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

Tuesday 12/01/09

3:30 AM Showtime Extreme
The Last Warrior (1989 GB): Future Star Trek semi-regular Gary Graham stars as a WW II American coast-watcher keeping an eye out for the Imperial Japanese Navy in this forgotten adventure flick. Graham plays Gibb, a military man assigned to a remote Pacific island keep his eyes peeled for the enemy. The big day arrives when, after sustaining heavy damage at the hands of American warplanes, the battleship Yamato hoves into view, and Gibb fires up the wireless to report the news. Unfortunately, the Japanese intercept his message and dispatch a squad of marines under the command of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa to track him down and prevent him from sending further despatches. It's up to Gibb to outfox the Japanese, whilst also protecting the island's defenceless nuns and natives. Attractively lensed somewhere in the South Pacific, The Last Warrior blends elements of Enemy Mine and Hell in the Pacific, and though it isn't as good as either of those films, still provides decent (if historically inaccurate) entertainment value.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Scott of the Antarctic (1948 GB): Polar pioneer Robert Falcon Scott got his hagiographic moment in the sun in this first rate patriotic biopic from Britain's Ealing Studios. Scott, a Royal Naval officer of middle-class extraction, led several early 20th century expeditions to the South Pole on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society. The final one ended tragically in 1912, when, due to a combination of bad luck and poor planning, Scott and his fellow explorers perished on the Ross Ice Shelf. Directed by Charles Frend, Scott of the Antarctic features John Mills as the great man, and co-stars James Robertson Justice, Kenneth More, and (in his very first screen appearance) Christopher Lee as fellow jolly Jack Tars. Besides the quality cast and superb Technicolor cinematography of Jack Cardiff and Geoffrey Unsworth, the film also features a brooding and evocative score from composer Ralph Vaughn Williams that will have you edging a little closer to the space heater. It's followed at 1:00 AM on the following day by Quick Before It Melts (1964), a widescreen MGM comedy featuring Robert Morse and George Maharis as magazine reporters covering big news in Antarctica.

Wednesday 12/02/09

10:35 AM Starz
Persepolis (2007 FRA): It's easy to understand why this film didn't win the Best Animated Feature Academy Award in 2008 - any time you go up against Pixar, you're at a huge disadvantage - but as good as Ratatouille was, Persepolis was better. The story of a young Iranian woman growing up in the early days of the Islamic Revolution, the film is far from typical animated fare, but is also every bit as entertaining as the best offerings from our friends in Emeryville. If your idea of a cartoon for adults is Fritz the Cat, it's time for you to recalibrate your settings and check out this film. Also airs at 1:35 PM.

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