This week's television offerings feature a stylish new adaptation of a Stephen King classic, a heartwarming tale of an octopus, and Kevin Costner's solid performance in a beloved fantasy drama.
Pick of the Week: The Running Man
Edgar Wright's new adaptation of Stephen King's dystopian thriller serves as a conscious antidote to the 1987 Schwarzenegger version. The protagonist, Ben Richards, is not a hard-bitten cop but a construction worker who learns how to become an action hero, while Glen Powell delivers a less beefy, more relatable performance. The Orwellian near-future setting is familiar: a United States where "the Network" broadcasts violent television shows to pacify the masses. Ben enters the titular life-or-death challenge to pay for his young daughter's medicine, hoping to evade hunters for 30 days and win a fortune. But the game is rigged. This is a fun action flick that prefers blowing things up over debating moral issues.
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Based on the bestselling novel by Shelby Van Pelt, Olivia Newman's drama is full of hugs and learning. The fact that the hugs come from a Giant Pacific octopus is the main quirk in an otherwise reassuring yarn touching on old age and family, grief and regret. Sally Field is the film's strong centre as Tova, a no-nonsense cleaner at the aquarium where Marcellus, the cephalopod who narrates the story, lives. But the perceptive Marcellus has spied a hole in the widow's heart. Can he help heal it, by way of rootless young musician Cameron (Lewis Pullman)? Out now on Netflix.
Field of Dreams
"If you build it, he will come." This is merely the first of several ghostly commands Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner in solid everyman form) hears that inspire him to build a baseball ground in his cornfield, then go on a series of barely comprehended quests across the country. These involve a disgraced baseball star (Ray Liotta), James Earl Jones's disillusioned radical writer and a small-town doctor (Burt Lancaster). Phil Alden Robinson's delightful film uses fantasy elements to explore missed opportunities and faded hopes, and how we go about fixing them. Saturday 9 May, 6pm, ITV4.
The Hitcher
Rutger Hauer brings his devil-may-care charm to Robert Harmon's supremely efficient thriller about a teenager who picks up a serial killer on a desert highway. "My mother told me never to do this," says C. Thomas Howell's Jim Halsey when he pulls over for Hauer's hitch-hiker John Ryder one stormy night. Clearly you should always listen to your mother, as John proceeds to butcher anyone the kid comes into contact with. A gripping cat-and-mouse game played out across gas stations, motels, diners and miles of empty road. Saturday 9 May, 9pm, 1.10am, Legend Xtra.
The Iron Claw
If this weren't a true story, you'd be forgiven for scoffing at the implausibilities that pile up in Sean Durkin's poignant biopic. Telling the tale of the Von Erich family of wrestlers in Texas, it is a parade of triumph and tragedy in a sometimes pitiless sport. The focus is on eldest son Kevin, a stunningly muscle-bound Zac Efron, who strives for success but finds his dad Fritz (Holt McCallany) grooming his brothers David (Harris Dickinson) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) for world title shots instead. Sunday 10 May, 10pm, BBC Two.
Sisu
He barely says a word in the whole film, but when your role is to off Nazis in a variety of grisly ways, there's not much call for banter. Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) is a gold prospector in 1944 Lapland as the German army retreats from Finland. But he's also known as the Immortal, due to his unstoppable killing spree against the Russians when he was a commando, which is where a small German platoon goes wrong when they steal his find of the precious metal. Bloody violence ensues in a satisfyingly propulsive 2022 chase thriller from Jalmari Helander that has already spawned a sequel. Monday 11 May, 9.30pm, Film4.
Track 29
As masters of psychosexual drama, writer Dennis Potter and director Nicolas Roeg would seem perfect bedfellows. This 1988 collaboration doesn't quite hit the spot but is disquieting and edgy enough for devotees of both. A mysterious young English man, Martin (Gary Oldman), appears at the door of bored, boozy doctor's wife Linda (Theresa Russell), claiming to be the son taken away from her after a teenage pregnancy. He is infantile, volatile and demanding, and brings out Linda's suppressed guilt at her loss. But is he just a figment of her tortured mind? Thursday 15 May, 1.20am, Film4.
