Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events
11.20am, 6pm, Sky Movies 2
(Brad Silberling, 2004)
A half-term entertainment, this, as the three orphaned Baudelaire children struggle for survival against wicked Uncle Olaf (Jim Carrey) in a story gleaned from three of the dozen or so Snicket books. Carrey, the kids, and the likes of Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman are hugely entertaining, but the real star is designer Rick Heinrichs, who brings the novels' weirdly gothic world to extraordinary life.
The Ring 2
8pm, Sky Movies 3
(Hideo Nakata, 2005)
Nakata makes an impressive job of this Hollywood remake of his celebrated Japanese horror story. Picking up six months after the events of Ring, it has the same deadly videotapes, the ominous watery imagery, and Naomi Watts back as Rachel, now trying to save her son Aidan (David Dorfman) from possession by demonic little Samara: the tension builds steadily, without resort to cheap tricks.
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
11.25pm, Film4
(Mira Nair, 1996)
The erotic adventures of Maya (Indira Varma), who makes her way from servant girl to chief courtesan of a young lord's harem in 16th-century India; the long hours spent studying the arts of the Kama Sutra were obviously well spent. Lots of fleshy-sexy exotic imagery, but flimsy in comparison with Nair's astonishing Salaam Bombay!
