BC Pires

To­day's al­so-rans in­clude an en­dur­ing Stephen King source nov­el psy­cho­log­i­cal hor­ror (Car­rie, 4 pm MCC), an ex­cel­lent kid­die-an­i­mat­ed-fam­i­ly flick from Mar­ty Scors­ese (Hugo, 5 pm and 8 pm MCF) and a chance to see ex­act­ly why the Tim Bur­ton re­make of one of the great 60s sci-fi clas­sic films fails com­plete­ly, apart from the Shark Tale-like de­light of dis­cern­ing the hu­man ac­tor un­der the CGI ape face (Plan­et of the Apes, 9.40 am and 12.40 pm, MCA, screen­ing again on Tues­day at 6.55 pm and 9.55 pm). You can al­so see how a prop­er re­make should be done on Fri­day (Rise of the Plan­et of the Apes, 7.10 pm MCA). Any­one who has suf­fered de­pres­sion or knows any­one with any form of men­tal ill­ness shouldn't miss Take Shel­ter (9 pm Max).

To­day's best film:

Man­hat­tan (Woody Allen/1979/USA/ Ro­man­tic Com­e­dy-Dra­ma/96 mins/R/ B&W) 7.20 pm Movie City Clas­sics. BEST FILM OF THE WEEK. Watch this if you liked Side­ways, An­nie Hall or Mid­night in Paris. Con­sid­ered Woody Allen's best movie by many for its bal­ance be­tween com­e­dy and in­sight in­to the per­son­al­i­ty of the mod­ern West­ern city-dweller. Beau­ti­ful­ly shot in black and white with a near-per­fect Gersh­win score, all the per­for­mances are grand, with then-new­com­er Mariel Hem­ing­way hold­ing her own against Meryl Streep, Di­ane Keaton and Woody him­self. Apart pos­si­bly from some el­e­ments of wardrobe, it re­mains, not just un­dat­ed, but time­less. The au­to­bi­o­graph­i­cal el­e­ment of the old­er man and the far-too-young younger woman is han­dled as hon­est­ly as it was in re­al life. Un­hesi­tat­ing­ly, in­deed en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly, rec­om­mend­ed for the gen­uine film buff.

Rest of the week:

Star Trek (JJ Abrams/2009/USA-Ger­many/Ac­tion-Ad­ven­ture-Sci-Fi/ 127 mins/PG-13 for sci-fi ac­tion and vi­o­lence and brief sex­u­al con­tent), 4.55 pm to­day (and again 9.40 pm Tues­day) Movie City Fam­i­ly. Watch this if you liked the Star Wars or Ter­mi­na­tor movies or any of the oth­er Star Trek films. Even for William Shat­ner loy­al­ists, it's hard to de­ny the cre­den­tials of the lat­est branch opened of the Star Trek fran­chise. This is the movie Shat­ner would have made, if he made the orig­i­nal TV se­ries as a film to­day. Ex­cit­ing, fast-mov­ing, ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the lat­est com­put­er tricks, it's even got the orig­i­nal Leonard Ni­moy as Mr Spock (Prime); and you al­ways knew Cap'n Kirk had a thing for Uhu­ra.

Kill Bill Vol 1 (Quentin Taran­ti­no/ 2003/USA/Ac­tion-Thriller-Kick-up/ 111 mins/R for strong bloody vi­o­lence, lan­guage and some sex­u­al con­tent) 5.30 and 8.30 pm Sat­ur­day, Movie City Ac­tion. Watch this if you liked Djan­go Un­chained, In­glo­ri­ous Bas­ter­ds or Pulp Fic­tion. The on­ly good Taran­ti­no film be­tween the glo­ri­ous Pulp Fic­tion and In­glo­ri­ous Bas­ter­ds, Kill Bill Vol 1 is huge­ly styl­ish, fast-paced, hi­lar­i­ous in parts and leaps from huge set piece to tense dra­mat­ic mo­ment with ease, Taran­ti­no do­ing for the kung fu flick what he did for the heist in Reser­voir Dogs. Vi­o­lent, of course, but thrilling and en­thralling–un­like the just as huge­ly bow-ring Vol 2.

Best of the rest: Mon: Puss in Boots 4.50 and 7.50 pm MCF; Tues: The War Wag­on 9 pm MCC; Wed: *Ran­go, 7.10 pm MCH; Thurs: Ab­bot & Costel­lo Meet Jekyll & Hyde 9 pm MCC; Fri: *Rise of the Plan­et of the Apes 7.10 pm and 10.10 pm MCA; Sat: Quadrophe­nia, 6.55 pm MCC.

*Starred films have been cho­sen be­fore. Sched­uled In­ter­net times of­ten vary on the day.