Movies

Powerful drama starring James Coburn as a man who attempts to hunt down the killer of his daughter. Using the serial number on the gun that was used to shoot her as a starting point, he journeys across America, tracking down the various owners of the weapon and hearing each of their diverse stories.

Director Gregory Jacobs

Starring James Coburn, Virginia Madsen, Barbara Bain

Comic tale starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton as two ex-cons who embark on a spree of bank robberies. The crooks kidnap a bank employee the night before each heist and use their hostage to gain access to the vault the next morning. Their ingenious methods lead them to become media darlings, but their lives are complicated when they fall in love with the same woman (Cate Blanchett) en route to Mexico.

Director Barry Levinson

Starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett

Friday 2 January at 9:00pm on M4

Michael Mann’s epic film is set in America in 1757 and stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeline Stowe.

Friday 2 January at 6:55pm on F4

Bill Murray stars in Richard Donner’s comedic take on Dickens’ classic as Frank Cross, a misanthropic penny-pinching TV executive whose career rests on producing a ratings-busting version of A Christmas Carol (with US gymnast Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim!). He’s visited by the three ghosts (with Carol Kane as a scene-stealing psychopathically violent Ghost of Christmas Present) and, suitably chastened and humanised by the end, leads the viewers in a festive singalong.

Thursday 1 January at 11:00pm on F4

Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley star in this Oscar and BAFTA-nominated crime thriller from director Jonathan Glazer. Winstone is Gary, a top professional criminal now living in retirement with wife Deedee (Amanda Redman) in Spain. But the peace of retirement is shattered by his former associate Don (Ben Kingsley), a violent psychopath sent by underworld boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) to persuade Gary, by any means necessary, to return for one last job.

Thursday 1 January at 9:00pm on E4

(1996) Hilarious and reliably tasteless comedy from the Farrelly brothers, starring Woody Harrelson as Roy Munson, a hapless ex-tenpin bowling champion who strikes it lucky when he unearths a potential new champion, Ishmael Broog (Randy Quaid), in the Amish community.

Wednesday 31 December at 9:00pm on F4

Jean-François Richet’s re-make of John Carpenter’s 1976 cult classic matches the original for tension and action. Ethan Hawke plays Jake Roenick, a police sergeant in charge of closing down defunct cop shop Precinct 13. But a bus taking drugs lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) to prison is caught up in traffic chaos and he and the other prisoners are dumped on Roenick and his team and those who want him dead are on their way.

Tuesday 30 December at 10:55pm on F4

In the Films to see Before You Die strand, Paul Kaye introduces one of cinema’s neglected classics. Showing in a restored version, Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov’s propaganda film charts the rise of the Cuban revolution through four stories; that of a prostitute, a farmer, student revolutionaries and, finally, Castro’s forces are profiled to show the evil of the Batista regime and the right of the revolutionaries to fight him. The film is rightly revered for its artistry, with Kalatozov using techniques, angles and set-up that were, at the time, genuinely revolutionary.

Monday 29 December at 11:10pm on C4

The Eternity Man is a new film by director Julien Temple of the contemporary opera by Jonathan Mills and Dorothy Porter. The film tells the story of Arthur Stace, a reformed petty criminal who haunted Sydney’s seedy bars and brothels until a revelation one night in a soup kitchen chapel. Stace then spent nearly 40 years chalking a timeless message on the city’s streets: the single word, written in copper-plate, ‘Eternity’. Arthur Stace died in 1967, but his impact on Sydney’s psyche ensured that, as the year 2000 began, his word ‘Eternity’ was lit up in fireworks on the Harbour Bridge.

Monday 29 December at 9:00pm on F4

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie star as John and Jane Smith, a typical suburban couple attending marriage counselling sessions in an attempt to reignite the spark in their relationship. What neither of them knows is that the other is a highly skilled assassin until, separately, they get a call for their next job. Accidentally double-booked, they each discover the truth about their spouse’s secret existence; now they’re in danger not only from their respective organisations but also from each other. But it’s amazing what the frisson of danger can do for a jaded marriage…