless inferior imitations. It remains an offer that is very hard to refuse. (175min)

Thursday, January 26

ESTHER AND THE KING (1960)

Channel 4, 1.30pm

A colourful but largely unremarkable addition to Hollywood’s sword-and- sandals boom, this Italian-made biblical epic is mostly enjoyable today for its kitsch, stagey opulence. A young Joan Collins stars as Esther, a Jewish virgin who becomes the second wife of the cuckolded Persian king Ahasuerus (Richard Egan), thwarting the backstage political schemes of her husband’s treacherous adviser.

The veteran western director Raoul Walsh is behind the camera, with assistance from the cult Italian filmmaker Mario Bava. (106min)

THE TAO OF STEVE (2000)

Channel 4, 2.35am

The former high-school Lothario at the heart of Jenniphr Goodman’s low-budget romantic comedy may have lost his youthful good looks and slender waistline, but his unorthodox seduction technique remains highly successful. Kindergarten teacher Dex (Donal Logue) invokes the spirit of great Steves throughout history, especially Steve McQueen and Steve Austin, in an attempt to charm the free- spirited theatre designer Syd, played by the director’s sister Greer Goodman.

The Tao of Steve is whimsical fluff, but Logue’s prize-winning, scene-stealing performance keeps it from evaporating into thin air. (87min)

MultiChannel

THE HUSTLER (1961, b/w)

Sky Cinema 1, 8pm

Paul Newman oozes implacable cool as the hotshot pool player “Fast” Eddie Felson. Starring George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason and Piper Laurie, Robert Rossen’s bittersweet classic about pool-hall sharks and lowlife gamblers combines excellent performances with Oscar-winning cinematography.

Although he was Oscar-nominated, Newman finally earned the Academy Award only 25 years later when he played Felson again in the sequel The Color of Money. (134min)

Friday, January 27

AMERICAN OUTLAWS (2001)

Five, 9pm

Colin Farrell dons his cowboy hat and spurs for American Outlaws, yet another reworking of the much-filmed Jesse James legend. History has again been tweaked to suit modern tastes, presenting James (Farrell) as an early anti-corporate warrior seeking revenge against corrupt railroad vandals.

Before filming began, Farrell and his co-stars trained for six weeks on a cowboy ranch in 100F (38C) heat. Sadly, the director Les Mayfield then lumbered them with a weak, cliché-ridden script. (94min)

THE BEGUILED (1971)

ITV1, midnight

More Freudian melodrama than straight western, the director Don Siegel’s psychosexual thriller drama is one of Clint Eastwood’s most unusual features. Eastwood plays a Union soldier recuperating from his Civil War injuries at an all-girl boarding school. But when the soldier’s young companions become his jailers and tormentors, Siegel cranks up the eerie erotic tension with crooked camera angles and stream-of-consciousness voiceovers. (105min)

FREEWAY (1996)

Channel 4, 12.10am

Soon to wow British audiences in Walk the Line, Reese Witherspoon gives a powerhouse performance as a sexually manipulative runaway in a darkly funny trailer-trash update of Red Riding Hood. Fleeing her prostitute mother and crack-addict stepfather, Witherspoon’s teenage vamp guns down Kiefer Sutherland’s smooth-talking sex killer, only to be vilified by a prurient media and cynical legal system. (110min)

MultiChannel

CELLULAR (2004)

Sky Movies 2, 8pm

Life takes a frantic turn for the surfer-dude hero of Cellular (Chris Evans) after a random call sucks him in to a kidnap plot. Kim Basinger, William H. Macy and Jason Statham provide solid back-up in this B-movie nonsense. (94min)