Web site TV for Jan 23–Jan 29, 2011

TV film fare -- week of Jan. 23 

The following are capsule reviews of theatrical movies on network and cable television the week of Jan. 23. Please note that televised versions may or may not be edited for language, nudity, violence and sexual situations.

Sunday, Jan. 23, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST (AMC) "The Princess Bride" (1987). Affectionate, lighthearted parody of medieval romance as a young beauty (Robin Wright) is saved from a forced marriage to a nasty prince (Chris Sarandon) by a farm boy turned pirate (Cary Elwes). Directed by Rob Reiner from William Goldman's script, the comic proceedings are marked with verbal wit and some silly turns by Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn and Billy Crystal. Some comic-book violence. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Sunday, Jan. 23, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. EST (A&E) "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). Director John Hughes turns in a lighthearted spoof about a teenager (Matthew Broderick) who has made a science out of truancy because he likes to take a break now and then to observe the world around him. The cheerfully implausible plot serves as the catalyst in changing the attitudes of his sister and best friend. Some vulgar language. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Monday, Jan. 24, 1-4 p.m. EST (TCM) "The Cardinal" (1963). Sprawling melodrama from Henry Morton Robinson's novel about the ecclesiastical rise of an Irish-American priest (Tom Tryon) from 1917 Boston to a 1924 post in the Vatican, who then becomes a bishop after tangling with the Ku Klux Klan in 1934 Georgia and is made a cardinal after tangling with the Nazis in 1938 Austria. Directed by Otto Preminger, the movie makes good use of the religious backgrounds and clerical roles (dying pastor Burgess Meredith, Boston cardinal John Huston and Vatican prelate Raf Vallone), but the central figure is pure cardboard and his moral crises unconvincing. Stylized violence, racial epithets and such moral issues as saving the life of the infant rather than the mother in a troubled childbirth and the temptation to leave the priesthood for the love of a woman. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 4-6 a.m. EST (TCM) "Wise Blood" (1980). Screen version of Flannery O'Connor's novel about a God-haunted young man (Brad Dourif) who on his way to Taulkinham, Tenn., to preach a new religion, meets such bizarre characters as a failed preacher pretending he is blind (Harry Dean Stanton), his mildly depraved daughter (Amy Wright) and a jovial evangelist (Ned Beatty). Director John Huston has made a powerful and provocative movie whose spiritual implications are as compelling as its artistic excellence. The incidental violence and moral complexity are more appropriate for adult viewers. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Saturday, Jan. 29, 5:30-8 p.m. EST (TCM) "Little Big Man" (1970). Dustin Hoffman as the sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand relives the story of his life and times on the frontier. Although not tightly conceived or executed, director Arthur Penn's large canvas provides a major overview of the Old West and its conflicts between Indians and pioneers. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Saturday, Jan. 29, 8-10:30 p.m. EST (AMC) "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972). Robert Redford stars in the story of a 19th-century mountain man from his arrival in the Rockies through his years as a self-sufficient trapper, then as family man and, finally, a Crow Indian fighter of legendary proportions. Director Sydney Pollack's story offers the awesome natural spectacle of the mountain locales, the swift frontier action, intense cultural conflict and colorful characters rendered without the burdens of sentimentality and contrivance. Stylized violence. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Saturday, Jan. 29, 10 p.m.-12:20 a.m. EST (Cinemax) "The Lovely Bones" (2009). Narrating from beyond the grave, a 14-year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan) recounts her murder at the hands of a psychopath (a squirm-provoking Stanley Tucci) and the effects of the crime on her devastated parents (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz), her boozy but sensible grandmother (Susan Sarandon) and her sensitive younger sister (Rose McIver), who eventually joins the obsessive dad in a determined hunt for redress. Director and co-writer Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-selling 2002 novel features a visually rich, though theologically vague vision of "the In-Between," a picturesque purgatory in which the youthful heroine is trapped as she works through her rage and desire for revenge. But the attempt to blend genres with a story that mixes elements of suspense, emotion-driven drama and a morality tale about the limits of human justice and the dangers of fixation eventually becomes scattershot. Themes of perversion and crime, gory images, scenes of harsh violence, brief nongraphic marital lovemaking, at least one use of profanity and of the F-word, a few crude and crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

 

 

TV program notes -- week of Jan. 23 

Here are some television program notes for the week of Jan. 23 with their TV Parental Guidelines ratings if available. They have not been reviewed and therefore are not necessarily recommended by Catholic News Service.

Sunday, Jan. 23, 6:30-9 p.m. EST (EWTN) "Solemn Vigil Mass for Life (Live)." From Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Mass on the eve of the March for Life. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston is scheduled to preside as celebrant and homilist.
Sunday, Jan. 23, 8-9 p.m. EST (PBS) "Birds of the Gods." On this episode of the series "Nature," David Attenborough introduces a young team of New Guinean scientists on a grueling expedition to find and film the exotically beautiful species better known as birds of paradise (TV-PG -- parental guidance suggested).

Monday, Jan. 24, 7:30-9 a.m. EST (EWTN) "Solemn Mass for Life." Eucharistic liturgy preparing for the March for Life celebrated by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Monday, Jan. 24, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. EST (EWTN) "March for Life." Live and complete coverage of the 2011 March for Life in Washington. This prayerful event starts with the rally for life and leads to the march up Constitution Avenue. Features will include interviews, panel discussions and speeches from pro-life activists around the country.

Monday, Jan. 24, 9-10:30 p.m. EST (PBS) "Panama Canal." Using archival photographs and footage, interviews with canal workers and firsthand accounts of life in the former Canal Zone, this episode of the series "American Experience" recounts the story of one of the world's most significant technological achievements (TV-PG -- parental guidance suggested).

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 5-6:30 p.m. EST (EWTN) "Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul: Celebration of Vespers (Live)." Pope Benedict XVI presides over this vespers service celebrating the feast of the conversion of St Paul the Apostle, broadcast from Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Tuesday, Jan. 25, 8-9 p.m. EST (PBS) "Westerns." TV Western pioneers, including Fess Parker (Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett), James Garner, Linda Evans, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Conrad and James Arness discuss the origins of this once-ubiquitous small-screen genre. Kelsey Grammer narrates. Part of the series "Pioneers of Television" (TV-G -- general audience).