Mr. Magorium’s
Wonder... (Sat)Kung Fu
Panda (Sat)FILM OF
THE WEEK
Alone in Berlin (Tue)MOVIES
THE BEST OF THIS WEEK’S
BY NEIL BATEY★★★★★ brilliant ★★★★ very good ★★★ good ★★ average ★ bad TURN OVER FOR MORE
Dawn of... (Sat)Dirty Harry
(Mon)SATURDAY
Mr. Magorium’s
Wonder Emporium
12.30pm Comedy Central
This heartwarming family film
stars Dustin Hoffman as the Willy
Wonka-ish owner of a magical toy
store. He intends to bequeath it to
his assistant (Natalie Portman) but
the shop’s living playthings throw a
tantrum. (2007/U) ★★★
The Good Dinosaur
3.30pm BBC1 (Not Scotland)
A beautifully rendered Pixar romp
that imagines a world in which
dinosaurs didn’t become extinct. A
timid Apatosaurus befriends a
human boy and the two new pals
team up to survive a dangerous
landscape. (2015/PG) ★★★★
Kung Fu Panda
5.25pm BBC
With lots of chopsocky and a witty
script, it’s impossible to resist one of
the best CGI films of recent years.
Jack Black voices a lazy panda who is
chosen to fulfil a prophecy, train as a
martial arts master and defeat an evil
snow leopard. (2008/PG) ★★★★
Brooklyn
10.20pm BBC
A moving and mostly non-schmaltzy
romantic drama. Oscar-nominated
Saoirse Ronan is first-rate as an
Irish immigrant in New York who
romances an Italian boy. Their
London Has Fallen
9pm 5Star
If you can stomach the ‘America
saves the world’ premise, this is an
enjoyably absurd action blockbuster.
Gerard Butler plays a security agent
who saves the day when terrorists
devastate London and kidnap the US
President. (2016/15) ★★★MONDAY
Dirty Harry
9pm TCM
‘Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya,
punk?’ Clint Eastwood is magnificent
as .44 Magnum-toting San Francisco
cop Harry Callahan. Here he’s
hot on the trail of a deranged
rooftop sniper who’s known
as Scorpio. (1971/15) ★★★★★TUESDAY
Along Came Polly
9pm Comedy Central
Perhaps best-known for voicing
Chief Wiggum, Moe and Apu in The
Simpsons, Hank Azaria steals this
rom-com from under the noses of
Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller, who
play ex-classmates who get married
far too soon. (2004/12) ★★★Swordfish
9pm TCM
Slick crime thriller, with John Travolta
revelling in the role of a rogue
counter-terrorist operative who
recruits Hugh Jackman’s computer
hacker to steal $9billion from the US
government. Don Cheadle and Halle
Berry also star. (2001/15) ★★★FILM OF THE WEEK
Alone in Berlin
9pm Film4 PREMIERE
Nerve-shredding Second World War
thriller, starring Emma Thompson
and Brendan Gleeson as a German
couple whose soldier son is killed in
action. They respond by dropping
postcards denouncing Hitler’s
evil empire around Berlin.
(2016/12) ★★★A View to a Kill
9pm ITV
From Grace Jones BASE jumping
off the Eiffel Tower to Christopher
Walken as a peroxide baddie, the
fourteenth Bond film is a doozy
(great Duran Duran theme tune
too!). Roger Moore’s spy tries to foil
a plot to destroy Silicon Valley.
(1985/PG) ★★★relationship is threatened when her
Emerald Isle past catches up with
her. (2015/12) ★★★★Dawn of the Planet
of the Apes
11.05pm C
Imagine if monkeys learned to fire
machine guns. It’d certainly make
trips to Longleat Safari Park
interesting! In the second ape
uprising film, it’s war between
Caesar’s simians and the last
remaining human rebel fighters, led
by Gary Oldman. (2014/12) ★★★★SUNDAY
Chronicle
7.20pm Film
Superior found-footage sci-fi film
about high-school friends who
gain telekinetic powers from a
mysterious object. At first the young
superheroes use their skills for
harmless pranks. But Dane DeHaan’s
bullying victim later embraces the
dark side. (2012/12) ★★★★