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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 7/27/10

6:00 PM Starz
Zombieland (2009 USA): This zomedy actually premiered last weekend, but I carelessly overlooked it. Zombieland is actually a pretty odd duck, and I’m somewhat surprised it turned into a modest hit last summer: more indie character study than gruefest, the film spends as much time on back story and road movie machinations as it does on gut-munching. Woody Harrelson is excellent as Twinkie-loving Tallahassee, a redneck survivor of the zombie apocalypse who meets up with nerdy Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) on the Texas to Ohio highway. The two are diverted to California after getting carjacked by femme fatales Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and end up rubbing shoulders with Bill Murray in hilarious fashion. Kudos to Columbia for a brilliant marketing strategy, which played up the film’s comedic elements without giving away all the best bits in advance. Also airs at 9:00 PM.

11:30 PM HBO Signature
Los Bastardos (2008 USA-MEX): Perhaps Arizona Governor Jan Brewer watched Los Bastardos before she started spouting off about illegal immigrants beheading good red-blooded Americans whilst corrupting children with pinatas full of wacky tobacky and nose candy. That’s one explanation. The other is that she read the poll numbers and knew she needed a big burst of xenophobia if she wanted to keep her job. Whichever may be the case, Los Bastardos is an above average drama about L.A. day laborers Fausto and Jesus (Ruben Sosa and Jesus Moises Rodriguez), and their unfortunate decision to get involved with a suburban crackhead. It’s only a movie, Jan…only a movie.

Wednesday 7/28/10

4:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Sally (1929 USA): Oh, those early Hollywood musicals, when sound was new and a gal could dream about hoofing her way to fame and fortune along the Great White Way. No one’s going to mistake Sally for 42nd Street, but it’s a fun little picture regardless, and stars Marilyn Miller as the titular young woman, an orphan who discovers a love for the old soft shoe at an early age. Miller had also appeared in the original stage play and would succumb, unpleasantly, to botched nasal surgery in 1936—but her breathing is unimpaired in Sally, and if she’d lived, she might have been a star. The film co-stars brassy Pert Kelton, goofy Joe E. Brown, and a five minute Technicolor sequence (apparently the entire film was in color at one point, but this is all that’s left).

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Yesterday’s Enemy (1959 GB): Manly Stanley Baker stakes out pole position in this excellent war-is-Hell feature from director Val Guest. Baker plays Langford, commander of a squad of exhausted British troops hacking their way through the jungles of Burma. Cut off from the rest of their unit, the squad labor through dense tropical foliage until they run across a Japanese-held village, which they seize - along with an important map. Desperate to learn the map’s secrets, and much to the chagrin of a clergyman (Guy Rolfe) and a war correspondent (Leo McKern), Langford and Sergeant MacKenzie (Gordon Jackson) start executing villagers. Dubbed “the most controversial drama ever filmed” in the UK, Yesterday’s Enemy is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago, and arguably the best non-horror movie Hammer Films ever produced. It makes its TCM premiere this evening and comes with my highest recommendation.

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