Easter weekend and the film choice has risen from the dead. Today's Also Rans include a young adult sci-fi (*The Hunger Games, 9.45 am HBOC, and again Tuesday 9 pm), a fun family animated flick (Wreck-It Ralph, 7 pm HBOF, and again Thursday 6.05 pm), the definitive stuck-in-a-philosophical-rut comedy (Groundhog Day, 8 pm TCM) and the movie that spawned the modern romantic-killer-thriller genre (Fatal Attraction, 10 pm TCM). Tomorrow's holiday viewing is almost as good, with another rewarding family flick (Underdog, 12.05 noon HBOF), the first of the best known intellectual romance trilogies (Before Sunset, 11 am Max), a strong Jude Law vehicle (Breaking and Entering, 4.45 pm Max) and a worrying film about the Irish Troubles (In the Name of the Father, 10 pm TCM). The week includes two of last week's picks, BC on TV's favourite Guy Ritchie flick (*Snatch, 10 pm Wednesday MaxW) and many people's favourite Western (*Unforgiven, 8 pm Wednesday Enc3), as well as a contender for Worst Movie Ever Made, which was difficult to avoid picking as an unintentional comedy (Glitter, 5.30 pm Tuesday HBOF).
Today's best film: Ben-Hur (William Wyler/ 1959/ USA/ Action-Adventure-Drama-Not Very Accurate History/ 212 mins/ G) 4.05 pm Turner Classic Movies. Watch this if you liked 300, Quo Vadis or The Ten Commandments. Affectionately summarised by the Time Out Film Guide as "a four-hour Sunday School lesson" with the compensations of the chariot race scene, lots of phallic object-grasping by Charlton Heston and as much male nudity as the time permitted, Ben-Hur remains surprisingly watchable half-a-century-and-half-a-decade after it was made. Yes, the chariot race scene (which required 38 pages to be added to the three-word summation in the script) remains the best nine of the film's 212 minutes and, yes, the urban legends about Ben-Hur, such as that four stuntmen died in filming the chariot race, or that you can see a red VW beetle come round a corner with the chariots, may be better than the movie itself, but few films that could attract the classification "gladiator" provide a better family option on an Easter Sunday; even if the rapturous First Communion student is likely to be impressed and his or her cynical atheist parents only amused.
Rest of the week: Mischief Night (Penny Woodcock/ 2006/ UK/ Drama-Comedy-Teen/ 93 mins/ PG-15) 6.30 pm tomorrow HBOC. Watch this if you liked Kidulthood, Millions or Bend It Like Beckham. Not nearly as rough as Kidulthood but not as sweet as either of the other two films, this account of activities on the English equivalent of Halloween but with tricks only, no treats, takes as its real heart the connections between the old and the new, as reflected in friendship and romance between Asian-English and white-English people on and around a housing estate. This is precisely the kind of film BC on TV takes a delight in recommending to genuine film-lovers, who might otherwise miss such a treat, even if–particularly since–a film with a pagan festival setting screens on the holiest Christian day of the year. The French Connection (William Friedkin/ 1971/ USA/ Crime-Thriller-Action/ 104 mins/ R), 4.50 pm Tuesday Turner Classic Movies BEST FILM OF THE WEEK. Watch this if you liked The Departed, Mean Streets or Wonderland. The gritty tale of Popeye Doyle and Buddy Russo–Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider in two of their most exceptional roles–is one of the great New York City movies and features the film school textbook chase scene, one of the best chases ever shot in cinema, and one that remained unsurpassed (as an on-foot chase) for 35 years, an entire anthropological generation, until it was clipped by the one in the Daniel Craig Casino Royale. No 70 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 American Films list.
Best of the rest: Mon: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 7 pm Max; Tues: The Campaign, 6.30 pm HBOC; Wed: Clear History, 6.03 pm HBO; Thurs: Basic Instinct, 10 pm TCM; Fri: Small Apartments, 5.45 pm HBOC; Sat: Indecent Proposal, 6.20 am TCM. *Starred films have been chosen in the last three months. Scheduled Internet times often vary on the day, particularly around month-end.