GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
Channel 4, 8pm
Originally conceived as a vehicle for the former Blues Brothers partners Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, this good-natured supernatural comedy about a team of spook- hunters became a huge box office smash. When Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982, Bill Murray took over his scene- stealing role. (107min)
Advertisement
ALI (2001)
Five, 9pm
Will Smith bulked up to 15 stone of lean muscle for the director Michael Mann’s screen biography of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Mann sticks to Ali’s most dramatic decade, from newly crowned champ in 1964 to comeback sensation in 1974. Smith never quite convinces in this overly reverential biopic, but it makes for engrossing social history. Ali’s Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman follows at midnight. (159min)
Advertisement
TOUGH GUYS (1986)
BBC One, 11.45pm
Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster enjoy mocking their own screen pasts in this fanciful action comedy. The two old-timers play veteran train robbers sprung from jail into a modern world they barely recognise. After a doomed bid to embrace old age, they dust down their zoot suits and get back into crime. Feelgood silliness rescued by the formidable charms of its iconic stars. (104min)
MultiChannel
Advertisement
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002)
BBC Three, 7.45pm
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the real-life teenage conman Frank Abagnale Jr in Steven Spielberg’s delightfully breezy comic caper. Travelling all over 1960s America, the suave fraudster passes himself off as a doctor, lawyer, airline pilot and secret agent. Meanwhile, Tom Hanks plays the dogged FBI man hard on Abnagale’s heels. (141min)
Advertisement
BAD SANTA (2003)
Sky Movies 1, 8pm (HD, 9pm)
This hilariously sour antidote to sickly yuletide sentiment stars Billy Bob Thornton as an alcoholic, sexually rapacious, foulmouthed safecracker who applies for a job as a shopping mall Santa. But his criminal plans are scuppered by a misfit kid (Brett Kelly) who stubbornly insists on believing in seasonal goodwill. Great stuff for cynics. (91min)
Advertisement
TIME AFTER TIME (1979)
Sky Cinema 1, 10pm
Cleverly combining the H. G. Wells classic The Time Machine with Jack the Ripper mythology, Time after Time is a pulpy but compelling thriller set in both Victorian London and modern-day San Francisco. David Warner stars as the Harley Street surgeon turned killer who escapes to the future, pursued by Malcolm McDowell as Wells himself. (112min)