The Last Action Hero (KABC Sunday at...

The Last Action Hero (KABC Sunday at 9 p.m.) is a ponderous 1993 joyride more notable for how strenuously it’s been promoted than for how much pleasure it delivers. Based on a slight idea about a boy who loves action films so much he finds himself right up there on the screen with his hero, this epic fell victim to all the excesses that too big a budget and too big a star (Arnold Schwarzenegger) inevitably guarantee. And by parodying Schwarzenegger’s already comic action persona, the filmmakers misjudged the appeal of their star.

Even though overly familiar, Places in the Heart (KTLA Monday at 8 p.m.), Robert Benton’s 1984 saga of small-town Texas life in the ‘30s is deeply felt, beautifully shot (by Nestor Almendros) and acted. Sally Field plays the central role perfectly; the excellent supporting cast includes John Malkovich as the blind Mr. Will and Danny Glover as the hired hand who makes the cotton fields bloom. Winner of best actress and screenplay Oscars.

Another Stakeout (Fox Tuesday at 8 p.m.) takes another peek at crime, humor and buddyhood with the “Stakeout” team of Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez. Even with new snoop Rosie O’Donnell around, and a good scene from surveillance target Dennis Farina, the 1993 releasesuffers from the usual sequel bloat.

The 1973 The Sting (KTLA Friday at 8 p.m.) is flawlessly created pure entertainment set in the 1930s in which Robert Redford and Paul Newman are, respectively, an up-and-coming con man and a legendary big-time con man on the skids who zero in on New York racketeer Robert Shaw.

Gremlins (KCOP Saturday at 6 p.m.) in some ways is the quintessential Christmas movie of the ‘80s. It’s a horror-comedy, a cartoonish fable--replete with references to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which here seems the relic of a vanished era--about cute little Christmas toy/pets, sired by the lovable furry Gizmo, who turn into rapacious, murderous monsters wreaking bloody havoc on a Norman Rockwellish town.