Advertisement

The stylish and suspenseful Predator (KTTV Monday...

Share

The stylish and suspenseful Predator (KTTV Monday at 8 p.m.), an absorbing, well-made 1987 adventure-fantasy, finds Arnold Schwarzenegger heading a military rescue unit in the jungle of an unnamed Latin American country and coming up against an evil alien.

The Secret of My Success (KTLA Wednesday at 8 p.m.), a misfired 1987 comic-fantasy on business success in the Reagan era, stars Michael J. Fox, who brings a welcome low-key chutzpah to a Kansas college graduate determined to conquer the corporate world of Manhattan.

Day One (CBS Thursday at 8 p.m.), a terrifically good, finely acted, strikingly detailed and inevitably horrifying 1989 TV movie account of the race to develop the atomic bomb. David Strathairn, Brian Dennehy and Michael Tucker star in the story based on Peter Wyden’s book, compellingly reliving the passions, enigmas and complexities of the Manhattan Project.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (KCOP Thursday at 8 p.m.), the first (1979) of the “Star Trek” movies, has always been among the weakest of the big-screen series, too much an attempt to compete with “Star Wars’ ” razzle-dazzle at the expense of capturing what the TV series was all about.

Advertisement

A Soldier’s Story (KCOP Friday at 8 p.m.), Norman Jewison’s absorbing, melodramatic 1984 filming of the Charles Russell play, stars Howard E. Rollins as a confident black captain and military attorney assigned to investigate the shooting of a hate-filled black regular--Army sergeant (Adolph Caesar) near a fictitious Louisiana army base in late 1944.

The 1990 Stanley & Iris (KTLA Saturday at 8 p.m.), does not quite work despite many good qualities, with Jane Fonda less than convincing as a grieving New England blue-collar widow who has a wary relationship with Robert De Niro, a guy traumatized by his secret shame over his illiteracy.

In the 1990 Postcards From the Edge (KCOP Saturday at 8 p.m.) Mike Nichols’ knowing direction provides the perfect witty touch in bringing to the screen Carrie Fisher’s adaptation of her own novel about a very bright actress (Meryl Streep) who short-circuits her talent with drugs and her brassy, competitive mother (Shirley MacLaine), a Golden Era Hollywood star.

Advertisement