Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger star in a scene from the movie "Escape Plan." The Catholic News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. (OSV News photo/Summit)
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NEW YORK (OSV News) -- The following are capsule reviews of theatrical movies on network and cable television the week of Aug. 27. Please note that televised versions may or may not be edited for language, nudity, violence, and sexual situations.
Sunday, Aug. 27, 8-10 p.m. EDT (TCM) "To Have and Have Not" (1944). Lively adventure from Ernest Hemingway's novel set in the Caribbean where the American captain (Humphrey Bogart) of a charter fishing boat throws in with the Free French resistance after being pushed around by Vichy agents in 1940 Martinique, while managing to find romance along the way with a slim adventuress (Lauren Bacall). Directed by Howard Hawks from a script by Jules Furthman and William Faulkner, the melodramatic action is secondary to the romantic subplot and interesting cast of stereotypes, notably Walter Brennan's drink-addled seaman and his recurring question: "Was you ever bit by a dead bee?" Stylized violence and sexual innuendo. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association. (Part of a 24-hour marathon of films featuring Bogart, beginning with "San Quentin" (1937) 6-7:30 a.m. EDT, and concluding with "Chain Lightning" (1950) Monday, Aug. 28, 4-6 a.m. EDT)
Thursday, Aug. 31, 7:25-9 p.m. EDT (Showtime) "I.Q." (1994). Pleasant romantic comedy in which an aging Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau) and his Princeton colleagues conspire to encourage romance between his scholarly niece (Meg Ryan) and an amiable auto mechanic (Tim Robbins) by passing him off as a brilliant, self-taught physicist. Director Fred Schepisi's sweet but featherweight concoction floats along on the cuteness factor of cuddly old men hovering over an appealing young couple until the young woman realizes that academic degrees aren't a prerequisite to true love. Occasional double entendres. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
Saturday, Sept. 2, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT (AMC) "Escape Plan" (2013). More intelligent than many of its genre peers, this actioner pairing Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger also is too harsh for all but the hardiest viewers. Stallone plays an expert on prison security who poses as an inmate to test each institution he investigates. He gets more than he bargained for, however, when he goes undercover in a privately run maximum-security jail with a cruel warden (Jim Caviezel) who knows his real identity but refuses to treat him as anything other than an ordinary convict. Joining forces with Schwarzenegger's character, the slammer's top dog, he searches for flaws in the system that could help them both fly the coop. Working from a script by Miles Chapman and Arnell Jesko, director Mikael Hafstrom uses the Sherlock Holmes-like observational skills of Stallone's persona to good effect, and implicitly raises real-life issues about the treatment of captured terrorists and other criminals. But brutality abounds in the movie's main setting; inmates brawl among themselves, masked guards beat their charges with gusto, and the two main characters stage fights as part of their escape plan. So the basic question remains how much pleasure or edification moviegoers will derive from watching the former governor of California head-butt Rocky. Constant violence, much of it gory, an implied nonmarital situation, a revenge theme, much rough and crude language, a coarse joke, a couple of obscene gestures. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating was R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Saturday, Sept. 2, noon-2 p.m. EDT (TCM) "Born to Dance" (1936). Bouncy musical comedy in which a sailor (James Stewart) on shore leave in New York falls for the understudy (Eleanor Powell) of a Broadway star (Virginia Bruce) while his buddies (Sid Silvers and Buddy Ebsen) seek their own heartthrobs (Una Merkel and Frances Langford). Directed by Roy Del Ruth, the comic situations are good but, despite Stewart's thin voice, the Cole Porter songs are better and Powell's dance routines are sure-fire show-stoppers. Romantic complications. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was A-I -- general patronage. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association.- - - John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on Twitter @JohnMulderig1.