Tube Notes
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
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TONIGHT'S MUST-SEES
"Peter Pan" (1953), 7 p.m., ABC. It's an all-Disney night at the top. "Peter Pan" — created 39 years before Cyrus was born — is one of the great movie cartoons. It has a meaningful story, gorgeous pictures, a great villain (Captain Hook, voiced by Hans Conried) and some splendid songs, including "A Pirate's Life," "You Can Fly" and the solid advice "Never Smile at a Crocodile."
"Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour" (2008), 8 and 9:30 p.m., Disney Channel. Now you can watch this hit movie in the relative sanity of your own home. If you happen to have 3-D glasses, it will look even better. Miley Cyrus sings as herself and as her alter ego on the "Hannah Montana" show.
"Anaconda 3," 9 p.m., Sci Fi Channel. This film expends its creativity thinking of: a) reasons for a beautiful blonde scientist (Crystal Allen) to be wearing an undershirt, caked with mud or blood; and b) different ways for a 60-foot snake to devour humans. It turns out that feet-first is scarier than head-first and a third method — wrapping, squeezing, then gulping — is nastiest of all. David Hasselhoff has fun playing a hardy adventurer. Still, more people are likely to be watching Allen and/or the snake.
OF NOTE
"The Office," 7 and 7:30 p.m., and "Saturday Night Live," 10:29 p.m., NBC. The first "Office" rerun has a battle of the branch offices, with Jim reluctantly facing his ex-girlfriend Karen. The second finds Michael not invited to the company's wilderness retreat; he promptly plunges into the woods alone. Then stick around for the "SNL" rerun; Rainn Wilson (Dwight on"The Office") hosts, with music by Arcade Fire.
"The Color Purple" (1985, WE) and "Pulp Fiction" (1994, VH1), both 6 p.m.; "Pulp Fiction" repeats at 8 p.m. Here are two beautifully made films, each an Academy Award nominee for best picture. "Pulp" is Quentin Tarantino's violent look at interlocking lives; it won the Oscar for best picture. For "Purple," Steven Spielberg found room for immense visual and musical beauty, amid a harsh story of black women facing immense obstacles.
"Die Hard" (1988), 5 and 9 p.m., A&E. Here's another great movie, this one with Bruce Willis as a lone hero, inside a skyscraper controlled by bad guys. Chances are, you'll be able to find an 8 p.m. film tonight.
"EliteXC Saturday Night Fights," 8 p.m., CBS. Here are middleweight and welterweight mixed-martial-arts fights.
"Law & Order," 9 p.m., NBC. Ally Walker ("The Profiler") guests in a story of murders that may have been triggered by racial hatred.
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent," 9 p.m., NBC. Joan Jett, the rock 'n' roll veteran, guests in a story involving the murder of the host of a rock interview show.
"Eli Stone," 9 p.m., ABC. Eli is defending his brother in a medical malpractice case. That triggers something and he goes back in time to the day their father died.