Saturday July 7
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
(Chris Columbus, 2001) 4.50pm, ITV1
What with the Order Of The Phoenix movie and the final Potter volume, Deathly Hallows, on the way, it's high time to gaze backwards through the crystal ball at the original. We've come a long way since this account of young Harry's arrival at Hogwarts and his first encounter with evil Lord Voldemort, but the computer-generated magic is still strong, from the dumbfounding Diagon Alley to a deadly game of chess and the thrilling quidditch match; and with a whole coven of British acting talent to back up the youngsters, it's a spellbinding tale.
The Scalphunters
(Sydney Pollack, 1968) 5.25pm, Five
Pollack's intelligent and entertaining western has a strong 1960s civil rights subtext, Burt Lancaster's trapper and Ossie Davis's runaway slave in a black-and-white partnership on the trail of Telly Savalas and his gang of unscrupulous scalphunters. Lancaster and Davis are a sparky double act.
Blow
(Ted Demme, 2001) 10.15pm, C4
Ted Demme's last film is the real-life story of George Jung, America's biggest drug-runner of the 1970s. His life of crime begins in near-innocence, persuading air hostess girlfriends to smuggle Mexican marijuana into California: but the later partnership with the Medellin cocaine cartel is a much more serious business. Unfortunately the film mirrors the decline, the vivid colours of the first half fading in a monotonous second. Still, it's an absorbing tale, with Johnny Depp convincing as Jung and strong support from Franka Potente, Penélope Cruz, Ray Liotta and Rachel Griffiths.
Fight Club
(David Fincher, 1999) 11.30pm, BBC2
Fincher's ferocious, subversive comedy stars Edward Norton as an insomniac businessman who is led into a whole new way of life by Brad Pitt's angsty soap salesman, Tyler Durden. At their fight club, where ordinary guys batter each other to pulp, they embrace a world of anarchic violence, and the club expands into a nationwide movement.
Mr Majestyk
(Richard Fleischer, 1974) 1.45am, BBC2
Charles Bronson knocked out a dozen or so hard, violent thrillers just like this in the 1970s. Here he's a peaceful watermelon farmer who has to take up his pitchfork against assorted crooks and racketeers. Fleischer handles the action with a sure touch, and there's a smart script from Elmore Leonard.
Sunday July 8
Star!
(Robert Wise, 1968) 12.50pm, BBC2
Wise is reunited with Julie Andrews for another musical epic, but this is nothing like as successful as The Sound Of Music. It's a whopping, three-hour biopic of Gertrude Lawrence, with Andrews never quite convincing as the stage legend. That apart, there are terrific productions of hits from the 1920s and 30s.
Popeye
(Robert Altman, 1980) 2.15pm, Five
Idiosyncratic even by Altman's standards; a musical romance inspired by EC Segar's comic strip. Robin Williams employs all his whirligig talents to put flesh on the cartoon character, who is scouring Sweethaven for his missing father, and deeply in love with Shelley Duvall's Olive Oyl. Bizarre and curiously watchable.
Driven
(Renny Harlin, 2001) 8pm, Five
Can young American Lewis Hamilton-alike Kip Pardue see off Teutonic automaton Til Schweiger and become world racing champ? Well, with mentor Sylvester Stallone behind him he can. Since Sly also wrote the script, it's pretty much Rocky on wheels: a formulaic motorsport movie featuring an exhausting series of races and some sentimental meanderings; not too many, though, because this is a fast, loud and furious feelgood movie brimming with brrrmm-brrrmm.
Cabin Fever
(Eli Roth, 2002) 10pm, C4
Five college pals on a relaxing holiday in a cabin up on the remote snowy mountain. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, with Eli Roth, creator of the horrid Hostel movies, in charge. A man staggers out of the woods with something nasty in his system, and soon the youngsters are plagued by a spectacularly gruesome flesh-eating virus: it makes people bleed, copiously, from everywhere. An awkward mix of comedy, horror and grindingly obvious social comment, it nevertheless has a certain cranky appeal.
Bronco Billy
(Clint Eastwood, 1980) 11.45pm, BBC2
One of those quirky, accomplished Eastwood projects that's therapy for his avenging-angel westerner and heavy-cop personas. Here he's a New Jersey shoe salesman who realises a dream to ride off with a wild west circus, to be a real Rowdy Yates. Clint's ex, Sondra Locke, plays a New York heiress tagging along in this easy-going, satirical comedy.
Urban Legend
(Jamie Blanks, 1998) 11.45pm, C4
One of many teenie-slashers cashing in on the success of Wes Craven's far superior Scream. This has college chums getting gorily sliced up, one by one, in the manner of various urban legends; in among the shrieking youngsters are Brad Dourif and a cameo from Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund.
The Spiral Staircase
(Robert Siodmak, 1945) 1.35am, BBC2
A vintage, gothic thriller set in turn-of-the-century New England, where a manic, voyeuristic murderer obsessed with the body beautiful is knocking off physically challenged women. Dorothy McGuire is the mute heroine menaced in a shadowy old house, where no one would hear her scream even if she could: Siodmak was a master of gloom, and could have taught Blanks a thing or two.
Agnes Browne
(Anjelica Huston, 1999) 2.15am, ITV1
Anjelica Huston directs herself in the title role, as a woman for whom the word indomitable was invented: in 1960s Dublin, her Agnes struggles to bring up seven children alone after the death of her husband, and to see off loan shark Ray Winstone; luckily she has best friend Marion O'Dwyer for support, but will she live her dream of seeing Tom Jones in concert?
Monday July 9
School For Scoundrels
(Robert Hamer, 1960) 1.45pm, C4
Delicious vintage comedy from the director of Kind Hearts And Coronets. It stars the terminally naive Ian Carmichael as a much too decent chap who joins Alastair Sim's College of Lifemanship to learn how to turn the tables on his oppressors: John Le Mesurier the snooty waiter, Dennis Price and Peter Jones the secondhand car swindlers, and worst of all, tennis cheat Terry-Thomas.
Escape From New York
(John Carpenter, 1981) 11pm, ITV1
Kurt Russell dons eyepatch to play sneering con Snake Plissken, recruited by hard cop Lee Van Cleef to rescue hijacked US President Donald Pleasence from the hellhole that is near-future Manhattan; and by way of encouragement Snake has a timebomb planted in his head. Hefty, big-budget mayhem.
Porky's
(Bob Clark, 1982) 11pm, Five
Scabrous comedy set in 1950s Florida, where a bunch of sex-mad high school lads fall foul of redneck brothel owner Porky (Chuck Mitchell) and take lurid, slapstick revenge. This grossly humorous tale was made long before the birth of PC, and it shows. Also, look out for a young Kim Cattrall.
The Sting
(George Roy Hill, 1973) 11.35pm, BBC1
Lavish, lighthearted comedy caper that reunites the director with "Butch" Newman and "Sundance" Redford. This time the lovable rogues are conmen in 1930s Chicago, executing one last, glorious sting on vicious racketeer Robert Shaw. Scott Joplin's ragtime piano tickles up the jolly period feel and the whole thing is performed as professionally as the sting itself.
Saltwater
(Conor McPherson, 2000) 12.15am, BBC2
Working in Dad's chippy on the Irish seaside just isn't fulfilling for Peter McDonald's Frank: add in the fact that dad (Brian Cox) is deep in debt to loan shark Brendan Gleeson, while Frank's brother (Laurence Kinlan) can't figure out his messy love life, and you have the makings of an engaging, funny, slightly leftfield comic drama.
Tuesday July 10
Open Range
(Kevin Costner, 2003) 10.35pm, BBC1
It's an unfashionable genre these days, but Costner's handsomely staged, intelligent western has much to recommend it. Costner's Charley Waite, haunted by his civil war past, and Robert Duvall's paternal Boss Spearman are itinerant cowboys who ride into confrontation with Michael Gambon's bullying rancher Baxter and his men, and sure as High Noon there's a (superbly staged) showdown on the way.
Wednesday July 11
Collateral Damage
(Andrew Davis, 2002) 9pm, Five
Predictable revenge thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a firefighter aiming to extinguish the Colombian terrorists who blew up his wife and child in an attack on an embassy building. There's a half-decent cast that includes Elias Koteas, John Leguizamo and John Turturro, while director Davis is a dab-hand with the action.
Hideous Kinky
(Gillies MacKinnon, 1998) 11.40pm, BBC1
MacKinnon's screen version of Esther Freud's semi-autobiography stars Kate Winslet, fresh from the success of Titanic, as hippy-dippy, early-70s Julia, who gives up humdrum London and heads for Morocco with her two young daughters. An absorbing, emotionally honest drama.
Thursday July 12
Mr Jealousy
(Noah Baumbach, 1997) 11.50pm, BBC1
Eric Stoltz is the jealous guy of the title: he falls for Annabella Sciorra, but soon his wide eyes turn to green eyes as he obsesses over her ex. A ho-hum romcom, set smartly in New York, with the best jokes aimed at group therapy sessions.
The Invisible Circus
(Adam Brooks, 2001) 3.50am, C4
Pretty but limp drama in which Jordana Brewster's Phoebe tries to unravel the mystery of her sister Faith's (Cameron Diaz) suicide. She follows Faith's hippy 1960s quest through Amsterdam and Paris to the Portuguese coast and takes up, hesitantly, with sis's ex Christopher Eccleston.
Friday July 13
Kevin And Perry Go Large
(Ed Bye, 2000) 11.35pm, BBC1
Harry Enfield's terminally-teenaged comic creations jet off to Ibiza to try to find fame and get off with loads of girls. Kevin and Perry are played with almost endearing drooling idiocy by Enfield and the brilliant Kathy Burke, and Rhys Ifans is suitably revolting as DJ Eyeball Paul: if you love them on the box, you'll adore this.
