Which movies are worth watching?
Created | Updated Dec 6, 2003
I've been having something of a running arguement about which movie channels are worth watching. Is there any value to having Sky telly, or digital? Or do the terrestrial channels provide as much good movie entertainment as one needs?
Personally i think the quality of films on tv has gone right down the pan over the last fifteen years - since the advent of daytime tv in fact. And i think that the Murdoch movie channels pitch their fare so very low, that they drag down the quality threshold of all the other channels too.
So in the pursuit of this arguement, a friend and i went through the weeks tv listings to see which channel offered the best fare (this being a particularly good weekend for tv). And this is what wee came up with.
Saturday 6th
Thelma and Louise 1.45 Film Four
Meet John Doe 7.00 Sky Cinema 2
Meet John Doe 3.00 Sky Cinema 2
This Sporting Life 8.00 Sky Cinema 1
Panic Room 8.00 Sky Movies 2
Bowling for Columbine 9.00 Channel 4 **
Bowling for Columbine 10.00 S4C **
In the Mood for Love 11.25 Channel 4 **
Sunday 7th
Read My Lips 0.00 Film Four
Thelma and Louise 0.20 S4C
Smiles on a Summer Night 4.00 Film Four
Some Like it Hot 6.00 Film Four **
Hear My Song 8.00 Film Four
This Sporting Life 9.00 Sky Cinema 2
Betty Blue 10.15 Sky Cinema 1
The Big Sleep 11.25 TCM
Monday 8th
Come and See 12.20 Film Four **
Stalker 2.30 Film Four **
Burnt By the Sun 5.30 S4C **
The Gay Divorcee 10.45 Sky Cinema 1
The Gay Divorcee 4.00 Sky Cinema 1
Life is Beautiful 6.00 Film Four
Holy Smoke 10.00 Film Four
Betty Blue 11.15 Sky Cinema 2
A great weekend of movies: Some of the Best films ever made are in that list, and all of those listed are well worth watching. Anyone wanting to use the summer to catch up on some quality films should try watching a few of these pictures. The argument - well over the week about a quarter of the best movies are on terrestrial tv, over half are on Film Four and TCM, and about a quarter are on the Murdoch channels, of whose output about 1% is worth watching. My argument that sky is the ememy of cinema is not exactly proven by this, but it's a pretty damning set of statistics.
Personally i think the quality of films on tv has gone right down the pan over the last fifteen years - since the advent of daytime tv in fact. And i think that the Murdoch movie channels pitch their fare so very low, that they drag down the quality threshold of all the other channels too.
So in the pursuit of this arguement, a friend and i went through the weeks tv listings to see which channel offered the best fare (this being a particularly good weekend for tv). And this is what wee came up with.
Saturday 6th
Thelma and Louise 1.45 Film Four
Meet John Doe 7.00 Sky Cinema 2
Meet John Doe 3.00 Sky Cinema 2
This Sporting Life 8.00 Sky Cinema 1
Panic Room 8.00 Sky Movies 2
Bowling for Columbine 9.00 Channel 4 **
Bowling for Columbine 10.00 S4C **
In the Mood for Love 11.25 Channel 4 **
Sunday 7th
Read My Lips 0.00 Film Four
Thelma and Louise 0.20 S4C
Smiles on a Summer Night 4.00 Film Four
Some Like it Hot 6.00 Film Four **
Hear My Song 8.00 Film Four
This Sporting Life 9.00 Sky Cinema 2
Betty Blue 10.15 Sky Cinema 1
The Big Sleep 11.25 TCM
Monday 8th
Come and See 12.20 Film Four **
Stalker 2.30 Film Four **
Burnt By the Sun 5.30 S4C **
The Gay Divorcee 10.45 Sky Cinema 1
The Gay Divorcee 4.00 Sky Cinema 1
Life is Beautiful 6.00 Film Four
Holy Smoke 10.00 Film Four
Betty Blue 11.15 Sky Cinema 2
A great weekend of movies: Some of the Best films ever made are in that list, and all of those listed are well worth watching. Anyone wanting to use the summer to catch up on some quality films should try watching a few of these pictures. The argument - well over the week about a quarter of the best movies are on terrestrial tv, over half are on Film Four and TCM, and about a quarter are on the Murdoch channels, of whose output about 1% is worth watching. My argument that sky is the ememy of cinema is not exactly proven by this, but it's a pretty damning set of statistics.
