December 17-23: Including Giant and Forever Fever

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17

The Santa Clause 2 (TV2, 7.00pm). Father Christmas searches for a subordinate Claus. (2002) 5

The Holiday (TV3, 8.30pm). Three good-looking people plus Jack Black find love during the festive season. An Englishwoman, Iris (Kate Winslet), swaps houses and countries with an American, Amanda (Cameron Diaz), and – hey presto! – their man problems are solved when they meet some new ones. Sit through this sickly offering and you’ll feel as if you’ve eaten the entire Christmas pud, the cake and all the chocolate angels off the tree. The other guy is Jude Law. (2006) 5

Giant

The Wicker Man (TV2, 9.10pm). The main problem with this ridiculous remake of the 1973 horror classic is that it is really funny when it shouldn’t be at all. Pagan community, child sacrifice, Nicolas Cage – what’s funny about that? (2006) 4

Forever Fever (Maori, 10.00pm). A fan letter to John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever via Singapore that is the first – and possibly only – disco kung-fu romcom musical. It loosely follows the original story but with Eastern touches: in the original, Tony’s older brother announced he was leaving the priesthood. Here, our hero Hock’s younger brother is studying to be a doctor and announces – horror! – he’s taking an English name. With Adrian Pang, Medaline Tan and Anna Belle Francis. You know how to do it! (Aka That’s the Way I Like It.) (1998) 6

The Phantom of the Opera (TV3, 11.20pm). And you thought the musical-theatre version was melodramatic? A boring disaster that most critics hated. Directed by Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth, see Friday) and starring Gerard Butler (appalling), Emmy Rossum and Minnie Driver. (2004) 5

SUNDAY DECEMBER 18

Up! (TV2, 7.00pm). Pixar Upped the ante with this animation gem that breaks so many rules but gets away with it. You might say it’s about an old man who has lost hope and takes off to Venezuela in his balloon-powered house with a Boy Scout stowaway, but that’s just the start. A sophisticated and satisfying film of many parts and lovely to watch. (2009) 9

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (TV1, 8.30pm). Mark Herman’s adaptation of John Boyne’s young adult novel is a frequently inaccurate portrayal of the Holocaust, said our reviewer David Larsen, but “gives young audiences better and safer access to these difficult truths than a more literally truthful film might”. (2008) 6

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Four, 8.30pm). “Awesome. Totally awesome!” Sean Penn has all the best lines as a stoned surfer dude in this 1980s high-school comedy classic based on the racy schooldays of Rolling Stone writer Cameron Crowe. With Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nicolas Coppola – the only time Nic Cage was ever credited using his real name. (1982) 7

Giant (Stratos, Freeview 21 & Sky 089, 8.30pm). And how. Stratos is playing George Stevens’s classic over two Sundays. At nearly three and a half hours, it’s bigger than, er, Texas, where we find rich cattle rancher Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), his beautiful wife, Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), and upstart cowboy Jett Rink (James Dean). Dean famously never completed filming because he was killed in a car crash, which makes this the perfect homage to the outsider. (1956) 8

Date Movie (TV3, 9.00pm). Those wacky spoofsters move on to romantic comedies. Slamming your head in a microwave might produce more laughs. (2006) 3

MONDAY DECEMBER 19

The Nativity (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). Not the one starring Keisha Castle-Hughes as the Virgin Mary; this was made by the BBC, written by Tony Jordan (TV’s Hustle and Life on Mars) and played in the UK as a mini-series. Apart from outraging a British rabbi, who thought it a bit anti-Jewish in places, this was pretty well received by the great heathen rabble. The Telegraph called it “a gentle, compassionate take on the nativity”. With Tatiana Maslany as Mary and Andrew Buchan as Joseph. (2010) 8

TUESDAY DECEMBER 20

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (Four, 9.15pm). Given that being a cheerleader or a quarterback in the US is roughly equivalent in societal value to being a genius anywhere else, it’s not surprising they act up sometimes. This TV “drama” (and I use that word loosely) is based on the true story from 2006 of five pom-pom-thrusting brats from a Texas high school whose sense of entitlement went into overload. They bullied, drank and bad-mouthed their way to national notoriety, and it didn’t seem to occur to anyone that they’d been given permission to be revolting by their indulgent parents. A 21st-century fable dressed in a tiny skirt. With Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Ashley Benson and Tatum O’Neal – who knows a thing or three about being a handful. (2008) 5

THURSDAY DECEMBER 22

The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (TV2, 7.30pm). Four kids, fake snow, a wardrobe and lots of Kiwi locations – you know the story. But did you know the producers tried to bring 12 sleigh-pulling reindeer into New Zealand? MAF said no, but allowed in 10 wolves! And computer-generated Aslan has 5.2 million hairs. A star-studded, action-packed movie that delivers its treasured tale faithfully and that employed a lot of Kiwis, including director Andrew Adamson. Tim Finn’s song Winter Light is on the soundtrack. (2005) 7

FRIDAY DECEMBER 23

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (TV2, 7.30pm). Four kids, an exiled prince and a heroic mouse: this is a darker tale than part one in the series, but in the scenes shot here before filming was completed in the Czech Republic, New Zealand never looked more photogenic. And CGI never looked slicker or more realistic, but it’s scary in parts, so pack the smaller tots off to bed. (2008) 7

Phone Booth (Four, 8.30pm). A sleazy publicist gets trapped in a phone booth by a sniper who says he’ll kill him if he hangs up. Oh well, we don’t have to worry about this sort of thing happening any more. Just try finding a phone booth. Screenwriter Larry Cohen had been kicking this old-school idea around since the 1960s, when he tried to get Alfred Hitchcock interested, but they couldn’t work out a plot reason to keep the victim in the booth. It took Cohen until the late 90s to think of using a sniper – and he wrote the script in less than a month! So, Colin Farrell is the guy and Kiefer Sutherland is the gunman, with Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes and Radha Mitchell on the periphery. Farrell’s considerable energy makes this more tense and watchable than you would imagine. (2002) 7