Movies on TV this weekend

Friday 5/16/08

6:00 p.m. (MAX) “Girl, Interrupted” (1999). Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie. Drawing from Susanna Kaysen‘s memoir, director James Mangold paints a haunting canvas of a late-’60s girls’ mental rehab center and its troubled residents in this subtly shaded gem. Ryder is convincing as a confused upper-class teen, while Jolie seethes to perfection as her relentlessly destructive friend.

8:00 (TCM) “Edge of the City” (1957). John Cassavetes, Sidney Poitier. Leads Cassavetes and Poitier are nothing short of electric as NYC dockworkers who form a cross-ethnic friendship in Martin Ritt‘s gritty, evocatively lensed black-and-white drama, adapted by Robert Alan Aurthur from his teleplay “A Man Is Ten Feet Tall.” One of the greats.

9:00 (HBO) “Blades of Glory” (2007). Will Ferrell, Jon Heder. While it doesn’t quite hit the comic heights of “Talladega Nights,” this entry in the Ferrell sports-farce franchise certainly furnishes its fair share of yuks as our mock-macho hero takes on the pro ice-skating world with the dubious help of unlikely rink partner Heder.

10:00 (TVL) “A Fish Called Wanda” (1988). John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis. Veteran Brit comedy director Charles Crichton crafts an occasionally precious but more often fun farce detailing uptight attorney Cleese’s misadventures with thieves Curtis, Kevin Kline and a stuttering Michael Palin.

Saturday 5/17/08

1:30 p.m. (AMC) “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1967). Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach. Sergio Leone crafts the ultimate spaghetti western (though some might argue on behalf of the same auteur’s “Once Upon a Time in the West”), involving a three-way gold hunt among a laconic Clint, garrulous bandido Wallach and sinister Lee Van Cleef, set to Ennio Morricone‘s rousing score.

2:00 (A&E) “Sphere” (1998). Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone. A mysterious alien holds a top cast, headed by psychologist Hoffman and biochemist Stone, at bay in an inventive, suspenseful sci-fi thriller directed by Barry Levinson from Michael Crichton‘s novel.

8:00 (FLIX) “The Green Mile” (1999). Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan. Charismatic performances by Hanks, as a compassionate prison guard, and Duncan, as a second-sighted Death Row inmate, propel Frank Darabont‘s adaptation of Stephen King‘s exercise in Southern-fried magic realism over some of its sappier stretches.

10:00 (MAX) “You Kill Me” (2007). Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni. While not in the same league as his signature modern noir “The Last Seduction,” director John Dahl‘s literal killer comedy offers its fair share of rewards, including an ace turn by Kingsley as an alcoholic hit man who’s ordered into rehab after a botched assignment.

10:00 (TNT) “Set It Off” (1996). Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah. Though contrived in spots, F. Gary Gray‘s ghetto-set all-femme heist caper compensates with genuine suspense, detailed character development and fine performances, particularly by future Mrs. Will Smith Pinkett as an embittered working woman who sets the dangerous plan in motion.

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