Square Eyes

Television Reviews

Movie of the Week, Full Metal Jacket, SBS, Weds, 10pm:

Many regard Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam anti-war satire as the finest war movie ever made. It captures the chaos, contradictions and dehumanisation that war brings, symbolised by the narrator, Private Joker (Matthew Modine), who has a peace symbol on his battle fatigues and "Born to Kill" on his helmet. It's two films - initially about turning boys into soldiers using the cruellest indoctrination, before moving into the urban combat of the Tet offensive. It's a visually stunning film and designed to shock, but also to remind you that even amidst the darkest hearts, there's a small spark of humanity struggling to get out.

LA Confidential, NBN, Sat, 8.30pm:

James Ellroy's 50s crime caper is crisp and classy, with a first-rate cast, including Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, as three contradictory coppers working the seedy streets and pushing their own agendas. It's a walk on the wild side, exploring the countless shades of moral grey, beautifully acted and told at a cracking pace.

The Road to Perdition, Prime, Sun, 8.30pm:

A quietly brutal hit man, Sullivan (Tom Hanks), in Depression-era Chicago, is treated like a son by his Mafia boss (Paul Newman). It all goes pear-shaped when the mobster's jealous son bumps off Sullivan's wife and child, sparking a deadly cat and mouse game as the assassin flees with his surviving 12-year-old son. Another hit man (Jude Law) is on his tail. It's a moody, atmospheric and beautifully crafted epic with surprising emotional warmth, despite its callous characters.

Supervolcano, ABC, Sun, 8.30pm:

Dante's Peak fans - and many others - will enjoy this docu-drama disaster, when Yellowstone blows up, big time, in 15 years time. There's no Pierce Brosnan, even though the plot is similar (cautious boffins try to guess when she'll blow, the government downplays it as panic builds...) and the special FX are great. Better still, it explores what happens as the disaster unfolds and what happens to the world.

UFOs: Seeing is Believing, NBN, Sun, 9.30pm:

For anyone who's been abducted on the Summerland Way, here's American hack Peter Jennings' entertaining take on ET. Some of the people he speaks to certainly seem to be on another planet.

Grumpy Old Men, ABC, Tues, 8pm:

The second in this amusing four-part series about the hours of discontent in blokes aged 35-54.

Vinland: Viking map or hoax, ABC, Thurs, 8.30pm:

The Hilter diaries, the Shroud of Turin, election promises... there's a long list of historic fakes. This whodunit-like doco tries to unravel the mystery of the map, owned by Yale since it surfaced in the '50s, which features America, and was supposedly drawn by Vikings 50 years before Columbus turned up.