There’s not much on offering this weekend on the telly. The best of a pretty bad bunch is ‘The Assassination Of Richard Nixon’ (BBC 2, Sat. 11.50pm). Sean Penn plays a man who just can’t take it anymore. And so, naturally, decides to assassinate the President of the United States. We’ve all been there.
Based on true-life events, Naomi Watts is the estranged wife, whilst Don Cheadle is the best friend who ends up at the wrong end of a crooked business deal. A fittingly dark descent into madness and despair. Just right for a Saturday night . . .
At the moivies, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy The Bear and all the gang prove there’s life in the old, eh, frog yet with ‘The Muppets’ (G/****).
With a script co-written by leading man Jason Segal, and the co-creator of the US TV series ‘Flight Of The Conchords’ James Bobin directing, this is a hipster’s love letter to the much-loved anarchic children’s entertainers. Without ‘The Muppets’, we wouldn’t have ‘The Simpsons’. Or Fianna Fail.
George Lucas continues to exploit the deep lover and even deeper pockets of Star Wars fans with the release of ‘The Phanton Menace’ (PG) in 3D this week.
Meanwhile Daniel Radcliffe moves on from his boy wizard days with the Hammer horror ‘The Woman in Black’ (15A), an eerie Edwardian romp that’s receiving pretty good reviews. And it marks the major league return of England’s Hammer Films.
And Michael Fassbender is Carl Jung and Viggo Mortenson is Sigmund Freud in David Cronenberg’s eggheads-in-a-love-triangle outing ‘A Dangerous Method’ (16), Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski rescue some trapped whales in the true-life ‘Big Miracle’ (PG), Channing Tatum has to convince his memory-loss missus (Rachel McAdams) of his love in ‘The Vow’ (12A) and Woody Harrelson is the bad cop trying to do the right thing in the wonderful ‘Rampart’ (16).
