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Wednesday 11/29/06

4:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Bad Boy (1935 USA): James Dunn stars as a pool hall hustler trying to turn over a new leaf in this obscure Fox comedy-drama. Dunn plays Eddie Nolan, a penny ante grifter who falls for nice girl Sally Larkin (Dorothy Wilson) and attempts to win her heart by learning how to earn an honest living. Clocking in at less than an hour, Bad Boy is a minor pleasure with a thoroughly predictable storyline, but there's fun to be had spotting familiar faces such as Beulah Bondi, John Carradine, and Billy Benedict amongst the cast.

7:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
A Life Less Ordinary (1997 GB): There aren't many who agree with me, but I find this Danny Boyle-John Hodge feature a reasonably effective social satire and a thoroughly entertaining picture. Ewan MacGregor stars as a janitorial worker who kidnaps his boss's daughter (the eternally annoying Cameron Diaz, here a bit less annoying than usual) after he's downsized and replaced by a robot. Unable to pull off the job convincingly on his own, Ewan defers to the advice of his victim, and the two bond in best Charlie Sheen-Kristy Swanson fashion. Meanwhile, a pair of angels (Delroy Lindo and Holly Hunter) descend from Heaven and pursue the desperadoes at the behest of Cameron's millionaire daddy (Ian Holm). It sounds dreadful, and most critics considered it a disaster in the wake of the Boyle-Hodge team's Trainspotting and Shallow Grave successes, but for whatever reason I quite like it—and it's making its widescreen television debut this evening.

Friday 12/01/06

5:00 PM Showtime
Beat the Drum (2004 SAF): A small scale dramatic triumph that made its world premiere at Northern California's Mill Valley Film Festival, Beat the Drum stars 9-year old Junior Singo as Musa, an AIDS orphan who sets off to find his uncle in the Big Smoke of Johannesburg. He's picked up by friendly trucker Nobe (Owen Sejake, in a fine performance), but once in the city soon becomes just another homeless child surviving on its mean streets—and one no closer to his uncle than he was in the countryside. Aimed primarily at a homegrown audience, Beat the Drum pounds out a relentless tattoo of anti-AIDS educational messages, but still works as effective drama for western viewers. Also airs at 8:00 PM and 12/4 on Showtime 2 at 5:00 PM.

9:00 PM IFC
Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973 JAP): The first of a complex five-film gangster series from director Kinji Fukasaku, Battles Without Honor and Humanity begins the story of Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), a former Imperial Army soldier who latches onto up and coming yakuza boss Yamamori (Nobuo Kaneko) in the testing environment of 1946 Japan. After fulfilling an assignment to kill the leader of a competing clan, Hirono ends up in jail, and begins to realize he's been played for a fool by Yamamori, setting up a climactic encounter at a funeral upon his release from jail. Boldly portraying post-war Japan as a charnel house burdened by a brutal army of occupation, Fukasaku utilized handheld shaky-cams and faux-newsreels to emphasize the story's grounding in reality. (Apparently, real-life yakuza also dropped by the set to put in their two cents worth.) An excellent introduction to the Japanese gangster genre, Battles Without Honor and Humanity makes its American television premiere this evening. Also airs 12/2 at midnight.

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