A week on the box: December 8-14

Reviewer James Croot checks out the best shows and films on New Zealand television screens for the week of Tuesday, December 8 to Monday, December 14.

Tuesday, December 8

I Killed John Lennon
5.30pm, CI
Documentary that uses a series of taped interviews between Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman and journalist Jack Jones to dramatically reconstruct key events from that fateful day. Narrated by Doctor Who’s The Master John Simm.

Engineering Connections: Wembley Stadium
7.30pm, National Geographic
Given all the sports stadium construction and reconstruction taking place in New Zealand this is a timely look at how breathtaking creations can be created. While not going into the construction problems and delays that beset the project, it does show how the architects and engineers drew inspiration from knots, gliders and crossbows.

Enemy of the State
8.30pm, TV2
Tony Scott updates Frances Ford Coppola’s classic 1970s paranoid thriller The Conversation for the 90s, complete with Gene Hackman in a leading role. This slick, savvy tale makes use of the latest satellite and surveillance technology to follow our hero’s (Will Smith) journey. Clearly the inspiration for last year’s Eagle Eye.

Hotel Babylon
8.30pm, TV1
Former EastEnders heartthrob Nigel Harman and Monarch of the Glen’s Anna Wilson-Jones join the regular cast for the fourth series of this popular BBC drama. Harman plays a businessman who checks in only to discover that his ex-wife (Wilson-Jones) has been appointed to prepare the floundering hotel for sale.

Wednesday, December 9

Beat the Geeks
3pm, Prime
Until the far more high-brow QI finally arrives on our screens next year, quiz fans will have to amuse themselves with this slice of pop culture trivia madness. For those who haven’t seen it before regular nerds take on four berobed professional geeks in head-to-head bouts of trivia recall.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High
8.30pm, C4
Forget The Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller, this 1982 high school movie defined the era. Not only did it introduce the world to Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Forest Whittaker and writer Cameron Crowe,  it also contains cinema’s best nude scene (involving Phoebe Cates and a bikini) according to 'expert' Mr Skin.

Inside New Zealand: Catching the King of the Benefit Cheats
9.30pm, TV3
Documentary on the world’s biggest ever benefit fraudster - Kiwi Wayne Patterson. He created 123 false identities and stole more than $3.4 million in benefit payments over three years. As well as detailing what he spent his vast ill-gotten gains on, this investigation also asks how did he almost get away with it?

E Tu Kahikatea
9.30pm, Maori
Nominated in the Qantas Film and Television Awards, this very under-rated series provides insight into the movers and shakers of the Maori world told from the heart by those who lived it. This week’s episode focuses on Professor Wharehuia Milroy’s drive to right a childhood wrong.

Thursday, December 10

Football: FIFA Club World Cup Quarter-Final Playoff
4.45am, Sky Sport 3
Three years after their last appearance, when they couldn’t buy a goal let alone a win, Auckland City return to club football’s top table. This time they are only guaranteed one game against home side Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates. The winners will take on the Mexican team of Atlante and if they can win that European champions Barcelona.

Golf: Australian PGA Championship
2pm, Sky Sport 2
Coolum’s Hyatt Regency Resort is the host course for this year’s tournament. American Steve Marino will join former champions Nick O’Hern, Peter Lonard, Peter Senior and Craig Parry, defending champion Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh and crowd favourite John Daley in contesting the 72-hole competition. Coverage continues on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Cult
8.30pm, TV2
Feature length finale of TV2’s Lost meets Prison Break thriller series. Despite boasting a cast of top acting talent including Lisa Chappell, Danielle Cormack, Sara Wiseman and Renato Bartolomei this drama about a group of people trying to rescue their loved ones from a mysterious cult hasn’t exactly topped the ratings.

The Silence of the Lambs
8.35pm, Prime
One of only three films to sweep the top five Oscar awards, Jonathan Demme’s 1991 thriller is a masterclass in acting and tension building. A never better Jodie Foster battles wits with a disturbingly menacing Anthony Hopkins. Endlessly quotable dialogue and one of the best scenes of misdirection ever committed to celluloid complete a classic of its kind.

Friday, December 11

In the Line of Fire
6.20pm, Sky Movies Greats
From the era of mad bomber action-movies, comes this 1993 heavyweight clash between Clint Eastwood’s haunted secret service agent and John Malkovich’s malcontent. Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) referees the bout with ruthless German efficiency. Followed by Clint on top form in Unforgiven.

The Princess Diaries
7.30pm, TV2
The 2001 film that gave the world back Julie Andrews and introduced Anne Hathaway. The latter is particularly endearing and engaging as a 15-year-old who discovers she is actually the princess of a small European country. Slightly less disturbing teen wish fulfilment from the director of Pretty Woman.

A League of Their Own
8.30pm, Vibe
More female empowerment this time in the form of a based on a true story of the first female professional baseball league. Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna (who is also on soundtrack duties) lead the line in this 1992 comedy drama, but it’s Tom Hanks who steals the show as the grizzled coach Jimmy Dugan. “There’s no crying in baseball.”

The Jaquie Brown Diaries
9.30pm, TV3
Is this the end of Jaquie Brown’s days as Jaquie Brown? Series 2 of this consistently amusing show, rumoured to be the last, winds up with our heroine in celebrity rehab. The creators are promising to reveal a secret that will turn her turn her C-grade celebrity world upside down. Followed by the final of 7 Days.

Saturday, December 12

The Montana World of Wearable Art Awards
7.30pm, Prime
As well a featuring highlights from this year’s sell out awards show, this documentary looks at the impact WoW has had on Wellington and the influence it now has around the world. The experiences and journey to the awards of four international designers are also featured.

In Bruges
8.30pm, Sky Movies
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are a pair of hitmen stuck spending time in Belgium while they await their next instructions. What follows is 107-minutes of smart observations and hilarious set pieces, all laced with a wicked sense of humour. Look out for a stunning against-type cameo by Ralph Fiennes.

The Last Samurai
8.30pm, TV1
The day Tom Cruise came to Taranaki. Yes historical accuracy isn’t high on the list of the positive points about director Ed Zwick’s 2003 sweeping drama, but Mt Taranaki does a nice job doubling for Mt Fuji. Entertaining if not exactly enlightening stuff.

The Nanny Diaries
8.30pm, TV2
Something of a disappointment from all concerned. Scarlett Johansson struggles in this comedy about a college graduate who goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family, while the directing pair of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini can’t seem to muster the same verve and style they created on American Splendour.

Sunday, December 13

Ratatouille
7pm, TV2
The idea of a rat in the kitchen might not appeal to many, but in the hands of those animation experts Pixar it is cinematic gold. Sumptuously rendered gourmet creations, a story that is food for the soul and characters that appeal to both young and old combined to create on the best films of 2007.

Land of the Dead
8.30pm, C4
With the bar being raised by 28 Days Later and the remake of George Romero’s own Dawn of the Dead, there was a danger that this 2005 release would look decrepit in comparison. However, the mix of visceral imagery, black humour, unlikely heroes and a political message ensures this is a cut above the brainless fodder that usually passes for Hollywood horror.

Scary Movie 4
9.15pm, TV2
Saw, The Village, The Grudge and most notably Spielberg’s War of the Worlds are the major targets of David Zucker’s (Flying High) second entry in the spoof series. Visual and physical humour is mixed in with lots of word play, gross out gags and general nuttiness. And if a joke falls flat (which about half of them do) you can be sure another one isn’t too far away.

Resident Evil: Extinction
11pm, TV2
Action scenes edited into a blur? Check. Conspicuous product placement for softdrinks and the movie studio’s parent company? Present. A completely barmy plot that doesn’t make a lick of sense? You betcha. Russel Mulcahy (Highlander) offers flat and uninspired direction as Mila Jovovich trudges through a zombie-filled desert in search of a plot in this third outing in the based-on-a-video-game franchise.

Monday, December 14

English Premier League: Liverpool v Arsenal
4.45am, Sky Sport 2
With both teams’ title hopes hanging by a thread this match at Anfield has a lot riding on it. Injuries have hampered the progress of the two teams this season with the prolonged absence of star strikers Robin Van Persie (Arsenal) and Fernando Torres (Liverpool) real blows.

True Stories: Strictly Baby Ballroom
8.30pm, Prime
Filmed over the course of a year, this Channel 4 documentary follows the best juvenile couples in the UK as they prepare to compete in the Blackpool British Championships. “The real joy is the sadly neglected boys..whenever their dance instructor shouts at them that they're there "simply to make the girls look good",” wrote The Age’s Marieke Hardy.

ER
9.30pm, TV2
The episode you’ve all been waiting for. 'Gorgeous' George Clooney returns to County General when he and Nurse Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) must receive consent for organ donation from a woman who is grief-stricken over the sudden death of her grandson. Another old colleague, Dr Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle) also makes an appearance.

Breaking Bad
C4, 8.30pm
Walter White returns to the methamphetamine business in the acclaimed second season of Breaking Bad. While the first was cut short by the writer's strike, the second is chock-full of the kind of black comedy that made The Sopranos so successful, and ends with a cliffhanger that will have viewers hanging out for season three - just like a drug addict needing his next fix.

Dexter
9.30pm, C4
Media Works takes another stab at trying to get free-to-air audiences hooked on America’s favourite serial killer. Series 2 see him under constant surveillance from one of his own detectives while they try to find the Bay Harbour Butcher. Over on The Box on Sundays, Series 3 is about to reach its blood-thirsty conclusion.

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