New on
M-Net Stars in May, 2009:
MONDAY NIGHT MOVIES
PIECES OF APRILMonday 4 May at 19:302003 Directed by Peter Hedges. Starring Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt
A wayward daughter invites her dying mother and the rest of her estranged family to her apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.
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MR MOMMonday 11 May at 19:301983 Directed by Stan Dragoti. Starring Michael Keaton, Teri Garr
Jack is an executive who finds himself in over his head when he is laid off and is forced to swap roles with his wife Caroline. While she goes off to work in an ad agency, he has to take care of their three young kids.
Jack soon discovers that the vacuum cleaner has a mind of its own, that chili does not make a suitable baby food, and that soapies are seriously addictive. Meanwhile, Caroline’s boss is doing some serious flirting with his attractive new employee.
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THE SURVIVORSMonday 18 May at 19:301983 Directed by Michael Ritchie. Starring Robin Williams, Walter Matthau
A comedy about an unlikely friendship that forms between two down-on-their-luck men who have just recently lost their jobs.
Donald Quinelle (Robin Williams) was fired by his boss's parrot because his boss couldn't bear to confront Donald with the terrible news.
Meanwhile, Sonny Paluso (Walter Matthau) lost his gas station to an explosion. Drowning their sorrows in a bar one day, a criminal tries to rob the establishment. Surprising even themselves, Donald and Sonny become local celebrities when they identify the perpetrator.
Unfortunately, the robber, Jack (Jerry Reed), also happens to be a hit man, and when Jack sees their faces on television, his uncontrollable anger triggers him into tracking them down and making them pay for ruining his bid at scoring some quick cash.
While he searches for the inept duo, Donald has an awakening in which he moves to the mountains and learns to survive out in the wild. Jack's pursuit of Donald and Sonny unleashes a series of escapades.
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BROKEDOWN PALACEMonday 25 May at 19:301998 Directed by Jonathan Kaplan. Starring Claire Danes, Bill Pullman
Best friends Alice and Darlene are about to spend their holiday in Hawaii when they impulsively hop on a plane to Bangkok without telling their folks. But their carefree holiday takes a grim turn when a charming Australian befriends them with the idea of using them as drug mules. Within days, the girls are behind bars, their future uncertain and their friendship cracking at the seams.
TUESDAY NIGHT MOVIES
JACK THE BEARTuesday 5 May at 19:301993 Directed by Marshall Herskovitz. Starring Danny DeVito, Robert J Steinmiller
Jack, 12, narrates this film set in a small Californian town in 1972. He and his younger brother, Dylan, 3, are still trying to get over the loss of their mother, who died in a car crash. To make matters worse, their dad John, the host of a TV horror show, is drinking a lot and is prone to angry outbursts.
Then a next-door neighbour with neo-Nazi leanings knocks on their door, marking the beginning of potential tragedy, but also healing.
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WHITE PALACETuesday 12 May at 19:301990 Directed by Luis Mandoki. Starring Susan Sarandon, James Spader
A cultured young ad executive has to figure out what’s important when he falls in love with an older woman who doesn’t fit into his social circle.
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NEW AGETuesday 19 May at 20:001994 Directed by Michael Tolkin, Janet Van Etten. Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis
Peter and Katherine Winter are rich, stylish, successful - and completely shallow. It’s only when they lose their high-paying jobs that reality begins to hit. As they consult one guru after another, their lives become more complicated than ever: they are encouraged to open up a boutique, to have affairs, and more.
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1969Tuesday 26 May at 19:301988 Directed by Ernest Thompson. Starring Robert Downey, Kiefer Sutherland
In a small American town, one family is divided over the Vietnam war. One brother goes off to fight, something his patriotic father approves of, while the younger one, Scott, goes off to college.
When the summer holiday rolls around, Scott decides to spend the summer with his friend Ralph, experiencing - hopefully - sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. But various events lead them home, where they have to face up to the tough issues of war and family.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT MOVIES
THE BRAVEWednesday 6 May at 19:301997 Directed by Johnny Depp. Starring Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando
Raphael is an illiterate Native American who lives in squalor with his wife and two kids on the edge of a rubbish dump. Unable to get a job with his criminal record, Raphael despairs of ever making enough money to support his family. Then a mysterious man in a wheelchair offers him $50 000 if he will consent to being murdered for a snuff film …
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COME SEE THE PARADISEWednesday 13 May at 19:301990 Directed by Alan Parker. Starring Dennis Quaid, Tamlyn Tomita
Jack McGurn is a young trade unionist who arrives in Los Angeles in 1936, where he lands a job as a projectionist in a Japanese cinema. When he meets Lily Kawamura, his boss’s lovely Japanese American daughter, it’s love at first sight for both of them.
As marriage between interracial couples is banned, they elope to Seattle, where they have a daughter, Mini. Then the attack on Pearl Harbour changes things for everyone, tearing not only the lovers apart, but also Lily’s family.
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JOSHUA THEN AND NOWWednesday 20 May at 19:301985 Directed by Ted Kotcheff. Starring James Woods, Gabrielle Lazure
Joshua “now” is not a happy man. His wife has left him, he is facing a sex scandal, and his writing career may be over. Perhaps if he went back to Joshua “then” he’d be able to put the pieces of his shambolic life together again.
The movie goes back into Joshua’s past: a unique sex and religious upbringing by an unconventional, not entirely legal businessman. A bar mitvah with a difference - Mom did a striptease.
A wife he just had to steal away from another man. A fake story he just had to tell to spice up his memoirs. As he considers his life, the movie questions whether the future Joshua can be a wiser, happier man.
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WILLARDWednesday 27 May at 19:302003 Directed by Glen Morgan. Starring Crispin Glover, R Lee Ermy
Willard Stiles is a social misfit: He has no friends, no girlfriend, lives with his sick mother in a gloomy mansion and works for Frank, a man who loves to torment him. Frank would love to fire him, but can’t because Willard is the son of the company’s late founder.
Then Willard befriends a white rat which he names Socrates. Socrates accompanies Willard everywhere, even to work. Gradually, Willard acquires more rats, until he has over 500, including a giant brown rat called Ben, who is bigger, smarter and more vicious than the other rodents.
THURSDAY NIGHT MOVIES
HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACKThursday 7 May at 19:301998 Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett
Stella, a 40-year-old stockbroker, goes to Jamaica for a well-deserved holiday with her best friend, where she has a holiday romance with a sexy Jamaican half her age. But lust soon turns to love, and now she must decide what to do with her toyboy - and the wave of disapproval from family and friends.
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DOWN WITH LOVEThursday 14 May at 19:302003 Directed by Peyton Reed. Starring Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor
A feminist writer and a playboy journalist in Sixties New York fall in love while playing a cat and mouse game of wits with each other.
It’s 1962 in New York, and two young people are about to engage in a battle of wits. Barbara Novak arrives in the Big Apple to promote her book, which advises women to take charge of their lives by treating men the way they are treated: as sex objects. When Barbara’s book becomes an overnight best seller, she grants interviews to everyone except Catcher Block, a playboy reporter who failed to pitch up for an interview when she was still an unknown.
Refusing to take her rejection lying down, Catcher pretends to be an astronaut to get close to the iron lady and show her that she does, indeed, have a soft centre.
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JUST FRIENDSThursday 21 May at 19:302005 Directed by Roger Kumble. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart
In high school, Chris was an overweight kid with braces who had a crush on cheerleader Jamie who regarded him just as a friend. But after 10 years, Chris has lost the weight and the braces, and is now a yuppie music producer. While escorting spoiled pop diva Samantha to Paris, their plane stops in Chris’s home town, giving him the chance to reconnect with the lovely Jamie. Will she like the new Chris, or will man-hungry Samantha put a spoke in this wheel of love?
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DRIVE ME CRAZYThursday 28 May at 19:301998 Directed by John Schultz. Starring Melissa Joan Hart, Adrian Grenier
Two teenagers who want to make their exes jealous find their scheme backfiring when they fall in love with one another.
FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIES
EDWARD SCISSORHANDSFriday 8 May at 19:301990 Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder
Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle after his “father”, an inventor, died before he could complete him. Instead of hands, poor Edward has two pairs of scissors. When Peg, an Avon lady from the nearby village, comes calling, she spots an innocent soul at once, and takes him home to fix those nasty nicks he keeps on inflicting on himself and introduce him to her family.
Edward, whose lethal-looking hands create magic on hedges, ice and hair, is a sensation, but fear, mistrust and envy soon rear their ugly heads, especially when he falls in love with Peg’s cheerleader daughter Kim, who already has an admirer.
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SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLSFriday 15 May at 20:001998 Directed by Tamara Jenkins. Starring Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei
Vivian, 14, lives a nomadic existence with her divorced father Murray and her two brothers. They move from apartment to apartment, and it’s only through the kindness of her uncle Mickey that they manage to survive. One day, her cousin Rita, a nursing student with a drug problem, comes to live with them.
Mickey wants Murray to keep Rita on the straight and narrow. In exchange, he’ll put them up in a nice place. But Rita turns out to be a role model for the impressionable Vivian, who is trying to come to terms with her generous bust and her attraction to a strange but gentle boy.
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ORANGE COUNTYFriday 22 May at 19:302002 Directed by Jake Kasdan. Starring Jack Black, Colin Hanks
Shaun is a high school student who is inspired to go to Stanford University after reading a book he finds on the beach. When Stanford turns him down, he is undaunted and set about the task of getting himself accepted.
PRELUDE TO A KISSFriday 29 May at 19:301992 Directed by Norman René. Starring Alec Baldwin, Meg Ryan
Two people fall in love, but on their wedding day, a dying old man does something that will change the way they think about love and commitment.
SATURDAY NIGHT MOVIES
THE LONG WALK HOMESaturday 2 May at 19:301991 Directed by Richard Pearce. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sissy Spacek
Two women, one white, one black, are thrust into the turmoil of the civil rights movement in the US in the ‘50s.
Miriam is a Southern socialite whose biggest concerns are keeping her husband happy and her house spotless. But this changes when her maid, Odessa, joins the bus boycott and starts walking to work and back. As Odessa lives on the other side of town, Miriam decides to give her a lift - a decision that will change her life in ways she couldn’t imagine.
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DADSaturday 9 May at 19:301989 Directed by Gary David Goldberg. Starring Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey
Jake Tremont is a 70-something man whose bossy wife has always done everything for him. So when Bette has a heart attack and becomes bedridden, Jake is lost. Now it’s up to his son John, a successful banker, to put his life on hold so he can help his father learn to do things for himself. As father and son reconnect, they discover things that they’d forgotten, like fun, family and what fatherhood is really all about.
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BRONX TALESaturday 16 May at 19:301993 Directed by Robert De Niro. Starring Robert De Niro, Francis Capra
When a young boy named Calogero refuses to tell police what he knows about a mob hit, it endears him to the killer. A bond springs up between Calogero and Sonny, which worries the boy’s hardworking bus-driver father Lorenzo.
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A THOUSAND ACRESFriday 23 May at 19:301997 Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. Starring Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer
When a mean-spirited old man gives his farm to his two eldest daughters, it tears the family apart and brings old secrets to the surface.
Elderly rancher Larry Cook has three adult daughters, Ginny, Rose and Caroline. Ginny and Rose live on or near the ranch with their husbands, while Caroline works as a lawyer in the city. When Larry decides to give the farm to his two eldest daughters, it has far-reaching effects on everyone.
Larry, who has a mean streak, soon starts feeling angry about his generosity and, together with Caroline, turns on Ginny and Rose. With only each other as allies, they start talking - and old secrets come tumbling out of the family closet.
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RUBYFriday 30 May at 19:301991 Directed by John Mackenzie. Starring Danny Aiello, David Duchovny
A semi-biographical look at the man who shot the man who shot US President John F Kennedy.
SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIES
THE APOSTLESunday 3 May at 19:301997 Directed by Robert Duvall. Starring Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett
Euliss “Sonny” Dewey, is a charismatic, complex, flawed preacher who is passionate about his work and his flock. However, when his wife and her lover wrests control of his church from him, he beats her lover to a pulp and goes on the run. With a new identity, a repentant Sonny makes a new start in another town, where he reaches out to the locals and starts a new, interracial church.
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TENDER MERCIESSunday 10 May at 19:301983 Directed by Bruce Beresford. Starring Robert Duvall, Tess Harper
A washed up country singer finds a new purpose to his life while helping a young widow run her motel and gas station in rural Texas.
Mac Sledge is a down on his luck country singer who wakes up in a Texas hotel with a hangover and no money to pay the bill. When the owner, a young widow, offers him board and lodging in exchange for help around the place, he agrees, knowing this may well be his last chance to get back on his feet. Over the next few months, something springs up between Mac and Rosa Lee. Mac is happy, but all could change when his ex-wife and long-lost daughter re-enter his life.
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SECOND BESTSunday 17 May at 19:301993 Directed by Chris Menges. Starring William Hurt, John Hurt
Graham, 42, is a lonely, repressed man who works as a postmaster in a small English village and takes care of his widowed father, who has had a stroke. Realising that when his father dies he will be utterly alone, Graham decides to adopt a child. He picks James, 10, a troubled boy whose mother committed suicide and whose father is in jail. As they skirt warily around one another during the adoption process, they discover that they have something in common - they only had brief moments of happiness with their own fathers.
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THE DOCTORSunday 24 May at 19:301991 Directed by Randa Haines. Starring William Hurt, Elizabeth Perkins
John MacKee is a renowned heart surgeon. He has money, success and respect from his peers. The only thing lacking is empathy for his patients. He doesn’t even know how to get close to his wife and two sons.
One day, a routine medical examination reveals that he has throat cancer. Suddenly, John is at the receiving end of the medical system, and he doesn’t like it as he's faced with red tape and uncaring doctors - everything he's practised.
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OCTOBER SKYFriday 31 May at 19:301999 Directed by Joe Johnston. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper
October Sky is based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a West Virginia coal miner's son who overcame his father’s objections and the laughter of his classmates to build homemade rockets, win a science fair and go on to become a NASA scientist.