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8:00 PM Sundance
The Waiting Room (2006 GB): It may not be Brief Encounter, but The Waiting Room is as close as British cinema has come to successfully reusing the ingredients that made that film such a success half a century ago. Ann-Marie Duff and Ralf Little star as Anna and Stephen, strangers who meet on a rail platform in suburban London and make goo-goo eyes at each other whilst trying to decide whether or not to take the plunge, whilst Frank Finlay and Phyllida Law co-star as a pair of older and wiser pensioners. The Waiting Room is, at heart, a chick flick you might scope on Lifetime, but it’s a good one with an intelligent script and excellent cast. Also airs at 1:15 AM.

Thursday 9/16/10

3:55 AM HBO Signature
Airport 1975 (1975 USA): I’ve been waiting years for TCM to air an Airport marathon, but it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. As the wait continues, then, I’ll have to make do with this airing of the embarrassingly awful Airport 1975, the first sequel to 1970’s blockbuster and a box office smasheroo in its own right. This is the one in which a small private plane crashes into the side of a 747 and gets stuck whilst Charlton Heston rides (well, choppers) to the rescue. The concept is beyond ridiculous, but who’s complaining - it’s not every film that features Karen Black, Gloria Swanson, Dana Andrews, Roy Thinnes, Linda Blair, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, Jerry Stiller, Norman Fell, Beverly Garland, Eric Estrada, Larry Storch, Sharon Gless, and Helen Reddy! Of course, Airport 1975 also features George Kennedy, who seems to be in at least half the movies produced in the 1970s - but we won’t hold that against it.

5:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
Quintet (1979 USA): If memory serves, I wrote about this cerebral science-fiction flick back in the early days of the TiVoPlex. I’m not sure, therefore, if Quintet is making its widescreen debut this evening, but I am certain it hasn’t been seen on the small screen in its correct aspect ratio for some time. It makes a perfect double-bill partner with Airport 1975, though: Quintet tells an inscrutable tale of atomic survivors (including Paul Newman, Fernando Rey, Bibi Andersson, and Vittorio Gassman) playing a strange board game in the midst of nuclear winter. Is it the worst film Robert Altman ever made? It’s a close contest between this and Brewster McCloud… but I think so.

Friday 9/17/10

9:00 PM IFC
F/X (1986 USA): If you’ve been watching movies on cable and/or satellite as long as I have, you’ve probably already seen both F/X and it’s sequel, F/X 2. Both films have been in the heaviest rotation imaginable on multiple channels, and have been aired at least once a month (and usually more) for years. Now F/X finally makes its letterboxed television debut, and might actually be worth watching again! Aussie Bryan Brown headlines as movie special effects man Rollie, who’s been hired by the Feds to stage the "murder" of De Franco (Jerry Orbach), a con being inducted into a witness protection program. But things aren’t as simple as the FBI would like Rollie to believe, and he starts to suspect that De Franco is really dead - and that he might be next. If familiarity has bred contempt for F/X, it’s time to rediscover this clever and thoroughly entertaining film, which co-stars Brian Dennehy, Cliff de Young, and a young Angela Bassett.

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