Selection of the week
Jackpot!
Bridesmaids director Paul Feig has said that Jackie Chan’s work was a touchstone for his latest film. And this loose action comedy features a heavy dose of Chan-style slapstick stunts, brought to life by the clever pairing of Awkwafina and John Cena. In a near-future Los Angeles, the population is legally allowed to kill the winner of the state’s billion-dollar lottery and claim the prize for themselves – but they only have one day to do it. Awkwafina’s new actress in town Katie is the latest target, and soon requires the services of Cena’s nice-guy bodyguard, Noel. The two make a witty duo – imagine a nicer, gentler DeVito and Schwarzenegger – and the plot moves along with minimal schmaltz.
Now available, Prime Video
Men
Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre is due out soon, and it seems every big-name British director is trying his hand at a folk horror these days. This is Alex Garland’s attempt – a grisly, bizarre tale of misogyny interwoven with the fertility myths of the Green Man and the Sheela na Gig. Jessie Buckley plays Harper, who seeks peace in a rural holiday home after the death of her husband (Paapa Essiedu). But pretty much every man in the village (all played by Rory Kinnear) – from the victim-blaming vicar to the mute, naked stalker – makes her feel like she’s in danger. Heady stuff with an astonishing ending.
22 August, 11:05 p.m., Film4
Prizzi’s Honor
John Huston was at the heart of Hollywood’s classic studio era, and this 1985 New York mafia comedy – his penultimate film – is a lovely throwback to that era. Jack Nicholson’s stubborn hitman Charley and his desirable, devious love at first sight Irene (Kathleen Turner) could easily have been played by Bogart and Bacall back then. Their affair – and Irene’s theft from the Prizzi family – leads to friction and resentment, not least from Charley’s former flame Maerose (a very clever Anjelica Huston). Beware the daughter of a spurned mafia boss…
August 17, 9pm, Comedy Central
Predator
Amid an increasingly popular series of gimmicky, fun action hero movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger has made perhaps his purest attempt at the form. In John McTiernan’s 1987 sci-fi adventure, Arnie plays Vietnam veteran Dutch, whose paramilitary squad (including Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura) is pursued by a nearly invisible alien trophy hunter during a rescue mission in a Central American rainforest. The balance of suspense and action is well done, while Arnie and his muscles are stretched to the limit.
17 August, 11:05 p.m., Film4
The Stranger on the Train
This 1951 Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on Patricia Highsmith’s first novel, is a prime example of the director’s strengths. The tension never lets up as Farley Granger’s tennis pro Guy meets the conspiratorial Bruno (a gleefully shady Robert Walker) and finds himself caught in a “perfect murder plot” – Bruno will kill Guy’s estranged wife, and Guy will shoot the other’s father in return. Then there are the recurring motifs (glasses, lighters), an academic subtext of provocation (homoeroticism), and cameos from not one but two Hitchcocks.
18 August, 12.20pm, BBC Two
The mask
Jim Carrey built on the success of Ace Ventura by creating another vehicle for his on-screen con artist role. Chuck Russell’s 1994 comedy even features an explicit reference to Loki: Carrey’s reliable but boring bank clerk Stanley dons a mysterious old mask he finds in the river and transforms into a green-faced, superhuman pleasure-seeker. Stanley’s Jekyll and Hyde chases Cameron Diaz’s mob boss girlfriend and is heavily influenced by the Looney Tunes, with cartoonish slapstick scenes and plenty of gags.
18 August, 16:30, BBC One
The man who shot Liberty Valance
“When the legend becomes fact, print it.” So says a newspaperman in John Ford’s 1962 western, which brings together two of the genre’s greatest heroes – James Stewart and John Wayne – for a story in which the advance of civilization is combative and anything but honorable. Stewart’s rookie lawyer comes to the town of Shinbone with a vision of bringing democracy to the Wild West, but Lee Marvin’s bandit Liberty has other plans, while Wayne’s cowboy is caught between the rule of law and the survival of the fittest. A classic of its kind.
22 August, 1.55am, Sky Cinema Greats
