BEST BETS FOR SATURDAY, AUG. 21, 2010
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NBC, 8 p.m ET Bad news for the town “residents”: Tonight they’re restricted not just to the town, but to the hotel, which becomes their new prison inside their prison. Worse news: There’s a new hotel manager in town – and no word about what happened to the old one. |
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E!, 8 p.m. ET Five years ago, Keira Knightley starred in this lovely adaptation of the Jane Austen classic, and displayed how effortlessly she could carry a period piece. Matthew Macfadyen co-stars, as the infamously romantic Mr. Darcy. |
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HBO, 8 p.m. ET Mat Damon stars in this 2009 Steven Soderbergh film, playing an FBI informant who begins to enjoy his undercover status a bit too much. Watch closely for the many cameo appearances by familiar comics in small supporting roles – they include Dick Smothers, as a judge. And, elsewhere, his brother, Tommy. Hi, guys! |
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TCM, 8 p.m. ET Brilliant, brilliant movie. David S. Ward wrote a script, and George Roy Hill directed a film, that is deliriously multi-layered, clever and buoyant. Robert Redford and Paul Newman, in their second screen teaming, play con men in 1930s Chicago, targeting a gruff mob boss (played marvelously by Robert Shaw, two years before playing Quint in Jaws). Everything about this 1973 movie, including the use of music by Scott Joplin, is absolutely perfect. |
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Cinemax, 10 p.m. ET I didn’t see this 2009 movie in theaters, but I’ll watch now. Ellen Page stars as a young woman drawn to the unusual world of female roller derby competitions. This is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, who also co-stars. And the title, by the way, refers to a whipsaw roller derby move, not to a Devo song or any sadistic subtext. |
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TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET What we have here, besides a failure to communicate, is another perfect Paul Newman movie. Made in 1967, when rebellion was in the air, Newman put it all down on film, playing a convict with a conviction for nonconformity, no matter how much he was punished for it. |
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