Top films to watch on TV this week
WEDNESDAY
The Godfather (1972) Film4, 9p.m. Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) presides over an influential Mafia clan, but his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) claims to want nothing to do with his father’s criminal activities.
However, when their dad is hospitalised following an assassination attempt by a gangster who didn’t take kindly to Vito’s refusal to get involved with the drugs trade, his sons step in to keep the family business ticking over– and it’s Michael who proves to be the most ruthless.
Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster movie is a masterpiece. Although it was Brando’s iconic performance as the patriarch that snagged the Oscar and launched a million bad impressions, Pacino is arguably even better as Michael, and the supporting cast is bursting with talent, including James Caan, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton.
THURSDAY
Chariots of Fire (1981) BBC4,
10.35p.m.
The Oscar-winning drama is inspired by the true story of two very different British runners who hoped to take the gold at the 1924 Olympics.
Devout Christian Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) runs because it makes him feel closer to God but faces a dilemma when an important heat falls on a Sunday. Meanwhile, Jewish athlete Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) has to overcome class prejudice and anti-Semitism, as well as the other competitors.
For a film about running, the pace is fairly leisurely, but this period drama is worth sticking with all the way to the finishing line. Leading men Ben Cross and Ian Charleson are on fine form, there’s an eye-catching supporting cast and Vangelis’s famous score is still stirring.
FRIDAY
The Fugitive (1993) Channel 5, 10p.m. Director Andrew Davis’s big-screen remake of the cult Sixties TV series stars Harrison Ford as prominent vascular surgeon Dr Richard Kimble, who is convicted of his wife’s murder, despite his claim that a one-armed man was responsible.
Sentenced to death, the doc leaps at the chance to escape – literally, from a crashed prison bus stuck on train tracks – and find a way to prove his innocence. But with tenacious US Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones in an Oscar-winning role) hot on his heels, clearing his name isn’t going to be easy.
The action scenes are expertly staged,
Harrison makes a charismatic and sympathetic hero, and Jones brings humour and intelligence to a role that with a lesser actor (and screenplay) could have been a two-dimensional antagonist.
SATURDAY
Le Mans ’66 (2019) Channel 4,
11.20p.m.
Marketing executive Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) persuades his boss, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts), that the key to revitalising the ailing car brand is to make Ford sexy. Ford eventually orders his company’s racing division to build a car capable of humiliating Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans race. Stetson-wearing automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) accepts the challenge and approaches Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to sit behind the wheel of the Ford GT40.
Le Mans ’66 is a crowd-pleasing drama of triumph on four wheels. The battle royale between the two brands on the undulating asphalt of the Circuit de la Sarthe is recreated in muscular fashion by director James Mangold. He excels during breathlessly staged racing sequences in an era when the need for speed heightened the inherent dangers of the sport.
SUNDAY
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ITV, 5.05p.m.
The young wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends return for a second term at Hogwarts, but quiet study is the last thing on their minds when an evil presence looms in the corridors. As residents of the school are found petrified, Harry is haunted by a sinister voice in his head, and he resolves to uncover the dark force at work.
The second instalment in the fantasy franchise is arguably the weakest, but it moves things along nicely and retains much of the charm and sense of wonder from the first time around. There’s also a new addition to the staff room in the form of Kenneth Branagh as the vain Gilderoy Lockhart, although in the wake of Paddington 2, some viewers may wonder what might have been had the film-makers’ original choice of Hugh Grant taken the role.
MONDAY
The Road (2009) GREAT! movies, 9p.m.
The future isn’t bright, not in the slightest, in John Hillcoat’s post-apocalyptic thriller, adapted by Joe Penhall from the novel by Cormac McCarthy. The emotional weight of the film rests almost entirely on the shoulders of a gruff and heavily bearded Viggo Mortensen and Australian child star Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Director Hillcoat opens with a flashback, introducing an unnamed husband (Mortensen) and wife (Charlize Theron), survivors of a terrible disaster. She is pregnant with their son and is reluctant to bring a child into a world without hope. Having given birth, the mother eventually abandons her husband, walking into the darkness to her grim fate. Years pass and supplies of fuel, food and water are almost entirely depleted, forcing those that remain onto the road.
TUESDAY
Sister Act (1992) Film4, 12.45p.m. Nightclub singer Deloris Van Cartier ( Whoopi Goldberg) needs somewhere safe to stay after she agrees to testify against her gangster boyfriend (Harvey Keitel), and the cops have the perfect hiding place – a convent. She struggles to adapt to life as a nun but starts to bond with her fellow sisters when she rejuvenates the choir. Her modernising efforts don’t go down well with the starchy Mother Superior (Maggie Smith), but they do get the church a lot of attention, which may not be the best idea for someone who’s supposed to be keeping a low profile.
This feel-good comedy had enough charm to become a box office hit that spawned a sequel and a West End musical. The script was originally written with Bette Midler in mind, but it fits Goldberg like a glove, and Smith brings a touch of class to proceedings.