Tube Notes
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
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TODAY'S MUST-SEES
"Shrek" (2001, 4:05 p.m., TBS) and/or "Finding Nemo" (2003, 8 p.m., ABC). Here are two films that have helped propel the surge of computer-animated movies. "Shrek," a beauty-and-the-ogre comedy, won the first Oscar for best-animated feature. "Nemo," with gorgeous underwater scenes, won the third. Both are worth catching again.
"The Phantom of the Opera" (2004), 5 p.m., Hallmark. Already the longest-running show in Broadway history, this musical goes on and on. In some ways, it was logical to turn it into a movie: The story allows lush visual beauty. And in some, it wasn't. On Broadway, "Phantom" survives on stagecraft and emotional music. Away from a live performance, we notice that its story and script are second-rate. The movie does get glowing work from Emmy Rossum and adequate work from Gerard Butler. It has enough stunning moments in the second half to make it worth watching.
OF LOCAL NOTE
"Landscaper's Challenge," 10 a.m., HGTV. Last August, Steven and Naomi Lee got help from professional landscapers to transform their Kane'ohe home's outdoor nightmare into a dreamy Asian-inspired oasis. The couple applied to be on the show through a video. "I think what won it for us was, going back to the drainage problem with our patio; it always puddled when it rained, and Steven would have to use this big squeegee to squeegee the water off of the concrete patio, so Steven concocted this character (for the video), 'Squeegee Man,' " Naomi Lee explained to The Advertiser. See the results in this episode.
OF NOTE
"Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise (2006), 7 p.m., CBS. Here's the third of four movies that have starred Tom Selleck as Stone, a former Los Angeles cop, now a small-town police chief, fighting despair and alcoholism. This time, he's tracing what happened to a former honor student who was killed. It's a well-made film, with especially good work from Mae Whitman, as a troubled teen.
"America's Got Talent," 7 p.m., NBC. For the second straight week, NBC is throwing out its Saturday plans and inserting a reality rerun. This one has the Chicago auditions.
"The Naked Brothers Band Movie" (2005), 8:30 p.m., Nickelodeon. There's a rustic sort of charm to this film, in which brothers Nat and Alex Wolff pretend to be in a famous rock band. Their mom, actress-director Polly Draper, directed.
"Medium," 10 p.m., NBC. Thomas Jane — the guy who played Mickey Mantle in HBO's "61" — is an attractive actor, married to "Medium" star Patricia Arquette. Here, he plays her old boyfriend, now dead, with his spirit settling into her home; her husband is not happy about this.
"Saturday Night Live," 11:29 p.m., NBC. Zach Braff hosts this rerun, with Maroon 5 as the musical guest.