ScreenScribe

New in Town: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. Renee Zellweger, JK Simmons and Harry Connick Jr star in a romantic-comedy about a hotshot city-slicker consultant from Miami who finds herself stranded in small-town Minnesota mid-winter. Quipped The Hollywood Reporter: “Strictly old hat — and a poorly assembled hat at that.” (2009) Four Holidays: Sky Movies, 8.30pm [...]

TV2′s abrupt rescheduling of Tuesday nights, replacing re-runs of The Mentalist with movies, failed to dent the momentum of Outrageous Fortune. TV3′s HD comedy/drama last night drew two-to-three times the viewership of Red Eye in all the key demographics, the gap being widest with TV2′s target audience, 18-39 year-olds (18.9% vs 5.8%). The trend continued [...]

After weeks of tolerating absurdly low ratings for Tuesday night repeats of The Mentalist, TV2 at last is dumping the HD drama for movies — with Fringe becoming collateral damage. The spooky HD sensation will screen for the last time next week, at the later time of 10.15pm, with a network spokesman only able to say, “It’ll [...]

The History Boys: TV3, 10.20pm Saturday. If you liked the stage play, you’ll probably give this quirky comedy high marks. But those new to its questionable scenario won’t be won over by the exaggerated performances, grotesque and clichéd characterisations, or dull direction. The perennially unappealing Richard Griffiths plays a maverick history teacher with a predilection [...]

TV3′s steamy sex-addict drama, Californication, last night scored its hottest ratings yet, with the HD premiere of season three. It pulled 12.1% of 18-49 year-olds, compared to HD rival Fringe’s 7.7% on TV2, and 12.9% of 18-39 year-olds (vs Fringe’s 7%). With 25-54 year-olds, the gap was similar but much narrower with household shoppers with [...]

Sunshine: TV3, 10.25pm Saturday. Only sci-fi diehards will enjoy this trip to the malarkey side of the sun (it has to be re-ignited with a nuclear payload). Duller than a cloudy day, it stars Cliff Curtis, Damages’ Rose Byrne, Inception’s Cillian Murphy and Kick-Ass’ Mark Strong. Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle directs another screenplay by his [...]

Nurse Jackie ended its HD run last night with fewer viewers than usual tuning into the season finale. It was out-rated in all the key demographics by TV2′s HD rival, Fringe, and TV One’s Real Crime doco about chimps that kill, and kept barely half of the viewership that HD lead-in Outrageous Fortune delivered. TV2′s [...]

If you were hanging out to see TV2′s long-delayed debut of the graphic novel action sensation, Human Target, in HD, you might as well hang out a little longer for the Blu-ray. The network will double-bill the newcomer with season three of Chuck from August 25, in the 8.30pm-10.30pm zone. Frustratingly, neither will air in [...]

Troy: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Saturday. The Achilles heel of this lavish historical epic is its clichéd human dimension. But its spectacle, action and CGI effects are sensational, particularly the screen’s biggest pyrotechnics bash since Atlanta was razed in Gone With the Wind. Like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Troy used ingenious software that [...]

TV3 will replace its HD hospital hit, Nurse Jackie, with another outrageous HD offering, Californication, on August 24. The same week it will air in HD a repeat of the movie, Transformers (8.30pm Monday), and the free-to-air premiere of the Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz comedy, What Happens in Vegas (8.30pm Friday). Season three of Californication guest stars [...]