TELEVISION LISTINGS
VllSerama in our regular round-up of the rental releases and sell-through suggestions heading for the shop shelves this fortnight.
Rental
I Only You (15) A soft- centred romantic comedy starring Mr Clean heart throb Andrew McCarthy as Clifford Godfrey. recently dumped by his girlfriend and seeking solace in the form of
I pneumatic stunna Amanda ! (Kelly Preston). Trouble is. her bimboid nature soon palls and our Cliff‘s roving eye turns towards infinitely smarter photographer Clare (Helen Hunt). A tawdry and insulting fable telling us that ‘beauty is more than skin-deep‘. You‘ll gag. (Columbia Tristar)
3&3.» k N; ‘* t
I Home Alone 2 - lost In New Yorlt (PG)
Hollywood superbrat Macauley Culkin (dontcha just love him?) plays the irksome Kevin in a routine re-run of the ‘feisty kid gives felons living hell‘ formula. with the twist of setting it in New York. Notable only for inspiring several real- life ‘home-alone‘ cases and encouraging fiendish ideas for Culkin‘s next role. How about a cameo in The Beverley Allin Story?( Fox )
I Mom And Dad Save The World (PG) Not as stupid as the title might suggest — much. much stupider. Jeff Jones and Teri Garr
star as an all-American nerd couple. madvertantly
whisked off to the Planet Spengo by the love-crazed j tyrant Jon Lovitz. Flash Gordon meets National - Lampoon and neither
benefits from the encounter. (First Independent)
.. _ _, 65 The List 2—15 July 1993
I My Grandad’s A Vampire (PG) More fantastic daftness in this kids‘ horror spoof stam'ng Al Lewis (Granpa Munster to you) as an elderly blood-sucker introducing his grandson and chum to the delights of nocturnal naughtiness. Straight-to-video naffness with a likeable lightness of touch to partially redeem it. Medusa)
t *-
Family Pictures (15) It‘s interesting. and rather depressing. to see director Philip Saville (Boys From The Black Stuff) turning his hand to this gooey mini-series fodder. The cast is impressive though. Sam Neill and Anjelica Huston play the parents of an autistic child whose birth sparks a conflict in their marriage. Will love conquer all? Probably. but it won‘t be an easy trip. (Odyssey)
I Wild Orchid ll (18) (Columbia Tristar)
I Midnight Sting (15) (Warner/MGM)
I Captain Ron (PG) (Buena Vista)
Sell-through
I Grand Canyon (15) Lawrence Kasdan‘s The Big Chill takes on a 90s perspective in this tale of affluent white professionals struggling to maintain their position in a disintegrating society. Kevin Kline. Mary McDonnell. Steve Martin and Danny Glover star in an occasionally cloying but mostly effective look at an American economic stratum. with fine characterisation. (Fox £12.99)
I Conan The Destroyer and Red lleat (15 and 18) The first in a set of budget double-bills features Arnold Schwarzenegger in a couple of early brute force hokums (hoka?) This was when his accent was completely incomprehensible rather thanjust quaint. High in kitsch collectability value nevertheless. (Columbia Tristar £12.99)
I FX and FXZ - The Deadly Art or Illusion ( 15) (Columbia Tristar £12.99) I Karate Kid and Karate Kid 2 (PG) (Columbia Tristar £12.99)
I BO Veda (15) More Manga for aficionados of the over-stylised Japanese animation genre. This is a mythical adventure featuring the usual tests of endurance and battles between good and evil. 7.7.77.7. . . . (Manga £12.99)
I The llerolc legend or Arislan Part 1 (Manga £10.99)
I The Milky Way (15) The latest release in the Bunuel collection is a typically mordantly humorous and surreal tale of two tramps making an
: £15.99)
unorthodox pilgrimage from Paris to Compostello. Along the way they meet a cast of characters who make The Canterbury Tales look like a Sunday School outing. (Electric £15.99) I Tristana (PG) More Bunuel. starring Catherine Deneuve as the eponymous Tristana. an orphan who finds that the intentions of her appointed guardian Fernando Rey are not entirely paternal. (Electric
I Paisa (PG) One of foot Rossellini ‘classics‘ released by Connoisseur. Paisa depicts the Italian experiences of the Second World War in six episodes. ranging from the personal tale of a GI failing to recognise a prostitute as the girl he‘d fallen in love with months earlier. to the neo-realist depiction of street fighting and partisan skirmishes. (Connoisseur £15.99)
I Germany Year Zero (PG) (Connoisseur £15.99)
I Voyage To Italy (PG) (Connoisseur £15.99)
I Rome, Open City (PG) Rossellini‘s remarkable true-life tale of Don Morosi. a priest and Resistance worker shot by the Germans in wartime Rome. (Connoisseur £15.99)
TELEVISION
A selection or television highlights,
listed by day, In chronological order. Television listings compiled by Tom
lappln.
FRIDAY 2
I Parenthood (BBC2) 7—7.45pm. Yuppie comedy cuteness based on the Steve Martin movie. Ed Begley Jr stars as troubled dad Gil Buckman.
I Stay lucky (Scottish) 9—10pm. Dennis Waterman as Thomas continues the adventures of the wide-boy ex-con with a heart of gold. Tonight he‘s hired to deliver a lorry to Budapest. but needless to say. things don‘t go according to plan.
I Roseanne (Channel 4) 10—10.30pm. Roseanne wants blood when she discovers a lovers‘ tiff nearly burned the house down.
I Wise Cracks (Channel 4) 10.30—11.30pm. With a mixture of interviews and performance clips. Gail Singer‘s film looks at the topic of female stand-up comics. Featured performers include Whoopi Goldberg. Jenny Lecoat and Phyllis Diller. See preview.
I Electric Ballroom (Channel 4) 1.25—1.55am. The show from Dublin featuring interviews and performances from lnspiral Carpets. Fatima Mansions and Verve.
SATURDAY3 _ '
I The House or Eliott (BBC 1) 7.05—8pm. Stella ‘Wooden’ Gonet and Louise ‘Anachronism‘ Lombard ‘star‘ in a repeat run of the daft 30s fashion drama. Tonight the House Of Idiot is given the chance to design the costumes for a new ballet.
I Tour De France (Channel 4) 8—8.3()pm. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen present a preview of the 80th Tour De France. heralding three weeks of detailed coverage of the annual cycle marathon.
Brigitte Bardot: The Reluctant Goddess (Channel 4) 8.30-9pm. A profile of the sex symbol turned reclusive animal rights campaigner. Interviewees include film director and former lover Roger Vadim and rentaquote academic Camille Paglia. I Fatal Attraction (Scottish) lOpm—l2. 10am. Michael Douglas and Glenn Close star in the much-talked-about shaggin'. stabbin‘ and bunny-bashin‘ melodrama about a family man whose bit on the side refuses to be politely ditched. Ethically dubious but pretty sound tension-wise.
I Cinema Cinema!: lucky Village (Channel 4) 10.30pm—12.15am. An alcoholic and a British dipso diplomat strike up a friendship in the narcotics unit of Tbilisi mental hospital while civil war rages outside. Georgian director Georgi Levashov-Tumanishvili‘s film explores the themes of protocol and nationality and the healing power ofcreativity.
SUNDAY 4
I Sunday Grandstand (BBC2) 1.25—8pm. Live coverage from Wimbledon of the Mens‘ Singles Final. hosted as ever by genial Des Lynam. I The Ilext Big Thing (Channel 4) 5.30—6pm. Aspiring singer-songwriter Leona Naess plays the PR game. climbing Ben Nevis with Chris Bonington. and posing in the bath for The Mail On Sunday. I Masterchet (BBCI ) 5.30—6. 10pm. The excruciatingly emetic foodie show reaches the final. and it‘s an all-male affair. Creepy host Loyd Grossman isjoined by guest judges Sir John Harvey-Jones and Michel Roux.
.1
I Sound Sturt: Roclty World (Channel 4) 7—8pm. A profile of hotshot producer and less well-known performer Daniel Lanois. filmed in Canada with contributions from Aaron Neville. U2 and Peter Gabriel.
I Frontline (Channel 4) 8.30—9pm. Belfast journalist Malachi O‘Doherty reports on the problems faced by the families of people killed by the police or army in Northern Ireland. Families can wait for years to discover how their relations died.
I Prime Suspect 2 (Scottish) 9—1 1pm. The concluding part of Lynda La Plante‘s cop thriller. 1). l. Tennison (Helen Mirren) is finding it increasingly difficult to separate her personal and professional lives.
I Moviedrome: Invasion or The Body Snatchers (BBC2) 9.55pm—l 1.50pm. ‘A remake that is as good as the original.‘ says presenter Alex Cox of Philip Kaufman‘s 1978 sci-fi thriller. Donald Sutherland stars as a San Francisco health inspector alarmed to discover that the city‘s population is being systematically replaced by alien-created clones.
I Pavarotti In The Park ( BBC!)
l().15—| 1.30pm. Tubby tenor Luciano performs all those operatic hit arias in a special outdoor concert in Central Park. New York. Simultaneously broadcast on Radio 3. so set those digital tape-decks and save the price of the inevitable CD.
I The South Bank Show (Scottish) ll.2()pm—l2.2()am. George Melly narrates a profile of legendary jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman. charting his rise from the Jewish ghetto in Chicago to become the ‘king of swing‘.
I Encounters: In lambeth ( BBC2) ll.45pm—12.25am. The second in BBC Scotland‘s TV plays features Mark Rylance as visionary poet William Blake and Bob Peck as radical activist Thomas Paine. getting into some nude sunbathing and revolutionary talk in leafy Lambeth.
I Birthrights: Reunion (BBC2) 8—8.30pm. A new series exploring British culture and identity from a black perspective. The first programme uses archive footage and dramatisations to tell the story of 300 West Indian women. brought to England in 1942 to serve in the ATS.
I Places In The Heart (BBC2) 8.30—10.20pm. Robert Benton's drama set in 1930s Texas stars Sally Field (Sissy Spacek presumably wasn‘t available) as a widow in danger of losing her home and