Including Four Holidays and Macbeth

SATURDAY DECEMBER 3

Dr Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts (Four, 6.30pm). And bargain-basement movies. (2009) 4

Something’s Gotta Give (TV1, 8.30pm). Nancy Meyer’s more-satisfying-take on older love than It’s Complicated, which played on TV3 last week. Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton’s budding relationship is so much crunchier than Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep’s old one. (2003) 7

Four Holidays

Children of Men (TV3, 8.30pm). According to this bleak sci-fi actioner, the world’s population problem will be solved in less than 20 years – we’ll all be infertile. All, that is, except for one miracle woman who is pregnant and in great danger. Versatile Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) brings together thrills, heart and brains, with great work from Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. (2006) 8

Grandma’s Boy (TV2, 9.10pm). One reviewer noted: “Grandma’s Boy is an Adam Sandler comedy without Adam Sandler, which is kind of like getting a root canal without the dentist.” I don’t think I can improve on that. (2006) 4

In this World (Maori, 9.30pm). An award-winning docudrama by English director Michael Winterbottom about two young Afghan refugees who are smuggled from a Pakistani camp along the Silk Road to the UK. That their mode of transport is trucks they are not allowed out of should give a sense of how unenjoyable this journey is. (2002) 7

Milk (TV3, 10.45pm). One of the best things on offer this week: that must be why it’s on at 10.30pm. Sean Penn is extraordinary in Gus Van Sant’s biopic about the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in the US, and won a Best Actor Oscar for his efforts. Harvey Milk, more than anyone else, knew things wouldn’t end well. (2008) 8

SUNDAY DECEMBER 4

Four Holidays (TV2, 8.30pm). A Christmas comedy about the joy of hating your family. The very tall Vince Vaughn and the very short Reese Witherspoon might be able to see eye to eye as loving couple Brad and Kate, but nobody else does. Despite having four Oscar winners playing the various divorced parents (Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen), this is a mean, measly and distinctly unfestive offering. (2008) 5

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Little Miss Sunshine (TV3, 8.30pm). With more unexpected American irony than you can cram comfortably into a Kombi, this is the road trip that would have been from hell if it hadn’t been peopled by such daftly sympathetic characters. The premise: get the bespectacled seven-year-old to a beauty pageant. The passengers: a failed motivational speaker; his cross wife; a mute, nihilistic son; a foul-mouthed, heroin-addicted grandfather; a suicidal Proust scholar; and, of course, their Little Miss Sunshine. Lovely work by Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell and Abigail Breslin, literally driving each other crazy. (2006) 8

Beverly Hills Ninja (Four, 8.30pm). So, which fits into this plush suburb of LA best – a cop, a ninja or a chihuahua? The late Chris Farley milks every possible fat, not-fitting-in joke as a white guy brought up by Japanese warriors after he fell off a cruise ship as a child. Pretty stupid fun, but he won’t be making any more. (1997) 4

Man on the Moon (Maori, 8.30pm). The great Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) tackled the great – or certainly weird – comedic talents of Andy Kaufman in this biopic starring Jim Carrey. Unless you’re familiar with Kaufman’s eccentricities, it’s hard to know where he ends and Carrey begins, and it would have been a different film again if Edward Norton, John Cusack, Kevin Spacey or Hank Azaria, all of whom auditioned, had won the part. (1999) 7

Macbeth (Stratos & Sky 089, 8.30pm). It’s unfortunate the publicity shot for Orson Welles’s Macbeth is so unintentionally comical. With his pointy-eared crown, hairy cloak held in place with a chain, and mopey expression, he looks like a bad dog that’s been sent to its kennel. And this is a very odd film. Welles was shackled to Republic Pictures with a minuscule budget and timeframe. Using the sets from B-grade westerns, he produced a moody, surrealistic version of Shakespeare’s classic, complete with thick Scottish accents, which the studio and preview audiences hated. He was forced to cut 20 minutes from the film and redub with “normal” voices, but the thing still bombed. Realising he was meant for Europe, where they liked his Macbeth, Welles spent the next decade there. Although not on a par with Citizen Kane or Othello, this is an important part of the Orson Welles story. With Jeanette Nolan (in her first screen role), Dan O’Herlihy, Roddy McDowall, and Welles’s daughter Chris­topher (yes, really) as one of Macduff’s murdered children. (1948) 7

The Green Hornet (Sky Movies, Sky 020, 8.30pm). A publishing heir takes on the persona of a waspy thing and becomes a masked crime-fighting superhero. It’s a wonder you can see a hand in front of your face with all the super-people out there. Not to be confused with Green Lantern (also out this year), Spider-Man, Superman, The Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, X-Men … It stars Seth Rogen, so it’s supposed to be funny – I think. (2011) 5

TUESDAY DECEMBER 6

One Fine Day (Four, 8.30pm). Oh, the hilarity of single parenting. George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer look pretty frazzled by the end of this. (1996) 6

FRIDAY DECEMBER 9

Bridesmaids (Sky Box Office, Sky 202, 8.05pm). If you watch this Judd Apatow-produced film expecting to see a romcom, you’ll be surprised – and possibly disgusted. Yes, there is a bloke (Chris O’Dowd from TV’s The IT Crowd fills that role), but this is subsumed by the main relationship, between Annie (Kristen Wiig) and her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph). When Lillian announces her engagement, she signs up Annie to be her maid of honour, but there’s a rich, perfect cuckoo in the wedding-planning nest – Helen (Rose Byrne). Not soppy, never predictable, this is one of the funniest and most intermittently revolting movies to come out of Hollywood in a long time, and Wiig is absolutely terrific. Matt Lucas from Little Britain and Rebel Wilson do a killer double act as Annie’s horrid slug-like flatmates. Laugh until you elope. (2011) 8

Sister Act (TV2, 8.35pm). As ­org­anised religion becomes less relevant in society, ­it’s interesting to ponder ­what would happen if no nuns had found a vocation but were, in fact, lounge singers posing as nuns and hiding from their gangster boyfriends. Now that would rock. (1992) 6