Television

SATURDAY Freeview & films

SATURDAY 4 MAY

FILM REVIEWS

FILM OF THE DAY

Old ★★★ 9.00-11.10pm C4 15

SUPERNATURAL This surreal tale from M Night Shyamalan ranks as one of the film-maker’s more eccentric offerings. While on holiday, parents Vicky Krieps and Gael García Bernal take their children to a remote beach. Soon, they and the assorted strangers they’re with realise that no one can leave — and, even more terrifyingly, everyone is rapidly ageing. Many will find the premise hard to swallow, but for those on Shyamalan’s wavelength the film’s heightened tone, delivered with sincerity by a cast that includes Rufus Sewell and Thomasin McKenzie, should prove both fun and oddly moving.

+Mr Popper’s m Penguins ★★★

12.05-1.55pm C4 PG

COMEDY High jinks in a New York high-rise ensue when a hard-nosed real-estate man (Jim Carrey) inherits half a dozen penguins from his explorer father. Director Mark Waters (Mean Girls) keeps up a lively pace throughout, with the adorable penguins at the heart of the action.

Henry V ★★★★

1.15-3.30pm BBC2 (not in N Ireland) PG

DRAMA Kenneth Branagh made his directorial debut with this take on the Bard’s play, following in the footsteps of Laurence Olivier some 45 years earlier. But where Olivier favoured booming patriotism, Branagh focuses on the futility of war, contrasting the finery of the court with the grime of the battlefield. He also picked up an Oscar nomination for his turn as the king.

Star Trek VI: the m Undiscovered Country ★★★★

4.15-6.30pm 5 Action PG

SCI-FI Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer returned to the franchise for this equally memorable instalment. The story sees Kirk (William Shatner) and the Enterprise crew encounter treachery during prospective peace negotiations with the Klingons. Showing in a Trek double bill, preceded by The Final Frontier.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes ★★★★

10.10-11.55pm ITV1 12

SCI-FI This reboot of the Apes franchise stars James Franco as a scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, who imbues a chimpanzee with heightened intelligence. The film is sometimes let down by hammy human acting, but Andy Serkis gives a great mo-cap performance as super-smart chimp Caesar. Second sequel War for the Planet of the Apes is showing on Wednesday Film4 — see review, p87.

The Last of the Mohicans ★★★★

11.10pm-1.15am C4 12

ADVENTURE Michael Mann’s adaptation of the classic tale casts Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, a frontiersman raised by Mohicans, who gets caught between two cultures when he