New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 10/07/08

10:45 AM Sundance
Lemon Sky (1987 USA): A young Kevin Bacon stars in this above average made for TV drama about a less than perfect 1950s-era nuclear family. Bacon plays estranged son Alan, returning home to make his peace with father Douglas (Tom Atkins). In his absence, Dad has remarried and is fostering a pair of teenage girls, and Alan finds the household fraught with emotional and sexual tension. In fact, new mom Ronnie (Lindsay Crouse) seems more welcoming than Dad, who resents his college-kid son's scholarly accomplishments and is having a hard time keeping his hands off his foster daughters, too. Based on a play by Lanford Wilson and produced by Boston's public television station WGBH, Lemon Sky wholeheartedly embraces its stage roots, so be prepared for lots of talking.

6:45 PM Encore
Scarface (1983 USA): Say hello to my little friend — now, in 2.35:1 Panavision! Yep, it looks like Brian De Palma's Scarface is finally making its widescreen television debut. To be honest, I still prefer Howard Hawks version of the story, but De Palma's take has strengths, too, including what I believe was the world record for most uses of the 'F' word in a major motion picture. I think it's since been eclipsed, but that's an impressive accomplishment and must have been quite a point of personal pride for star Al Pacino. Snark aside, this is certainly an entertaining, if extremely bloated, piece of Hollywood hokum that will be catnip for action fans. Also airs at 9:45 PM.

Wednesday 10/08/08

5:30 AM HBO Signature
Maradona, la Mano di Dio (2007 ARG): The footballer everyone (well, mostly the British) love to hate, Diego Maradona led Argentina to a World Cup championship in 1986 after scoring the controversial Hand of God goal in the team's quarter-final match against England. Maradona is a larger than life character and has earned headlines off the pitch thanks to personal foibles and controversial political opinions, and this Argentinian film does a reasonably good (if predictable) job of depicting his life story. Weaving stock footage of career highlights with re-enactments of Maradona's personal highs and lows, the film features Marco Leonardi as the footy prodigy who snorted cocaine, drank like a fish, ate handfuls of PEDs, and had his stomach stapled in 2005. That's enough controversy for at least TWO movies, I think.

11:35 AM Starz Edge
Uncounted (2008 USA): Recently awarded the Best Documentary Prize at the San Diego Film Festival, Uncounted makes its American television premiere tonight on — rather strangely — Starz Edge. The film examines the parlous and deeply corrupted state of America's voting systems, which have left the country in the position of either not knowing — or worse, not being able to trust — the results of elections at federal, state, and local levels. If you were incensed by HBO's Hacking Democracy, you'll really get your knickers in a twist with Uncounted.

Continued:       1       2       3       4