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Premiere movies on M-Net Stars coming up in January:


Men At Work
On: Monday, 7 January at 19:30

1990 Directed by Emilio Estevez. Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez

Two garbage truck workers are drawn into one madcap adventure after another when they team up with a crazed Vietnam vet to conceal a dead body they discover on their round.

Real-life brothers Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen team up in wacky comedy to play garbage collectors Carl and James. When they spot a man roughing up a woman in an apartment, they shoot him in the buttocks with a pellet gun to teach him a lesson, and go on their merry way.

But the next day, they discover the body of the same man stuffed in an oil drum. Worried that they may be implicated in his murder, they enlist the help of a crazed ex-soldier Louis, who helps them hide the body. It’s not long before all sorts of people start snooping around and the boys are soon up to their necks in trouble, not least of which is a scandal involving the illegal dumping of hazardous waste.

Rocketeer
On: Monday, 14 January at 19:30

1991Directed by Joe Johnston. . Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly

Living in Hollywood during the late 1930s, Daredevil test pilot Cliff Secord is despondent. The plane he was supposed to fly in a competition has just crashed and burned, and his relationship with aspiring actress Jenny looks set to go the same way now that debonair actor Neville Sinclaire is making eyes at her. Then Fate intervenes.

Cliff finds a rocket pack in his hangar and, with the help of his mechanic pal Peevy, gets it to work. Cliff straps it on, and he can fly. The newspapers soon dub him the Rocketeer, which brings him to the attention of the inventor, aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, who wants it back. But others want it too.

With World War II raging, a rocket pack could come in very handy for spying purposes ...

Return To Snowy River
On: Monday, 21 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Geoff Burrowes. Tom Burlinson, Sigrid Thornton

Several years after leaving Snowy River to seek his fortune, Jim Craig returns to the valley with a herd of horses and plans to ask his sweetheart, Jessica, to be his wife. The fact that she’s now engaged to the wealthy Alistair, and that her father prefers Alistair over Jim, doesn’t keep the lovers apart.

Soon all kinds of drama brews in the hills, threatening to spill over into violence. This sweeping drama, which is filled with horses and beautiful vistas, is based on a ballad.

Destiny
On: Monday, 28 January at 19:30

1995 Directed by Jack Baran. Dylan McDermott, James Belushi

Who is Johnny Destiny? Is he a real man or Fate disguised as one? This is what Julian, escaped convict, has to find out when he arrives in Las Vegas to collect the proceeds of a bank robbery. His former partner says Destiny stole the money, but Julian isn’t so sure. What’s more, Julian’s old girlfriend, Lucille, is now shacking up with another man. Did Destiny have something to do with this too?


Hanky Panky
On: Tuesday, 1 January at 19:30

1982 Directed by Sydney Poitier. Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner

While visiting New York, Chicago architect Jordan finds something distinctly rotten in the Big Apple. When he mails a package as a favour to one woman, he finds himself on the run with another woman, trying to elude a motley assortment of bad guys who seem bent on putting a dent in his good humour.

Experts
On: Tuesday, 8 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Dave Thomas. John Travolta, Arye Gross, Kelly Preston

It’s the Fifties and things are still chilly between Russia and America. The KGB are worried that their training techniques have become outdated. For their spies to blend in, they need to know what’s going on in America so the KGB lures two real Americans to Nebraska on the pretext that they will be starting a Manhattan-style nightclub.

This way, the Russians can get up close and personal with all things American. The KGB picks two of the dopiest Americans in New York, and next thing, our heroes are exposing the amazed Russians to rock ‘n’ roll and other essential elements of American culture.

Big Business
On: Tuesday, 15 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Jim Abrahams. Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin

One night, in the small town of Jupiter Hollow, two women give birth to identical twin girls. A short-sighted nurse mixes then up and one couple stays behind with their mismatched set while the other goes home to New York with theirs.

The girls grow up, presumably never questioning why they look or act so differently. Three decades later, the Manhattan twins, who are filthy rich, decide to sell off their interests in Jupiter Hollow. This angers the small town twins, who travel to the Big Apple to make their feelings known at the annual stockholders’ meeting.

They book into the same hotel where the other twins are staying, and are soon mistaken for each other by an assortment of bellboys, executives and businessmen.

California Man
On: Tuesday, 22 January at 19:30

1992 Directed by Les Mayfield. Sean Astin, Brendan Fraser

In this celebration of all things nerdish, two Californian slackers, Dave and Stoney, find a Cro-Magnon man in their backyard, defrost him, clean him up, and take him to school. Next thing, the newcomer (Brendan Fraser in his first movie role) is a big hit, and our two nerds are hugely popular. It’s like Dumb, Dumber and Dumberer chillin’ as they go in search of fundage for grindage!

Grosse Point Blank
On: Tuesday, 29 January at 19:30

Directed by George Armitage. John Cusack, Minnie Driver

Martin Blank is an ex CIA agent turned hit man. When he learns that his latest assignment will coincide with his 10-year high school reunion in his home town of Grosse Point, Michigan, he shares his anxieties with his therapist. Should he go? He did, after all, stand up his high school sweetheart just before the prom.

His shrink, a bit worried about angering a hit man, tells him to go and patch things up with Debi. So Martin arrives in town, looks up Debi, who’s working as a DJ for a local radio station, and bumps into a rival hit man, who thinks they should join a union for hit men. Nice and chatty, you’d think, until the bullets start flying.

We're No Angels
On: Wednesday, 2 January at 19:30

1989 Directed by Neil Jordan. Robert De Niro, Sean Penn

Robert De Niro and Sean Penn reprise the roles played by Humphrey Bogart and Peter Ustinov in the original version of this film and play two escaped convicts who are mistaken for priests when they hide out in a monastery. As they make repeated attempts to cross the border into Canada, they are caught up in the lives of the locals.

Who's Harry Crumb
On: Wednesday, 9 January at 19:30

1989 Directed by Paul Flaherty. John Candy, Jeffrey Jones

Harry Crumb is the black sheep in a long line of private detectives. He is a complete idiot who doesn’t have a sleuthing bone in his body. When his smarmy boss Draison, who runs the family detective agency in Los Angeles, assigns him to a kidnapping case, Harry can’t believe his luck but unbeknownst to him, Draison has planned the whole kidnapping so he can raise enough money to lure his lady love away from her husband. He wants Harry to fail.

Double Take
On: Wednesday, 16 January at 19:30

2001 Directed by George Gallo. Orlando Jones, Eddie Griffin

Investment banker Daryl Chase finds his life turned upside down when he spots something shady going on in a client’s account. Two CIA agents tell him the client is a Mexican drug dealer who is involved in money laundering. They also warn him to be careful of a crazy con man called Freddy Tiffany, who is connected in some way. Next thing, four people are dead and Daryl is the prime suspect.

Hoping to figure out what’s going on so he can clear his name, he goes on the run, only to find himself being followed every step of the way by Freddy, who claims he’s a former FBI agent.

Mystery Alaska
On: Wednesday, 23 January at 19:30

1999 Directed by Jay Roach. Russell Crowe, Burt Reynolds

When the NHL decides to send the New York Rangers to the small town of Mystery, Alaska, for a friendly game of ice hockey, the whole town is abuzz. This match isn’t so much about winning - after all, they don’t stand a chance against the big boys - but about not embarrassing themselves.

So everyone starts getting ready for the big day, not easy when they also have to deal with issues like infidelity, jealousy and corporate greed. Russell Crowe (in one of his earlier roles) plays town sheriff John Biebe who has to contend with losing his position in the match to a faster player and possibly losing his wife to another man.

The Truman Show
On: Wednesday, 30 January at 19:30

1998 Directed by Peter Weir. Jim Carrey, Ed Harris

The Truman Show revolves around a TV reality show that has been running for 30 years and which has an audience of millions. The star of the show is Truman Burbank, a man who has no idea that his every move has been recorded since birth. Truman is the only real person in this fictional town - everyone else, including his wife, mother and best friend, are actors. But one day, something drops from the “sky”, and Truman begins to suspect that his entire life may have been orchestrated.

Lightning Jack
On: Thursday, 3 January at 19:30

1994 Directed by Simon Wincer. Paul Hogan, Cuba Gooding Jr

Australian comedian Paul Hogan plays an ageing gunslinger who finds himself the sole remaining member of his gang when a bank robbery goes wrong. Undeterred, Lightning Jack Kane heads for the next town and another bank, but things go comically wrong there, too, and he is forced to take a hostage. The hostage, a deaf mute man who is tired of being pushed around (Cuba Gooding Jr) and decides he’d like to learn outlawing

Private Resort
On: Thursday, 10 January at 19:30

1985 Directed by George Bowers. Johnny Depp, Rob Morrow

Johnny Depp plays Jack, a horny college student who, with his pal Ben, goes to a Florida holiday resort where they hope to pick up girls, only to find themselves getting dragged into one misadventure after another. They meet up with a bumbling jewel thief, an over-enthusiastic detective, a jealous drunk, lots of big hair and even bigger boobs.

Medicine Man
On: Thursday, 17 January at 19:30

1992 Directed by John McTierman. Sean Connery, Lorraine Bracco

Sean Connery plays dour research scientist Dr Robert Campbell who has spent the past six years in a South American rain forest, trying to find a cure for cancer. When Dr Rae Crane, the feisty head of the pharmaceutical company funding his research, doesn’t hear from him, she joins him in the jungle as his research assistant.

As the two try to duplicate one of Robert’s earlier experiments that resulted in a successful anti-cancer serum, they have to contend with unscrupulous developers destroying great swathes of the forest.

The Air Up There
On: Thursday, 24 January at 19:30

1994 Directed by Paul M Glaser. Kevin Bacon, Charles Gitonga Maina

Kevin Bacon plays Jimmy Nolan, a basketball player turned assistant coach who desperately needs to find a star if he is ever going to land a promotion. Taking a gamble, Dolan goes to East Africa to persuade Saleh, an ultra-tall African who can slam dunk like a pro, to join the St Joseph’s Bulls. There’s just one little hitch: Saleh is the son of the Winabi chief who expects Saleh to follow in his footsteps.

As Dolan tries to persuade the old man to play ball, he is drawn into an unusual game between two warring tribes in which winner takes all.

Arachnophobia
On: Thursday, 31 January at 19:30

1990 Directed by Frank Marshall. Jeff Daniels, Harley Jane Kozak

Jeff Daniels plays Ross Jennings, a spider-phobic doctor who moves to a new town with his family, where he, rather unwisely, chooses the perfect house for lurking spiders.

The spider-trail started when Daddy Long Legs hitched a ride from South America in the coffin of a dead man, then proceeded to breed with an eight-legged local lady spider and now their offspring are multiplying at a unstoppable rate.

When people start dying, the doctor suspects a spider is at work and a pest exterminator (John Goodman) is called in. Eventually it’s up to the doctor to stop the critters from overrunning the whole town.

Colour Of Money
On: Friday, 4 January at 19:30

1986 Directed by Martin Scorsese. Paul Newman, Tom Cruise

“Fast Eddie” Felton is a seasoned pool player turned liquor salesman who’s looking to get back in the game. When he spots Vincent, a talented young pool player, he sees his chance to make a lot of money in the competitive world of table sports.

With the help of Vince’s girlfriend Carmen, a tough, astute woman, he steers the younger man towards Atlantic City’s greenest tables. But as the relationship grows between cool conman and hot newcomer, Eddie must decide exactly what’s important to him: the thrill of big money or the satisfaction of mentoring someone to victory.

Air Force One
On: Friday, 11 January at 19:30

1997 Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman

President James Marshall, who has gone on record that he will never negotiate with terrorists, is caught between a rock and a hard place as terrorists take Air Force One hostage and threaten to kill one hostage every half hour - including the First Lady and First Daughter, who are on board.

In the initial confusion, Marshall’s security men manage to get him to the plane’s escape pod, but instead of bailing out, Marshall opts to stay on the plane and fight the threat from within. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the deputy president must keep a cool head as she contends with the terrorists’ demands, a news-hungry press and the possibility that the President of the United States may be dead.

Pearl Harbour
On: Friday 18 January at 19:30

2001 Directed by Michael Bay. Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett

US Army Air Corps pilots Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker find their lifelong friendship threatened when both fall in love with Evelyn, a pretty nurse. Before the love triangle can be resolved, Rafe goes off to Britain to help the Royal Air Force fight the Nazis.

When Danny and Eleanor learn that Rafe has been killed in battle, they turn to one another - only for Rafe to reappear a few months later. The love triangle is now more complicated than ever, but just then, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and the three friends have to put their personal problems aside to deal with the aftermath of the cataclysmic event.

Remember The Titans
On: Friday, 25 January at 19:30

2000 Directed by Boaz Yakin. Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris

A Virginian community is outraged when a black coach, Herman Boone, is brought in from outside to coach the Titans, especially as a perfectly good white coach, Bill Yoast, is available. But Boone, ignoring the mutterings, appoints Yoast as his second-in-command, and the training begins in earnest. Soon surprising friendships develop on and off the pitch, but a miracle will be needed before Boone gets buy-in from everyone in this still racially divided community.


Good Morning Vietnam
On: Saturday, 05 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Barry Levinson. Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Bruno Kirby

Motor mouth radio DJ Adrian Cronauer arrives in Saigon, Vietnam in the mid-Sixties with the instruction: inspire the foot soldiers; make them laugh; help them forget they are in a terrible war. This is easy for Cronauer, who is bright, fast and funny and who knows his music. But as the war carries on and on and he gets to know people on both sides of the conflict, he starts alienating the top brass and suddenly, Vietnam is not so funny after all.

Shanghai Noon
On: Saturday, 12 January at 19:30

2000 Directed by Tom Dey. Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu

A beautiful Chinese princess has run off to America to avoid an arranged marriage, but she is hardly there when she is kidnapped and held for ransom.  Loyal Imperial guardsman Chong Wang (pronounced “John Wayne” in the Wild West) goes after her. Once in Nevada, Chong gets involved in a bar brawl, saves a Native Indian boy, earns himself a wife, and makes an oddball friend in the shape of affable outlaw Roy O’Bannon. Roy agrees to help Chong find the princess, but deep down, he can’t help thinking of all that ransom money.

Undercover Blues
On: Saturday, 19 January at 19:30

Directed by Herbert Ross. Kathleen Turner, Dennis Quaid, Stanley Tucci

Spies Jeff and Jane Blue are a happily married couple with a baby. They are holidaying in New Orleans when their bosses ask them to find an Eastern European woman called Novacek. If they can catch her in the act of buying top-secret explosives from a New Orleans scientist, she can be deported before she does any damage.

The Blues get to work but what are they to make of the bumbling villain who is determined to do them an injury, the two cops who keep on following them around, or the tourist couple they just can’t shake off?

Cool Runnings
On: Saturday, 26 January at 19:30

1993 Directed by Jon Turteltaub. John Candy, Leon, Doug E Doug, Rawle D Lewis

Derico is a Jamaican athlete who hopes to win gold in the 1988 summer Olympics. When a mishap puts paid to his hopes, he sets his sights on the winter Olympics in Canada, and looks around for another event. He picks bobsledding because Irv, the American bobsledding champion, lives in Jamaica. Before long, Derico has roped in Irv as a coach, and persuaded his mates Sanka, Junior and Yul to become part of the adventure. Based on a true story.


Rock Gibraltar
On: Sunday, 06 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Daniel Petrie. Burt Lancaster, Macaulay Culkin, Kevin Spacey, Sinead Cusack

Levi Rockwell is a widowed poet and philosopher whose four children, their spouses and their eight children have arrived at his seaside home in the Hamptons to celebrate his 77th birthday. Levi is very ill but the adults pussyfoot around the topic, refusing to talk about illness or death. The old man ends up talking to his grandchildren, who adore him.

When he tells them about an old Viking custom in which a body was sent out to sea on a straw-covered boat and set alight, they set out to fix up an old rowboat as a birthday present - just in case.

Stars and Bars
On: Sunday 13 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Pat O’Connor. Daniel Day-Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, Joan Cusack, Bill Patton

Daniel Day-Lewis plays Henderson Dores, a shy 18th century art expert living in New York who wants to immerse himself in American culture. His new assignment to buy a newly discovered Renoir from an eccentric Southern millionaire, gives him the opportunity to do just that.

Accompanied by his boss’s precocious granddaughter, Henderson arrives in Georgia to discover that the millionaire’s son has sold the painting to someone else. As Henderson goes after the precious canvas, he has to deal with every imaginable kind of American and try to come out alive.

Vice Versa
On: Sunday, 20 January at 19:30

1988 Directed by Brian Gilbert. Judge Reinhold, Fred Savage, Corinne Bohrer, Swoosie Kurtz

This comedy centres around a father and son who hardly know one another, until the day Fate, in the shape of an ancient Tibetan skull, lends a hand. It starts when Marshall, the vice president of a department store, takes his girfriend to the Far East, where two thieves, hoping to smuggle the valuable artefact into the US, slip the skull into his luggage. When Marshall gets home to his son Charlie, 11, they both touch the skull, and their minds are swapped.

Marshall is now a schoolboy with the mind of an businessman, while Charlie is an executive with the exuberance of a boy. As they try and fit into their new worlds, they discover things about each other that they never knew. Now if only they could get their bodies back, how wonderful life would be!

Gungo
On: Sunday, 27 January at 19:30

1986 Directed by Ron Howard. Michael Keaton, Mimi Rogers, Gedde Watanabe

A works foreman heads for Tokyo to persuade a Japanese company to re-open a car factory in his economically depressed home town. The Japanese agree and send a plant manager to oversee operations in Hadleyville, Pennsylvania. But the new man’s zero defect ways soon alienate the American workers, who aren’t used to working 12 hour days.

It’s up to the works foreman to placate his men and keep the plant running, or see the Japanese pull out. Soon, East and West are bonding over beer and bowls, and hatching a plot to outsmart both the workers and the bosses back in Tokyo.

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