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Friday 11/9/12

5:40 AM HBO Signature
Big Fish (2003 USA): Few films divided the BOP staff in 2003 as much as Tim Burton’s weepy paean to an inveterate liar, the Joycean Ed Bloom (Albert Finney). The ailing Bloom has spent his life telling tall tales that drive his family to distraction, particularly son Wil (Billy Crudup), who just wants his dad to come clean and tell the truth about his life before he pops his clogs. I fall firmly into the pro camp for Big Fish and consider it the most moving Tim Burton film since Edward Scissorhands. Filled with marvelous and memorable fantasy sequences, it does, however, require that a full box of Kleenex be readily available.

Saturday 11/10/12

12:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Burn, Witch, Burn! (1962 GB): This effective black-and-white horror film (released in Britain as Night of the Eagle) stars Peter Wyngarde as a skeptical professor who has trouble believing that his successful career is less the result of his own efforts and more the result of the spells cast by his wife (Janet Blair), a member of the local underground witches coven. Based on Fritz Leiber’s novel Conjure Wife and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson and Twilight Zone veteran Charles Beaumont, this is an excellent and generally low-key fright flick, dependent primarily on eerie atmosphere for the bulk of its chills.

6:00 PM The Movie Channel
Soulkeeper (2001 USA): There are an awful lot of terrible horror movies out there, some of which I write about, most of which I don’t. And then there are horror films like this one - flicks worth a look simply because they have a great cast. Soulkeeper includes Robert Davi, Tiny Lister, Michael Ironside, Karen Black, and Brad Dourif, which for genre fans is the equivalent of hitting the trifecta several times in a row. Is there anything else you need to know about it? Well, okay... it’s a really fun gorefest with plenty of thrills and even some laughs. Joe Bob - er, John - says check it out! Also airs at 9:00 PM.

Sunday 11/11/12

1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Exterminating Angel (1962 MEX): Set during and after a particularly stuffy bourgeois dinner party, Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel is a scathing and hilarious polemic about the hypocritical ways of the ruling classes, who are here seen as incapable of breaking away from the herd and physically incapable of leaving the celebration. As the high and mighty begin to descend into a Lord of the Flies style existence, their plight draws the attention of the outside world — but neither the police, the Army, nor even little children dare enter the mansion, which soon becomes overrun by a herd of sheep, a performing bear, and the Devil himself, though not in the form he/she would take in 1965's equally brilliant Bunuel effort Simon of the Desert. One of the greatest films ever made, and also one of the funniest!

2:00 AM Showtime
The Decoy Bride (2011 GB): Romantic comedy alert! I know this is a genre I rarely write about, but any rom com toplined by David “I Used to be Doctor Who” Tennant and Kelly “Remember Me From Trainspotting?” MacDonald is going to get my attention. Tennant plays the husband-to-be of a Hollywood starlet who does a runner at the last minute; MacDonald plays the emergency fill-in hired to satisfy the paparazzi. The Scottish locations add considerable value to this charming, and not entirely formulaic, film. Also airs at 5:00 AM.

Monday 11/12/12

6:35 AM HBO Signature
Igualita a Mi (2010 ARG): Hey, if one rom com a week isn’t enough, how about another one from Argentina? I haven’t seen Igualita a Mi yet, but it apparently involves a middle-aged man who tries to pick up his married daughter in a bar. Yeah, that could cause problems.

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