BC Pires

All three of the week's picks were con­tenders for Best Film of the Week, as are sev­er­al of to­day's al­so-rans, in­clud­ing one that would have been picked for sure if it hadn't been al­ready this month *High Noon, (8 pm ENC 3), three great old films *Jaws, (12.30 pm to­day and again 11 pm Fri­day TCM), *Back to the Fu­ture I (12.15 pm MCF), The Pur­ple Rose of Cairo (1 pm TCM). The week of­fers one of the most touch­ing Amer­i­can films ever made for those who can stay up late on a work night, Har­vey, (10 pm Tues­day Movie City Clas­sics) and the first of the Fi­nal Des­ti­na­tion films that have, so far, got to se­quel num­ber four in 3-D (5.15 pm Thurs­day HBO). It is def­i­nite­ly an old movie week, though, with all three picks com­ing from the free ca­ble movie chan­nel.

To­day's best film:

Fall­en (Gre­go­ry Hoblit/1998/USA/ Su­per­nat­ur­al Thriller/124 mins/Rat­ed R for vi­o­lence and lan­guage), 7.30 pm Turn­er Clas­sic Movies. Watch this if you liked Se7en, Stir of Echoes or The Sixth Sense. One of Den­zel Wash­ing­ton's best films de­serves far more at­ten­tion than the far more suc­cess­ful The Bone Col­lec­tor. Few films qual­i­fy to be called "su­per­nat­ur­al thriller" but this de­mon's haunt­ing of Den­zel's po­lice­man is one. Don­ald Suther­land, John Good­man and a pre-So­pra­nos James Gan­dolfi­ni are stag­ger­ing­ly good in small roles. If there were an award for Best Use of a Pop Song in a Film, Fall­en would win hands-down for its un­nerv­ing use of the Rolling Stones' Time Is on My Side, which sur­pass­es even Stan­ley Kubrick's de­scent in­to the Hell of Viet­nam via the loop­ing bridge bassline of Frank & Nan­cy Sina­tra's These Boots are Made for Walk­ing in Full Met­al Jack­et. Scary, spooky, un­nerv­ing and very, very good.

Rest of the week:

The Shin­ing (Stan­ley Kubrick/ 1980/ UK-USA/ Hor­ror/ 146 mins/ R) 10 pm Mon­day Turn­er Clas­sic Movies. BEST FILM OF THE WEEK. Watch this if you liked A Night­mare on Elm Street, Jaws or Don't Look Now. Stan­ley Kubrick's in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Stephen King's best book about the man de­scend­ing in­to mad­ness at the haunt­ed ho­tel is far bet­ter than the trav­es­ty King him­self per­pe­trat­ed 17 years lat­er. Filled with scares of all kinds–creepy-un­der-the-skin/set-your-heart-rac­ing/jump-out-of-your-seat–and, as lagniappe, Jack Nichol­son's great­est per­for­mance. BC on TV's favourite hor­ror, with re­al chill­ing scenes that get to and stay with you in­stead of the mod­ern spe­cial ef­fects blood­baths that are for­got­ten even as they're watched.

Scar­face (Bri­an De Pal­ma/ 1978/ Dra­ma-Thriller-Un­in­ten­tion­al Com­e­dy/USA/170 mins/R) 10 pm Thurs­day Turn­er Clas­sic Movies. Watch this if liked Good­fel­las, Car­l­i­to's Way or The God­fa­ther. For Al Pa­ci­no's Cuban "ac­ceng" alone, Scar­face is worth­while. Treat­ed as a car­toon about the co­caine trade in Flori­da, it's ter­rif­ic and of­fers some of the most quotable di­a­logue of all time. "Look at you now!" "Fly, pel­ly-cong, fly!" Sad­ly, young peo­ple–and the di­rec­tor 30 years ago, and still–treat it se­ri­ous­ly. As pure es­capism, it's hard to top, though. Say hel­lo to his lit­tle "freng".

Best of the rest: Mon: Beetle­juice, 5.25 pm TCM; Tues: *Hor­ri­ble Boss­es, 7.15 pm HBO; J Edgar, 9 pm HBOC; Thurs: My Week with Mar­i­lyn, 5.15 pm MCP; Fri: *Woody Allen: A Doc­u­men­tary Parts 1 & 2, 4 pm and 6.25 pm Max; Sat: Dirty Rot­ten Scoundrels, 7.05 pm MCC.

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