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| Sam Neill in Jurassic Park Photo: Universal Pictures/Getty Images |
With the sad news that Sam Neill has died breaking this morning as I sat down to write this week's column, I couldn't not include one of his films. A dino-obsessed industrialist (Richard Attenborough), who brings the animals back from extinction using DNA and creates a park. After a death, he is forced to draft in a team of experts to certify the island's safety, comprising Neill's paleontologist Dr Alan Grant, paleobotanist Ellie Satler (Laura Dern) and chaos expert Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). Unsurprisingly, the tour of the park does not go as planned. Goldblum may get all the best one-liners but Neill also delivers a fine performance as a curmudgeon with a surprisingly soft centre. I recently rewatched this with a crowd of families in Evia and it proved as captivating as ever for the kids (although very young ones might find it a bit much). All seven movies in the franchise are currently available to watch on Netflix.
Master Gardener, 11.25pm, Great Movies (Freeview channel 62), Monday, July 13
Jennie Kermode writes: For a garden to reach maturity and truly come into its own takes more than one human lifetime. In order to perfect the art of gardening, an individual must be prepared to look beyond their own lifetime, to invest in something bigger than themselves. That awareness underlies ever aspect of Paul Schrader’s story about a former far right agitator (Joel Edgerton) who has submitted himself to cultivation (in more than one way) by Sigourney Weaver’s sharp-eyed, old-moneyed landowner, as he tends her family garden. Their thriving arrangement runs into predictable trouble when she asks him to take on her mixed-race niece as an apprentice, and the slow development of US society also comes under the microscope. A character study, revenge story and examination of troubled masculinity this doesn’t always hang together, but incorporates some impressive work and will intrigue Weaver fans.
Cocaine Bear, 9pm, Film4, Tuesday, July 14
Jennie Kermode writes: The world was already well resourced with oversized-predatory-animal-of-the-week-goes-rogue movies when Elizabeth Banks delivered this little gem, but let's face it, they rarely make their way onto the big screen. When they do, like Snakes On A Plane, they create a cultural sensation. Though there's nothing particularly unusual about it, Cocaine Bear is made with a proper degree of respect for the genre, an understanding of the key dynamic in which the monster is also the real hero, and a more infectious sense of fun than anyone really had a right to expect. The casting helps. Kristofer Hivju is fun as a terrified hiker, very much at odds with the Game Of Thrones character who made him famous, while the film proved a great springboard for young talent Christopher Convery. It's Margo Martindale who steals the show as a sexually frustrated park ranger just having a really bad day. Though the plot meanders a bit, there are some entertaining moments, and a surprising streak of feminism overturns some of the clichés of the genre. Plus, you know, there is a bear on cocaine, and love it or loathe it, that's enough for most folks.
My Old Ass, 11.35pm, BBC1, Friday, July 17
Time travel of a sort lies at the heart of this sunny-side-up coming-of-age film from Megan Park. Elliot (Maisy Stella, making an eye-catching film debut) encounters her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) after a mushroom trip… but finds her single piece of advice to “avoid Chad” is not so easy as it first might appear. A film that explores how a youthful attitude towards life’s challenges and expectations can be every bit as valuable as a more experienced viewpoint, it is shot with the bright breeziness of a summer’s day and features a clutch of laugh-out-loud moments, including a great Justin Bieber fantasy interlude.
Wicked Little Letters, 9pm, Channel 4, Saturday, July 18
I'm including this retelling of a bizarre real-life poison pen letter story because it's having its network premiere this week and, thanks to the central performances from Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, it just about holds up. Edith Swan (Colman) leads a repressed life with her overbearing father. Their neighbour Rose Gooding (Buckley), meanwhile, is a feisty and free-spirited sort never short of an swear word. What begins as a friendship between the two turns sour and things worsen as baroque and expletive-laden letters begin to arrive at Edith's home. Rose is the prime suspect but young policewoman Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) isn't so sure. Director Thea Sharrock and writer Johnny Sweet struggle to balance the more farcical elements of the plot while trying to say something more serious about emotional abuse and women's suffrage. If it's second-class material, however, it is at least given first-class delivery by the cast.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, 9pm, Film4, Saturday, July 18
The penultimate instalment of the spy franchise sees Cruise continuing to look preternaturally fresh as Ethan Hunt. Despite his ability to run like the clappers on cue he brings an increasing world weariness to the role as the baggage of his character has loaded up across the years. Not that any of that gets in the way of great stunts, of course, with the hunt for a dangerous weapon leading to an incredible bike jump (more on which, here) not to mention a fight on a train which feels traditional and fresh simultaneously.
The Little Shop Of Horrors, 3.33am, Wedomovies (Freeview channel 98), Monday, July 19
Though you may be more familiar with this story in thee form of its colourful, musical, Rick Moranis-starring adaptation this black and white earlier version of the tale of a man (Jonathan Haze) and his blood-thirsty plant has charms of its own. Among its selling points is Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest roles as the maniacal dentist who is played in the later version by Steve Martin. More sinister in tone and darker in its treatment of its quasi-Mephistophelean pact themes than its successor, if not quite as polished, Roger Corman's film also stands the test of time.
This week's short selection is documentary Tree Fellers, the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1941 and 1942 left the tropical rain-forests of British Honduras to help Britain fight fascism by felling trees in Scotland. You can read more about director Sana Bilgrami's work on her official site.
