Square Eyes

Television Reviews

Movie of the week, Sinbad the Sailor, ABC, Mon, 1.25am:

Well, it's another dull week, but this crusty 1947 comedy-romance-action-adventure in vivid Technicolour is worth a squiz. Douglas Fairbanks Jr reprises his father's famous role as the suave swashbuckler searching for treasure, with Maureen O'Hara as the feisty princess and Anthony Quinn as the bad dude. At least it's better than informercials if you're an insomniac.

Marvin Gaye, ABC, Sat, 10.15pm:

The Motown singer's flawed life and career swaggered from deep horrors to moments of sheer brilliance. A lifetime of trying to escape a strict church upbringing and constant abuse from his father led to drug addiction, heartbreak and bankruptcy. All that tragedy also produced some extraordinary songs, until it ended with his father shooting him dead.

One day cricket, England v Aust, Prime, Sun, 7.30pm:

Ain't it a funny old world. It's winter, there are cherries in the supermarket, and now cricket on TV, and it's on Prime. And Shane Warne has a dead ferret on his head.

Order in the House, ABC, Sun, 11.40pm:

Watch your taxes at work folks, in this roundup of the week's federal Parliamentary sittings. Funny how the Government that always opposes wage rises for low-paid workers always accepts their own larger wages rises, rather than declaring it's too much and a burden on taxpayers.

Wimbledon, NBN, Mon, 10.35pm:

Speaking of summer fruit, break out the strawberries and cream and cheer on the Aussies as they're bundled out in the first round.

McLibel, SBS, Tues, 8.30pm:

It all started 11 years ago, when the fast good burger giant spent $25 million trying to prosecute a couple of British cheesecloth protestors who bagged the multinational in a leaflet. It's now regarded as the worst PR disaster in history, since Maccas won the case, but were found guilty of exploiting kids, workers, animals and ruining people's health. This doco is a follow up to the case, with the duo winning a European Court of Human Rights appeal, in a landmark case for UK libel laws.

The Office, Ten, Weds, 7.30pm:

This English satire of office life, screened on the ABC, was so brilliant the US felt obliged to rip it off and translate it into American. It still works, even if it loses something in a brasher context.

Truth, Lies & Intelligence, SBS, Thurs, 8.30pm:

You're either with 'em, or against, in this doco on the load of codswallop the US-led Coalition fed voters prior to Gulf War II. A litany of intelligence types, many once firmly on the side of war, are paraded to detail the deceits of supposedly democratic governments. And do we give a damn. That we're prepared to accept that the end justifies the means is rather depressing.