Wednesday 23 July 2014

Freeview films of the day : wednesday 23rd of July

If you've watched/recorded the first two Alien films over the past couple of nights you should also consider the least favoured of the trilogy Alien 3 (1992 109min.) [Film 4 11.00pm &+1]

Science-fiction action thriller, starring Sigourney Weaver, Charles S Dutton and Charles Dance. The third in the Alien series finds Warrant Officer Ripley, the only survivor of a crash-landing, stranded on a planet inhabited by convicts who are being killed by a mysterious foe.

David Fincher takes over from James Cameron as director and the film has a distinctly different tone and feel to the first two. In my opinion it's a worthwhile addition to the series but it does tend to polarise opinion, for example :



For the cinephile with an interest in European film :

The Red Desert (1964 111min.) [Film4 1.15am thursday &+1]

A depressed plant manager's wife in Ravenna is befriended by an engineer.

Michelangelo Antonioni's film isn't up there with his earlier work (L'Avventura, La Notte and The Eclipse) but still has things of interest, not least the early warning about the dangers of industrial pollution.

Stars the wonderful Monica Vitti but also a horribly mis-cast and underused Richard Harris.

For the cinephile with an interest in older Hollywood films :

The Outrage (1964 92min.) [ Ch4 1.50am thurday &+1]

Western remake of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, starring Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey. At the trial of a Mexican bandit accused of the rape of a woman and the murder of her husband, witnesses offer widely differing accounts of what happened.

Martin Ritt's direction is laboured but the cast (even William Shatner) are exceptionally good. Interesting late cycle western.

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