BEHIND ENEMY LINES (2001)
Channel 4, 9.25pm
Loosely based on the exploits of the real-life US pilot Scott O’Grady, this military blockbuster concerns a hotshot air ace (Owen Wilson) shot down in war-torn Bosnia. Gene Hackman, echoing a similar role in the 1988 thriller Bat 21, again plays the grizzled officer in charge of the rescue. Some impressive action, but not much else. (106min)
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BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997)
Five, 11.20pm
Mark Wahlberg plays the generously endowed screen stud Dirk Diggler in the writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s rich, droll, superbly composed paean to California’s golden age of 1970s porn movies. Burt Reynolds was Oscar- nominated for his portrayal of a dapper porn baron faced with the demise of his industry, even though he was initially so convinced that the film would flopthat he fired his agent. (152min)
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RUN LOLA RUN (1998)
Channel 4, 2.15am
Set in modern Berlin, Tom Twyker’s witty, intelligent, adrenalin-pumped thriller stars Franka Potente as a flame-haired punkette racing through the city to save her clueless boyfriend from tragedy. The action divides into three chapters, each starting from this same point before branching off towards wildly different dates with destiny. (81min)
MultiChannel
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STAR WARS: EPISODE V — THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)
Sky Movies 1, 8pm
The second chapter in the ever-expanding Star Wars saga is still widely considered the best. From the opening battle on the ice planet Hoth to the betrayal and capture of Han Solo (Harrison Ford), the director Irvin Kirshner’s all-action space adventure is full of dark twists and shock revelations. (124min)
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SAHARA (2005)
Sky Movies 2, 8pm (HD2, 10pm)
Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz star in this sub-Indiana Jones adventure about a team of explorers searching for an antique ship lost in the Sahara desert. Directed by Breck Eisner, the son of the Disney boss Michael Eisner, the result is clunky but undemanding popcorn for the eyes. (124min)
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THE IPCRESS FILE (1965)
BBC Four, 8.45pm
One of the producers behind the 007 franchise brought the author Len Deighton’s dishevelled spy Harry Palmer to the screen as a kind of gritty, realist antidote to James Bond’s glamorous exploits. In one of his most iconic early roles, Michael Caine’s Palmer is a deadpan 1960s anti-hero tracking down traitors inside British intelligence. (109min)