Film4 Listings for Saturday 9th March
Listings: all day morning afternoon evening late night
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11:00
The Last Frontier (Film)
Portraying the character of Jed, Victor Mature gets to flex both his muscles and his acting abilities in this gripping western from Anthony Mann. Notable for some excellent action sequences and its stunning Mexican locations, The Last Frontier is an archetypal cavalry-versus-Indians saga, as three frontiersmen are glad to accept an offer to become Indian scouts for a cavalry fort. But tension arises between the fort's colonel and Jed when the frontiersman displays his clear liking for the officer's wife, Corinna.
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet, Thomas Storey
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Dorothy Gulliver, Ralph Bushman, William Desmond, Joe Bonomo, Pete Morrison
(Subtitles, Black and White, 1932, PG, 3 Star)
13:00
Inspector Gadget (Film)
It's the comedy with a thousand moving parts, the story of the crazy, crackpot crime fighter who's not so much a detective, more a toolbox! Wowser, you'll thrill to the tall tale of a naïve and inept security guard who dreams of becoming the world's greatest law enforcement officer. Then one day he gets involved in a top secret project with a leading robotics scientist, and becomes a man of many parts - all of them moving! With the help of the pretty scientist, our bumbling, accident prone hero fights the nefarious, villainous Claw in this Disney big screen adaptation of the much loved cartoon series.
Director: David Kellogg
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andy Dick, Cheri Oteri
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1999, PG, 2 Star)
14:35
Swiss Family Robinson (Film)
On the run from the Napoleonic regime, the Robinson family head for a new life in New Guinea. Tested by the terrors of pirates and a brewing storm, they wake to find themselves left for dead on an idyllic desert island. The resourceful family construct a five-star treehouse, but are they safe from attack by the men with the skull and crossbones?
Director: Ken Annakin
Starring: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Sessue Hayakawa, Tommy Kirk
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1960, U, 4 Star)
17:05
The Last Mimzy (Film)
Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn star as siblings Noah and Emma Wilder in Bob Shaye's intelligent family sci-fi adventure drama that doesn't talk down to children. While staying at their family beach house near Seattle, the two find a box of things that look like toys, but prove to be far more mysterious objects. Sent back in time, the 'toys' are trying to pass on a message about the future. And the more Noah and Emma play with the contents of the box, the more their intelligence grows. But one day Noah lines up the toys and accidentally activates a powerful force that creates a state-wide blackout. With her family under arrest by the FBI, Emma must make sense of the messages Mimzy, the toy rabbit, has been telepathically communicating to her.
Director: Robert Shaye
Starring: Chris O'Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, Rainn Wilson, Kathryn Hahn
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 2007, PG, 4 Star)
19:05
Down with Love (Film)
Romantic comedy starring Ewan McGregor, Rene Zellweger and David Hyde Pierce. Zellweger and McGregor are on top form in this spoof of the sort of 60s sex comedies that would pair Rock Hudson and Doris Day. She's a best-selling author who advocates that her female readership ditch ideas of love and romance for a more guilt-free approach to sensual pleasures. He's the hip journalist and ladies' man out to prove her wrong.
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Sarah Paulson, David Hyde Pierce, Rachel Dratch, Jack Plotnick
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 2003, 12, 3 Star)
21:00
Hitman (Film)
Xavier Gens' action-thriller stars Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47, a nameless assassin belonging to an amoral worldwide organisation that's happy to carry out the dirty work for many major powers. After an operation goes wrong, he goes on the run from both the Russian Secret Service and his own organisation, reluctantly allowing Nika Boronina to tag along. Spying on them both is Interpol agent Mike Whittier. The film is adapted from a computer game but rises above a simple shoot-'em-up level thanks to Agent 47's complicated personality and enigmatic nature.
Director: Xavier Gens
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen, Henry Ian Cusick
(Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 2007, 15, 3 Star)
22:50
The Last Exorcism (Film)
Daniel Stamm's documentary-style horror presents the spine-chilling footage shot by filmmaker Iris Reisen and her cameraman following the Reverend Cotton Marcus. Marcus is a Louisiana evangelist famed for his ability to drive demons from the possessed. However, aside from the mental respite he brings the afflicted, he has become disillusioned with the process, seeing his own 'skills' as little more than well-meaning tricks. Already on the verge of ending this work, he is easily persuaded to collaborate with Reisen on a film that is designed to reveal that exorcism has nothing at all to do with divine intervention. And, when he is asked to help Nell, a troubled teenager who intermittently appears to host violent forces which mutilate the local livestock, they think they have the perfect case for his final exorcism.
Director: Daniel Stamm
Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 2010, 15, 3 Star)
00:30
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (Film)
Mike Mitchell's $$$$$ comedy stars Rob Schneider as Deuce Bigalow, a fish-tank cleaner who is asked to house-sit a gigolo's home and prized aquarium. Accidentally breaking the tank, there's only one way he can afford to replace it - by starting to accept the phone calls to his absent host's business and 'fill in' for him. Cue a series of 'dates', ranging from a woman with Tourette's syndrome to one suffering from narcolepsy, via an Amazonesque woman with peculiar pedicural proclivities.
Director: Mike Mitchell
Starring: Rob Schneider, William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin, Arija Bareikis, Oded Fehr, Gail O'Grady
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1999, 15, 3 Star)
02:15
Wendy and Lucy (Film)
Michelle Williams plays Wendy, who's on her way to a possible job in Alaska when her car breaks down in a small Oregon town. Broke, she tries to work out how she can afford to get the car fixed. Then her beloved golden retriever, Lucy, goes missing. Wendy realises that, with no frie$$$ or money to hand, she must rely on her inner strengths to find Lucy. Kelly Reichardt's sombre but moving drama refuses to portray Wendy as a victim, more as someone who maintains a strong purpose amid all her difficulties.
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Michelle Williams, David Koppell, Max Clement, Sid Shanley, Dave Hubner, Michelle Worthey
(Subtitles, 2008, 15, 4 Star)