Sky UK TV Guide

05:15 Fletch
Film Chevy Chase, one of the original Saturday Night Live team and the embodiment of laid-back Los Angeles 1980s humour, stars here in the first of two outings as the investigative reporter with a sideline in disguises and witty repartee. Uprooted from Malibu beach (where he is disguised as a beach bum) by a millionaire who orders his own murder, Chase stumbles and bumbles through a corkscrew plot that fits his comic frame like a bespoke suit. Sleek, glossy and often very funny indeed, it also features Joe Don Baker, M Emmet Walsh and Geena Davis. The inventive script is by Andrew Bergman, who cut his teeth as a co-writer on Blazing Saddles and went on to direct The Freshman and Honeymoon in Vegas.

07:00 Footloose
Film This is essentially a souped up Elvis Presley-style musical with a daft plot to match, as free-spirited teenager Kevin Bacon fights small-minded minister John Lithgow in a small town where rock 'n' roll and dancing are illegal. Bacon, Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker perform wonders with a story that hits the drivel button and becomes overly sentimental far too frequently. While Kenny Loggins may not be the first composer you'd think of to write songs for a rock musical, his tunes aren't half bad (the title track got to number six in the UK charts), and the energy raised during the finger-snapping dance numbers is surprisingly infectious.

09:00 So I Married an Axe Murderer
Film This hit-and-miss comedy was Mike Myers's first stab at flying solo from his Wayne's World partner Dana Carvey. He plays an aspiring poet who always manages to talk himself out of long-term relationships with women. All that seems to change when he falls madly in love with Nancy Travis, until evidence starts mounting that she may be a black widow who has left a trail of dead husbands in her wake. There are some nicely black comic moments, but Myers tries too hard and mugs shamelessly to the camera. The best performances come from supporting players Amanda Plummer, Brenda Fricker and, most notably, Anthony LaPaglia as his best friend. Ultimately, though, it fails to live up to the promise of the title.

10:40 Modern Greats and Classics Close Up
Interests All the news and celebrity interviews from the best new films coming to Sky Movies Classics and Sky Movies Modern Greats, as well as a guide to recent and upcoming cinema releases in the UK and US.

11:10 Paper Moon
Film The wandering star of Peter Bogdanovich's directorial talent brilliantly lights up this cynical charmer of a story - set during the Depression - about a Bible-toting conman (Ryan O'Neal) forming a bizarre partnership with a brattish nine-year-old (real-life daughter Tatum O'Neal) who may or may not be his child. Laszlo Kovacs's outstanding monochromatic photography lends an affectionate sheen to their journey through the Kansas dust bowl in which the girl gradually becomes mother to the man. With this, Targets, and The Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich looked set to be one of Hollywood's finest but, sadly, he hasn't quite managed to repeat the excellence of these three movies.

13:00 As Good as It Gets
Film Ostensibly, this romantic comedy drama from director James L Brooks is about Jack Nicholson. He plays Melvin Udall, a homophobic bigot who insults everyone, lives alone, writes trashy novels for a living and has obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, the movie is really about Helen Hunt, who plays that corniest of Hollywood characters - the lonely, frustrated waitress with a problem child. Yet Hunt, who was offered the role when Holly Hunter turned it down and, like Nicholson, won an Oscar for her pains, breathes life into the part, outshining her co-star and his trademark grouchy act. The picture, though, is a mixed blessing, shot on oddly retro studio sets and featuring Greg Kinnear in the clichéd role of a tormented homosexual artist with a pet dog. It's lazily directed and far too long, but Hunt is a revelation and the reason to stick with it.

15:20 The General
Film Brendan Gleeson gives a towering performance here as Martin Cahill, the man dubbed "Dublin's favourite gangster" and known by Ireland's criminal fraternity as "the General". Director John Boorman's biopic looks back at Cahill's childhood and the events that led up to his murder in 1994, and shows him to be a ruthless criminal - nailing an alleged traitor's hands to a snooker table, for example - who, nevertheless, courted popular acclaim. Living on a grim Dublin estate with his beloved wife (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and her equally beloved sister (Angeline Ball) - with whom he had an affair - Cahill managed to keep one step ahead of police inspector Ned Kenny (Jon Voight) while raiding post offices and stealing priceless paintings. His downfall was to sell his art haul to the Ulster Volunteer Force, thus incurring the wrath of the Provos. Boorman's film is a brilliant example of storytelling and his excellent cast rises to the occasion, with Gleeson on career-best form as the fascinating yet flawed folk hero.

17:30 Modern Greats and Classics Close Up
Interests All the news and celebrity interviews from the best new films coming to Sky Movies Classics and Sky Movies Modern Greats, as well as a guide to recent and upcoming cinema releases in the UK and US.

18:00 Footloose
Film This is essentially a souped up Elvis Presley-style musical with a daft plot to match, as free-spirited teenager Kevin Bacon fights small-minded minister John Lithgow in a small town where rock 'n' roll and dancing are illegal. Bacon, Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker perform wonders with a story that hits the drivel button and becomes overly sentimental far too frequently. While Kenny Loggins may not be the first composer you'd think of to write songs for a rock musical, his tunes aren't half bad (the title track got to number six in the UK charts), and the energy raised during the finger-snapping dance numbers is surprisingly infectious.

20:00 As Good as It Gets
Film Ostensibly, this romantic comedy drama from director James L Brooks is about Jack Nicholson. He plays Melvin Udall, a homophobic bigot who insults everyone, lives alone, writes trashy novels for a living and has obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, the movie is really about Helen Hunt, who plays that corniest of Hollywood characters - the lonely, frustrated waitress with a problem child. Yet Hunt, who was offered the role when Holly Hunter turned it down and, like Nicholson, won an Oscar for her pains, breathes life into the part, outshining her co-star and his trademark grouchy act. The picture, though, is a mixed blessing, shot on oddly retro studio sets and featuring Greg Kinnear in the clichéd role of a tormented homosexual artist with a pet dog. It's lazily directed and far too long, but Hunt is a revelation and the reason to stick with it.

22:25 Scarface
Film This scorching update of Howard Hawks's 1932 classic by director Brian De Palma relocates events to Miami and follows the rapid rise and violent fall of a Cuban refugee turned cocaine-smuggling kingpin. Al Pacino produces one of his finest scenery-chewing performances as the ruthless criminal pursuing the American dream, and he gets top support from Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife, Steven Bauer as his partner in crime and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as his sister. The accurate, if four-letter-word heavy, dialogue and sharp wit in Oliver Stone's script and the vivid cinematography of John A Alonzo help make De Palma's urban shocker a modern-day classic and one of the best movies ever made about the subject. However, some may find its excess in all areas - especially the final massacre that outdoes The Wild Bunch - more off-putting than entertaining.