Sky UK TV Guide

12:00 Max Rules: Adventures of a Superspy
Film Family comedy. Three kids who spy on their families, sneak into each other's houses and organise elaborate pranks are shocked to discover they are part of a real spy adventure.

13:30 35mm
Interests An indispensable guide to what's happening in the world of film, including new films coming to Sky Movies and a look at big-screen releases from the UK and US.

14:00 Outlaw Trail: the Treasure of Butch Cassidy
Film Family wild-west adventure as a young boy researching his ancestry uncovers his family's link to infamous outlaw Butch Cassidy, and stumbles upon a map indicating a cache of his notorious relative's hidden treasure.

15:50 Batman and Robin
Film With the Batman franchise looking decidedly tired, Caped Crusader Mark 3 was introduced in the shape of George Clooney, who was at the height of his ER popularity, in an attempt to pep up the flagging formula. The rugged former TV medic doesn't disgrace himself in this wild special-effects extravaganza that is as close to a cartoon adventure as director Joel Schumacher could get. There's a decidedly two-dimensional Arnold Schwarzenegger as a heavily accented Mr Freeze, while Uma Thurman gave birth to a million copycat hairstyles as villainess Poison Ivy. Schumacher piles on the action, but this is still the least satisfying entry in the series.

18:00 The Last Mimzy
Film With its willingness to deal with big issues in a non-patronising manner, this is probably the most intelligent movie for kids since ET. Ten-year-old Noah (Chris O'Neil) and his five-year-old sister Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) discover a strange box of tricks washed up on the beach while on holiday. After they unpack the mysterious contents the children begin to develop amazing new abilities, but their parents (Joely Richardson and Timothy Hutton) are too preoccupied with their own lives to pay much attention. It turns out the weird and wonderful gizmos, including a toy rabbit called Mimzy, come from the future and constitute a kind of distress call for humanity. But will the kids be able to deal with the huge task that has befallen them? The special effects are decent, the story is highly involving, and the slightly new-age message is refreshing. However, its the superb performances of the two young leads that really steal the film.

20:00 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Film For those unfamiliar with Borat, he is a leading Kazakhstani journalist who, for this project, travels America learning about its culture. He is also a complete fabrication, the work of Ali G creator Sacha Baron Cohen. Thus his scatologically uproarious investigation includes a scene in which he attends a posh dinner party and returns from the bathroom with his excrement in a plastic bag and presents it to the hostess. He also destroys a Civil War memorabilia shop and lets loose a chicken on the New York subway. A minor niggle is that close examination shows that at least a handful of the sequences might have been set up to some degree. And in cinematic terms it is absolutely nothing special: there's no real reason for it to be a movie at all - its natural home may well be on DVD. But as an example of a comedian willing to take absurd risks for his art, this film - one of the funniest of 2006 - will probably never be surpassed.

21:30 Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Film This is one of those movies where the cast let you know that they had a whale of a time making the film; the trouble is that they pretty much leave the audience out of the fun. Will Ferrell, here looking for a big hit following the underwhelming box-office performances of Bewitched and The Producers, stars as the eponymous Nascar champion who is forced to take on his nemesis, gay French driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen). Director Adam McKay (Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy) and Ferrell apparently improvised a great deal of the screenplay and the result is sloppy and self-indulgent. They make the further mistake of weighing down what should be a featherlight movie with a lumpen "absent father" subplot and endless racing scenes. There's the odd funny moment, but the film is finally undermined by a homophobic undertone, which wouldn't be so irritating if the jokes it generated were at least mildly amusing.

23:35 Fright Night
Film In this hugely entertaining horror spoof, teenage B-movie buff William Ragsdale becomes convinced that new neighbour Chris Sarandon is a vampire responsible for a spate of brutal killings. Only when best pal Stephen Geoffreys has become Sarandon's slave and girlfriend Amanda Bearse has also fallen under his spell does Ragsdale succeed in enlisting the help of "fearless" TV vampire hunter Roddy McDowall to end Sarandon's reign of terror. Neatly parodying Hitchcock and John Hughes movies, writer/director Tom Holland litters his rattling story with as many laughs as jolts. He is well served by his cast, notably Sarandon and McDowall, who ham with gusto.