Films on TV this Christmas

Being angry is hardly a good start, but of the films premiering this year, there is hardly anything that I have not already seen.  Probably it's just as well, since with a houseful of company, my viewing hours will be numbered anyhow, although it would be nice to be able to look forward to something that I really, really want to see when the debris clears.  So my recommendations are for less obsessive viewers and I shall concentrate on the premiere showings, although an unfortunate number of these are not worth your time and chances are that you have already seen the better ones at the cinema or on DVD.

Starting with terrestrial TV, my picks would be "Calendar Girls" (BBC on the 24th), "Monsters Inc." (BBC on the 25th), "Pirates of the Caribbean" (BBC on the 26th), the devastating Brazilian movie "City of God" (Channel 4 on the 27th), the best of the lot: "Spirited Away" (BBC2 on the 30th), and the clever "Adaptation" (Channel 5 on the 31st).  Also-ran choices would include "Holes" (BBC on the 28th) -- an offbeat children's tale, "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (BBC on the 29th) -- worth seeing for the Dench/Hoskins interplay, and if you would like to see what all the fuss is about "High School Musical" (BBC on the 29th).  If you're looking for older films that haven't been shown umpteen times in  recent years, you will look in vain, although it is worth noting that the B-series of Falcon movies can be found on BBC2 in the late, late hours daily.

The choice on satellite is even more limited, since Sky seem to think that all their new customers will be happy with the same selection they have been showing all year and that they can be fobbed off with limited premieres.  The best of these are "The Chronicles of Narnia" on Christmas Day, "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" on New Years Eve, and the Peter Jackson "King Kong" on New Year's Day.   The best things in the Sky schedules can in fact be found on Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 this coming weekend (16-18 Dec.) when they are showing a selection of Harold Lloyd shorts and features, all worth seeking out.  Further afield, keep on eye on the Discovery Channel which has scheduled a number of showings for the recently-released Herzog documentary "Grizzly Man".  You are better served finding classic movies on satellite if you check out the schedules on Sky Cinema, TCM, and to a lesser extent FilmFour.  The best Christmas classic showing is the original "Miracle on 34th Street" (Sky Cinema on the 24th) and worth 90 minutes of anyone's time to put you in the Christmas mood.

For once the schedules are light on compilation programmes this year; last year we were inundated with them.  But one of the few things I am looking forward to is the AFI's "100 Years, 100 Cheers" on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve.

Have a merry one everybody and if you would like my opinion on anything else that is showing (film-wise that is), please feel free to e-mail me.