Eddie Murphy gets way, way out in this futuristic sci-fi comedy. In the year 2087, the Earth's natural resources have been largely depleted, and an increasingly large number of people have taken up residence on the moon, where the pioneering attitude of the new residents has created a culture not unlike the old west. Pluto Nash (
Eddie Murphy) is one such lunar exile who formerly made his living outside the law, but has since gone straight and now runs the hippest nightclub in the moon colony known as "Little America." Pluto is approached by Mogan (
Joe Pantoliano), a gangster who wants to buy the nightclub; Pluto has no interest in selling, but it seems Mogan isn't about to take no for an answer. Pluto also discovers Mogan is in cahoots with Max Crater, a crime boss whose goal is to take over the entire moon.
For some critics, this is just another example of the continuing downward spiral of Eddie Murphy's once exciting career. But the film is in English, so it's good practice.
2) A Farewell to ArmsCanal 300 - Saturday, November 4, 2006, 09:40 a.m.
This first film version of
Ernest Hemingway's novel
A Farewell to Arms stars
Gary Cooper and
Helen Hayes. Cooper plays Lt. Frederick Henry, a World War I officer who falls in love with English Red Cross nurse Catherine Barkley (Hayes)-after first mistaking her for a woman of ill repute. Henry's friend, Major Rinaldi, is envious of the romance, and pulls strings to have Catherine transferred to Milan. When Henry is wounded in battle, he ends up in the very hospital where Catherine works. They resume the affair, which reaches an ecstatic peak just before Henry is returned to the front. The now-pregnant Catherine remains in Switzerland, sending letters by the bushelfull to Henry. But the jealous Rinaldi sees to it that Henry never receives those letters, leading Catherine to conclude sorrowfully that Henry has forgotten her. As the Armistice approaches, Henry makes his way to Switzerland, hoping to find Catherine.
Excellent movie, non-early birds use your videorecording abilities!
3) Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at HerCanal 300 - Saturday, November 4, 2006, 10:00 p.m.
A man only sees what a woman wants him to know!
An anthology of five loosely connected stories. This film is a good example of the multiple story format, its focus is exclusively on female characters, and it's possible to view each story on its own. The film begins with a prologue: Police detectives are investigating the apparent suicide of a Hispanic woman (
Elpidia Carillo). "This Is Dr. Keener" deals with Dr. Elaine Keener (
Glenn Close), a single professional woman attempting to care for her aging and infirm mother and deal with her own loneliness. She invites Christine (
Calista Flockhart), a tarot card reader, into her home to make some sense of her life. "Fantasies About Rebecca" profiles a successful bank manager (
Holly Hunter) involved with a married man (
Gregory Hines). When she learns that she is pregnant, he coldly advises her to take care of the "problem." Before she visits Dr. Keener to have an abortion, she impulsively has a fling with a colleague (
Matt Craven). She is also confronted by a female street person in the bank's parking lot. "Someone for Rose" is about a single mother (
Kathy Baker), a writer of children's books. She is attracted to a new neighbor, a dwarf (
Danny Woodburn), and he catches her spying on him in his house. She's also amazed to find that her son is more sexually active than she knew -- and more than she is herself. "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine" details the relationship between the tarot card reader Christine and her lover, Lilly (
Valeria Golino), who is critically ill with an unnamed disease. The final story, "Love Waits for Kathy," concerns two sisters, Carol (
Cameron Diaz), a lovely blind woman with an active social life, and her police detective sibling, Kathy (
Amy Brenneman), one of the detectives who appeared in the prologue. Kathy is attracted to the medical examiner in the suicide case, and her story ends with him taking her out on a date. In an epilogue, Dr. Keener drops in to a bar, where she meets a male character from one of the earlier stories. Debuting director
Rodrigo Garcia, a noted cinematographer, is the son of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
4) A Star Is BornCanal 300 - Sunday, November 5, 2006, 09:25 a.m.
Why do they broadcast such good films at such weird hours?
A Star is Born came into being when producer
David O. Selznick decided to tell a "true behind-the-scenes" story of Hollywood. The truth, of course, was filtered a bit for box-office purposes, although
Selznick and an army of screenwriters based much of their script on actual people and events.
Janet Gaynor stars as Esther Blodgett, the small-town girl who dreams of Hollywood stardom, a role later played by both
Judy Garland and
Barbra Streisand in the 1954 and 1976 remakes. Jeered at by most of her family, Esther finds an ally in her crusty old grandma (
May Robson), who admires the girl's "pioneer spirit" and bankrolls Esther's trip to Tinseltown. On arrival, Esther heads straight to Central Casting, where a world-weary receptionist (
Peggy Wood), trying to let the girl down gently, tells her that her chances for stardom are about one in a thousand. "Maybe I'll be that one!" replies Esther defiantly. Months pass: through the intervention of her best friend, assistant director Danny McGuire (
Andy Devine), Esther gets a waitressing job at an upscale Hollywood party. Her efforts to "audition" for the guests are met with quizzical stares, but she manages to impress Norman Maine (
Fredric March), the alcoholic matinee idol later played by
James Mason and
Kris Kristofferson. Esther gets her first big break in Norman's next picture and a marriage proposal from the smitten Mr. Maine. It's a hit, but as Esther (now named Vicki)'s star ascends, Norman's popularity plummets due to a string of lousy pictures and an ongoing alcohol problem. The film won Academy Awards for director
William Wellman and
Robert Carson in the "original story" category and for
W. Howard Greene's glistening Technicolor cinematography.
5) Gangs of New York TV3 - Sunday, November 5, 2006, 10:15 p.m.
Martin Scorsese at work!
The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director
Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to plan the project. In 1846, as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points, a number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage who were born in the United States began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals. William Cutting (
Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as "Bill the Butcher" for his deadly skill with a knife, bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants; the immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon (
Liam Neeson). After an especially bloody clash between the Natives and the Rabbits leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing; the boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam (
Leonardo DiCaprio). Now a strapping adult who has learned how to fight, Amsterdam has come to seek vengeance against Bill the Butcher, whose underworld control of the Five Points through violence and intimidation dovetails with the open corruption of New York politician "Boss" Tweed (
Jim Broadbent). Amsterdam gradually penetrates Bill the Butcher's inner circle, and he soon becomes his trusted assistant. Amsterdam also finds himself falling for Jenny Everdeane (
Cameron Diaz), a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill. Amsterdam is learning a great deal from Bill, but before he can turn the tables on the man who killed his father, Amsterdam's true identity is exposed, even though he has concealed it from nearly everyone, including Jenny.
Gangs Of New York was the first film in two years from actor
Leonardo DiCaprio; ironically, it was at one time scheduled to open on the same day as
Catch Me if You Can, the
Steven Spielberg project that
DiCaprio began filming immediately after
Gangs wrapped.
"A potent and thoughtful cinematic experience despite its flaws"
Don't forget to switch your remote control to audio channel 2 (English)!
You've had the chance to prove your geographical knowledge a couple times. Now it's time to change the subject. Are you keeping up with current events? 
2) Angel on My Shoulder
3) The Game
4) Black Hawk Down
Test your knowledge of world geography in English once again with this Midweek quiz: Where in the world?
In Unit One of our book we've spoken about some of the world's landmarks. Why not test your knowledge of Geography with a little quiz? Just click on the link below!
Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional character of a Kazakh journalist invented and portrayed by the British comedian provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat has humorously been described on his official website as "Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man."
2) A Farewell to Arms
3) Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
4) A Star Is Born
5) Gangs of New York 
