Films to check out.....

Hi all,

Here are some films you might want to check out:

Friday

Black Book

10:00pm - 12:50am
More4

Paul Verhoeven's first film made in his native Holland since 1983's The Fourth Man - after which he left for Hollywood and the likes of RoboCop and Basic Instinct - returns to the subject of the Dutch Resistance, which he first tackled in 1977's Soldier of Orange. Based loosely on a real character, Rachel (Carice van Houten) is a Jewish singer who, after seeing members of her party of escaping Jews massacred, joins the underground and infiltrates the local Nazi HQ, via the bed of officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). Verhoeven delivers a rollicking yarn that's surprisingly traditional, if convoluted, and, as usual, nudges happily at the boundaries of sexual imagery. The performances are universally good and the bloody action is typically well handled but, while Black Book certainly entertains, it lacks the cultural tensions and mischievous satire that characterise the best of his American films.

Sunday

Spider-Man 3

6:20pm - 9:00pm
Five

Spider-Man turns bad and has a blast doing it, in Sam Raimi's second sequel to his 2002 hit. Swinging in at a hefty 140 minutes, it sees Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) now at ease with his alter ego and the public adoration it attracts, leaving girlfriend Mary Jane (a sympathetic Kirsten Dunst) constantly neglected. Events are complicated when contact with a parasitical alien substance brings out Spidey's dark side and exacerbates a personal vendetta against one of the tale's three villains, Sandman (a molecularly displaced Thomas Haden Church). Visually, this comic-book spectacle can't be faulted, with eye-popping effects intensifying a clutch of exciting set pieces. However, the self-indulgent running time and cluttered plotline frequently render the scenes in-between unfocused and plodding. Raimi works hard to compensate, contrasting the characters' repetitive emotional angst with a fun dose of fanboy-friendly humour. But the overall magic remains diluted, making an enjoyable picture fall short of brilliance.

Tuesday

Carlito's Way

11:10pm - 2:00am
ITV4

Ten years after Scarface, Al Pacino and director Brian De Palma reunited here for another crime-doesn't-pay drama. Pacino plays Puerto Rican hoodlum Carlito Brigante, who leaves jail with the aim of going straight. However, his lawyer Sean Penn has other ideas as he fancies himself a gangster, so it's not long before Pacino is meeting up with old acquaintances and heading back into trouble. Bolstered by regular scriptwriter David Koepp's smart and funny script, De Palma's visual flair comes into its own in the seedy clubs and backstreet dives of New York. The set pieces - a pool-room fight, a 15-minute subway chase and shenanigans on a train-station escalator - are among the most thrilling De Palma has ever filmed, while Pacino's restrained performance as the leather-clad, gently lisping Carlito allows plenty of scope for the supporting cast to chew the scenery.

Enjoy!

Neil