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RATINGS
HHHHHFantastic
HHHH Very good
HHH Good
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H Poors films rated and reviewed
WED31 July THUR1 Aug FRIDAY2 August
Til Ex Do Us Part
Channel 5 2.15pm - 4.00pm HH
PREMIERE THRILLER⊲After
a trial separation, Kelly Sullivan and
Dan Payne are getting back together.
Except that, while apart, Payne had
been having an affair with Anna Van
Hoft who’s lovely and, of course,
deranged. She’ll stop at nothing to
get back her man. In the world of TV
movies, it’s a case of ‘been there, seen
that’. Dir: Danny J Boyle 2018, 12, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )The Diary of a Teenage Girl
C4 1.00am - 2.45am HHHH
DRAMA⊲ British actress Bel
Powley stars in this daring coming-
of-age movie set in 1976 San
Francisco. And, as a 15-year-old girl
who embarks on an affair with her
mother’s 35-year-old boyfriend
(Alexander Skarsgård), she delivers a
tour-de-force performance. Powley’s
heroine is an aspiring cartoonist and
her drawings – animated by Sara
Gunnarsdottir – frequently spill over
into the live action scenes.
Provocative, yes, but unquestionably
honest, too. Dir: Marielle Heller 2015, 18, 105min
SEX ( VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE (BEST OF THE REST
Awake
Sony Movie Channel
9.00pm - 10.50pm HHH
THRILLER⊲A deliciously
ghoulish medical thriller, this
sees Hayden Christensen on
reasonably compelling form as
a rich young company boss with
a fatal heart condition who isn’t
fully anaesthetised when he has a
transplant. Conscious but paralysed,
he overhears a plot by his new wife
(Jessica Alba) and surgeon pal
(Terrence Howard) to murder
him by botching the operation.
Dir: Joby Harold 2007, 15, 110min
SEX ) VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE @Murder at the Mansion
Channel 5 2.15pm - 4.00pm HH
PREMIERE THRILLER⊲Bride-
to-be Anna Hutchison is about meet
partner Jason-Shane Scott’s wealthy
family during a weekend at their
country pile. But the clan’s warmth
doesn’t go too deeply (it’s in the title).
Although head-scratchingly dumb,
this movie is a reasonable time passer.
Dir: Sam Irvin 2018, PG, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )Lethal Weapon 3
ITV 10.45pm - 12.45am HHH
ACTION THRILLER⊲ Mel
Gibson and Danny Glover are back as
Riggs and Murtaugh battling against
an ex-cop-turned-gunrunner in
another action-packed, wisecracking
police thriller. There’s good action at
either end, but not much of a story in
between, to say nothing of a distinctly
soft centre and a frantically joky
approach that betrays the film’s lack of
real ideas. Joe Pesci supplies a few
good laughs. Dir: Richard Donner 1992, 15, 120min
SEX ) VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE @8 Minutes Idle
BBC1 12.20am - 1.45am
(Wales 11.50pm - 12.15am) HH
COMEDY⊲ Tom Hughes plays the
put-upon Dan, who sleeps in the
stationery cupboard of the Bristol call
centre where he works. Taken from
Matt Thorne’s award-winning novel,
this British comedy offers the
potential for some ripe satire on
modern working life, but Dan is so
listless, his plight is never as funny or
involving as you would like. Ophelia
Lovibond makes an impact as one of
Dan’s eccentric work colleagues.
Dir: Mark Simon Hewis 2012, 15, 25min
SEX @ VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE @Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
C4 1.00am - 2.40am HHH
NOIR THRILLER⊲ Writer
Frank Miller and director RobertRodriguez return to the lurid
world of 2005’s Sin City for another
set of gory and depraved tales drawn
from Miller’s comic-book series.
Some faces are the same: Mickey
Rourke’s hulking ex-con, Jessica
Alba’s haunted stripper and Powers
Boothe’s corrupt Senator. Some are
new, including Eva Green’s siren-
like femme fatale, who ensnares
Josh Brolin’s private-eye. A brash
piece of pulp-noir. Dirs: Frank Miller,
Robert Rodriguez 2014, 18, 100min
SEX ( VIOLENCE ( LANGUAGE!BEST OF THE REST
The Big Sleep
TCM 6.35pm - 9.00pm HHHHH
SatelliteFILM NOIR⊲There is
a story that director Howard Hawks
had to ring up author Raymond
Chandler midway through filming his
classic crime novel because he couldn’t
actually figure out whodunit. The
story is certainly labyrinthine, with
detective Philip Marlowe (a pitch
perfect Humphrey Bogart) finding
himself up to his neck in trouble and
corpses. Don’t fret about the plot, just
sit back and enjoy the movie for the
performances and the atmosphere.
Dir: Howard Hawks 1946, PG, 145min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )The Departed
ITV4 11.00pm - 12.40am HHHH
THRILLER⊲Undercover cop
Leonardo DiCaprio is pretending to
be a criminal and criminal Matt
Damon is pretending to be a cop –
and they are both trying to stay alive
by uncovering each other’s identities
in Martin Scorsese’s scorching thriller.
Meanwhile their bosses, police
department heads Martin Sheen and
Mark Wahlberg and Irish mobster
Jack Nicholson, engage in their own
cat-and-mouse game to the death. It’s
a blast. Dir: Martin Scorsese 2006, 18, 100min
SEX! VIOLENCE £ LANGUAGE £Kill Thy Neighbour
Channel 5 2.15pm - 4.00pm HH
PREMIERE THRILLER⊲It’s
that old TV movie trope once again:
single mother moves to new town
only to discover a loon in her vicinity.
This time it’s widowed big city Andrea
Bogart and her young son searching
for some small-town charm, who
stumbles upon an obsessive
tormenter who’s just a little too close
to home. Dir: Ben Meyerson 2018, 12, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )BEST OF THE REST
Miss Potter
AMC 7.10pm - 9.00pm HHH
SatelliteBIOPIC⊲Renée
Zellweger puts her Bridget Jones
accent to good use in this gentle
biopic of the Victorian writer and
artist Beatrix Potter, one of the
best-selling children’s authors of all
time. There isn’t a great deal of
drama here – Potter led a mostly
happy and scandal-free life – but the
tentative love affair between her and
her publisher, Norman Warne (Ewan
McGregor), is a moving experience.
Dir: Chris Noonan 2006, PG, 110min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )Summer 1993
Sky Cinema Premiere
9.45pm - 11.30pm HHHH
SatellitePREMIEREWO R L D
CINEMA⊲Following the death
of her mother, six-year-old Laia
Artigas goes to live with her aunt,
uncle and younger cousin in the
Catalan countryside. Inspired by
director Carla Simón’s own
childhood, this tender, touchingly
naturalistic drama gives us access
to a child’s-eye view of the world
while allowing us to pick up hints
and allusions to her circumstances.
Dir: Carla Simón 2017, 12, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE!Hayden Christensen
and Terrence
Howard in AwakeJack Nicholson and Matt
Damon in The DepartedLaia Artigas in
Summer 1993● See listings pages for full details of regional films TV TIMES^31