Better than most of the Stephen King...

Better than most of the Stephen King adaptations, the 1990 Misery (CBS Sunday at 9 p.m.) evokes a creepy claustrophobia and offers a pair of expert performances by Kathy Bates (who won a best actress Oscar for it) and James Caan. The Rob Reiner-William Goldman collaboration is about a pulp best-selling writer who is imprisoned by his “greatest fan” in the snowbound Colorado Sierra.

Lean, mean and empty-hearted, the 1990 Fire Birds (ABC Sunday at 9 p.m.) is a video-game recruiting poster with a bomb ticking inside--a bomb that never goes off. Its intent seems to be to show off state-of-the-art military hardware--notably the Army’s AH-64A attack helicopter, the Apache--as they take on South American drug cartels. Alas, it also churns up the old plot about the sexy, rebellious jock pilot (Nicolas Cage), his sexy, rebellious girlfriend (Sean Young) and the old pro (Tommy Lee Jones) who rides the hero and feel’s he’s losing it.

Rapid Fire (KTTV Tuesday at 8 p.m.) is a first-class 1992 hard-action film that’s a terrific showcase for the late Brandon Lee, son of Bruce, in his first starring role. Martial arts displays are solidly anchored by the father-and-son relationship that develops between Lee, playing a college student witnessing a mob rub-out, and a tough, principled Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) trying to protect him. With Nick Mancuso.

Robert De Niro as a hard-case bounty hunter and Charles Grodin as a soft-shelled embezzler are the stars of Midnight Run (KTLA Friday at 8 p.m.), an often murderously funny 1988 chase comedy, a kind of Laurel and Hardy on the run.