Top films to watch on TV this week
WEDNESDAY
Ad Astra (2019) Film4, 9p.m. Celebrated astronaut Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) hopes to further mankind’s knowledge of the universe as part of a team on the International Space Antenna. A series of devastating electrical storms, christened The Surge, results in more than 43,000 deaths. Scientists at SpaceCom have traced the source of The Surge to Neptune, close to the last known location of Roy’s father Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), who disappeared almost 30 years ago. Roy is instructed to travel undercover to Neptune via Mars to deduce if Clifford is alive and releasing anti-matter aboard his missing ship to create the electrical storms.
Donald Sutherland also stars in co-writer/director James Gray’s visually arresting sci-fi thriller that hard-wires the visceral thrills of Gravity and the existential angst of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
THURSDAY
The French Connection (1971) BBC4, 9p.m.
Two tough New York cops try to bust an international drugs-ring after learning that heroin is being shipped in from France. Their investigation leads them to a sweet shop that’s been selling more than candy, but for one of the officers in particular the case becomes an obsession, and he doesn’t care how many rules he has to bend to get results.
Viewers seeing The French Connection for the first time might think the plot is a bit cliched, but that’s only because it inspired so many other TV shows and films. Although most people remember the iconic car chase, the gritty drama also boasts an extraordinary performance by Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle, and an impressive supporting cast. No wonder it picked up five Oscars. Fernando Rey and Roy Scheider also star.
FRIDAY
Captain Phillips (2013) BBC1,
10.40p.m.
Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) kisses his wife Andrea (Catherine Keener) goodbye and takes charge of his cargo vessel, the Maersk Alabama, bound for Mombasa, Kenya. Somali pirates led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi) board the vessel and Phillips conceals his crew below deck in the engine room while he takes charge of the situation.
Faced with threats of violence from Muse, Phillips puts himself in harm’s way to ensure the safety of every man on board, but the stand-off spirals out of control.
Based on the book by Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty, Captain Phillips is a nerve-racking thriller that fully deserved its six Oscar nominations. Hanks is flawless and Abdi delivers a striking supporting performance, adding depth and complexity to a role that could easily have been a caricature.
SATURDAY
Passport to Pimlico (1949) BBC2, 1.15p.m.
A long-buried bomb explodes in the London suburb of Pimlico, unearthing a 15 th-century decree that the area should be part of France. The delighted residents tear up their ration books as they escape the restrictions that still apply in post-war England, while the government does its best to bring the area back under British rule.
While this Ealing comedy may not have the legendary status of its stable mates The Ladykillers or The Lavender Hill Mob, it’s still a classic. If nothing else, it’s great to see fine character actors such as Margaret Rutherford, Stanley Holloway and Basil Radford at their peak.
SUNDAY
Early Man (2018) BBC1, 3p.m.
In the Neo-Pleistocene era “near Manchester, around lunchtime” a falling flame-licked meteor heralds the extinction of quarrelsome dinosaurs and primitive humans. New life sprouts from the scorched earth, creating a valley of lush vegetation where Chief Bobnar (voiced by Timothy Spall) and his caveman tribe including Dug (Eddie Redmayne) hunt floppy-eared rabbits in blissful isolation.
Greedy Bronze-Age tyrant Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) gatecrashes the idyll with heavily armoured troops. Emboldened by the support of Goona (Maisie Williams), Dug publicly challenges Nooth’s henchmen to a football match for control of the valley.
Early Man is a charming stop-motion animated comedy of errors directed by Nick Park, which traces the history of football to our club-wielding prehistoric ancestors.
MONDAY
Gemini Man (2019) Film4, 9p.m. Former Marine turned sniper Henry Brogan ( Will Smith) is contracted by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) to carry out hits on foreign targets that pose a threat to the American people. Henry successfully neutralises a rogue scientist, only to later learn the intelligence was bogus.
Before Henry can confirm suspicions of DIA interference, he is targeted by a covert military unit called Gemini run by Clayton Varris (Clive Owen). The assassin is Henry’s cloned younger self, brought to life on screen using state-of-the-art digital trickery and motion capture performance.
Director Ang Lee’s Gemini Man is a turbo-charged action thriller, which stretches a slightly flimsy plot over two hours, throwing in some explosive set-pieces including a full-throttle motorcycle chase.
TUESDAY
Inglourious Basterds (2009) Film4, 9p.m.
Quentin Tarantino’s unforgettable war opus is a blood-soaked fairytale set in Nazi-occupied France, divided into five hefty chapters. He plays fast and loose with historical fact, and splices genres to dizzying effect across its two-and-ahalf hours.
Christoph Waltz provides an Oscar-winning supporting performance as a sadistic German officer and Brad Pitt (who went on to win an Academy Award himself for Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) is a larger-than-life officer leading a platoon of Jewish Americans with only one thing on their minds – to kill the upper echelons of the Third Reich. Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger are also among the outstanding cast.