The Weekly Retro Movie Rundown 124
Cheese and crackers! It's time for another weekly retro movie rundown!!
Like one of the top American Football athletes of our time, let us strap and click on our protective pads as we get ready to throw long into the weekends greatest retro movies. We'll duck and weave our way around even the biggest opponents are we run it home before posing for the moment to be forever captured and shared forever as celluloid wonder.
Have a happy retro weekend!
Saturday 15th November
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Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) More4 11:05am-1:00pm (1 hour 55 minutes)
Intelligent chimpanzees Cornelius and Zira escape the destruction of their planet by travelling back in time to 1970s America. Although initially treated as celebrities, the government comes to regard the pair as a threat to the human race when it transpires that Zira is pregnant. Sci-fi adventure sequel, starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Sal Mineo and Ricardo Montalban.
Billion Dollar Brain (1967) ITV4 1:05pm-3:15pm (2 hours 10 minutes)
Former secret agent Harry Palmer comes out of retirement to take a mysterious canister to Finland, and ends up embroiled in an American megalomaniac's bid to take over the world. Espionage thriller, directed by Ken Russell and starring Michael Caine, Oscar Homolka and Karl Malden.
The War of the Worlds (1953) Film4 3:25pm-5:10pm (1 hour 45 minutes)
A meteor strike in southern California turns out to contain a deadly alien war machine that wipes out anything in its path. This machine is the vanguard of a mass invasion of aliens from Mars, who are intent on wiping out the human race and claiming Earth for themselves. Sci-fi drama, updating HG Wells' novel to a 20th-century setting, starring Gene Barry, Ann Robinson and Les Tremayne.
Dark Star (1974) Film4 5:10pm-6:50pm (1 hour 40 minutes)
A spaceship is sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. The crew's pet alien escapes and sets off a sentient bomb, which the astronauts have to persuade not to explode. Sci-fi comedy, the directorial debut of John Carpenter, starring Dan O'Bannon, Brian Narelle, Dre Pahich and Cal Kuniholm.
The Mask (1994) Sky Movies Comedy 6:10pm-8:00pm (1 hour 50 minutes)
A timid bank clerk stumbles on an ancient mask, which endows whoever wears it with untold superhuman powers, unbridled self-confidence and an irresistible charm for the ladies. Unfortunately, he earns the enmity of a local gangster for daring to flirt with his girlfriend - and when the crook gets wind of the artefact's existence, he covets the power for himself. Comic-book comedy, with Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Riegert and Peter Greene.
Fun Facts: The banana-yellow suit that Jim Carrey wears is based on a suit which his mother made for him for his first attempt at stand-up comedy. This was also Cameron Diaz's first movie role!
Never Say Never Again (1983) ITV4 9:00pm-11:45pm (2 hours 45 minutes)
James Bond investigates the hijacking of two American nuclear warheads and tracks the stolen missiles to the Bahamas, where a sinister millionaire working for criminal organisation Spectre is planning to hold the world to ransom. Action adventure, starring Sean Connery, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Kim Basinger, Max von Sydow and Barbara Carrera.
Sunday 16th November
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The Cable Guy (1996) Sky Movies Comedy 7:45am-9:25am (1 hour 40 minutes)
A man makes the mistake of engaging a cable TV installer in conversation in a ploy to get all the channels for free. However, the manic repairman shows an invincible determination to be his new best friend - and does not take kindly to rejection. Comedy directed by Ben Stiller, starring Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick and George Segal.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Sky Movies Aliens 9:30am-11:15am (1 hour 45 minutes)
A dim-witted and fearless trucker goes in search of his friend's kidnapped fiancee in San Francisco's Chinatown. He blunders into a supernatural world ruled by a powerful ghostly sorcerer, who needs the captured woman so he can rejoin the land of the living. Comedy fantasy adventure, starring Kurt Russell, Dennis Dun, Kim Cattrall, James Hong and Victor Wong.
Gremlins (1984) Sky Movies Greats 12:00pm-1:55pm (1 hour 55 minutes)
A teenager is given a strange, cute creature as a Christmas present by his eccentric father and warned to keep it away from water, not to feed it after midnight, or expose it to direct light. However, a chance dousing causes the furball to spawn a horde of murderous little monsters, and their devilish antics bring mayhem to a small town. Comedy horror, with Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton and Polly Holliday.
Titanic (1997) Film4 3:20pm-7:05pm (3 hours 45 minutes)
A party of explorers studying the sunken remains of the famous liner meets an elderly woman who was a passenger on the ill-fated maiden voyage. She recounts how she boarded the ship while on the brink of being forced into marriage by her family, and was stopped from killing herself by a penniless artist. She fell in love with her saviour, but the disaster on the horizon meant their time together was doomed to be short. James Cameron's Oscar-winning romantic drama, starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates and Bill Paxton.
Fun Fact: The movie's line "I'm the king of the world!" was ad-libbed by DiCaprio and was later was voted as #4 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007. The same was voted as the #100 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
Dumb and Dumber (1994) Channel 5 5:25pm-7:30pm (2 hours 5 minutes)
Dimwitted Rhode Island limousine driver Lloyd Christmas and his equally vacuous friend Harry Dunne embark on a disaster-fraught cross-country trip to Aspen, where they hope to reunite a briefcase with its female owner. However, the pair are unaware the case contains a $1million ransom they would have been better leaving well alone. Farrelly brothers comedy, starring Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly, Teri Garr and Mike Starr.
Face/Off (1997) BBC3 11:15pm-1:25am (2 hours 10 minutes)
FBI agent Sean Archer captures terrorist Castor Troy, the man who killed his son. While Troy is in a coma, Archer has the crook's face surgically grafted onto his own so he can go undercover and locate a bomb planted somewhere in Los Angeles. But then Troy regains consciousness - and in turn takes on Archer's identity. John Woo's action thriller, starring Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon and Dominique Swain.
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Film4 11:05pm-1:40am (2 hours 35 minutes)
A child who grows up in slavery becomes a formidable warrior and a cunning thief. Taken prisoner by a victorious king, he is sent out to destroy the leader of the barbaric cult that destroyed his village and slaughtered his family. Fantasy adventure, based on the stories by author Robert E Howard, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones and Sandahl Bergman.
Whatever you're up to this weekend, make sure you stop, look and listen and start from the outside in.
xoxo