Patch Picks: What to Watch on TV this Weekend

Feb. 10–Feb. 12, 2017

Her are a few suggestions for what to watch during the upcoming weekend.

Riding In Cars With Boys (2001)

Friday, Feb. 10 - FX-E - 5 p.m.

Based on the autobiographical book of the same name, written by Beverly Donofrio, Riding in Cars with Boysis a biographical film that follows the life of a woman, played by Drew Barrymore, who triumphs despite a number of obstacles, from being a teen mother to striving toward acquiring a master's degree. Spanning 1961 to 1986, the narrative further employs a cast comprising Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, James Woods and Adam Garcia. USA Today criticized the film for its incorporation of an ending that "wraps up loose ends far too neatly," while former Chicago-Sun Times critic Rogert Ebert praised Riding in Cars with Boys for the way the film "cuts loose from formula and shows us confused lives we recognize."

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Saturday, Feb. 11 - FXX - 2:30 p.m.

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) and co-produced by Tim Burton, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter puts a blood-red twist on the story of the 16th president of the U.S. Based on Seth Grahame-Smith's eponymous mashup novel, the film manifests the portrayal of real-life figure Abraham Lincoln as having a vampire hunter alter ego.

The film opens with a young Abraham Lincoln, who lives in Indiana with his parents. Plantation owner Jack Barts breaks into the family's home one evening, attacking Abraham's mother, Nancy. Nancy falls ill and dies the following day, prompting a series of events that spans the near-whole of Abraham's life. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter stars Benjamin Walker as the titular character, with supporting roles by Anthony Mackie, Domonic Cooper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rufus Sewell.

Liar Liar (1997)

Sunday, Feb. 12 - CMT- 5 p.m.

Starring Jim Carrey, Liar Liar tells the story of a Los Angeles lawyer who loves his son, but between his inability to keep promises and bouts of compulsive lying, Fletcher (Carrey) finds himself on the outs with his son and ex-wife. But when Fletcher misses his son's birthday, the young boy makes a wish that, for one day, his father cannot tell lie.

And so the journey begins.

Liar Liar is the second of three collaborations between Carrey and director Tom Shadyac, the first being Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and the third being Bruce Almighty. Carrey received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in Comedy for his work with the film.

Arrival

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Arrival is based on Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life, a short story whose major themes encompass language relatively, or the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, and determinism, the philosophical position that, for every event, there exist conditions that could cause no other event.

Amy Adams stars as linguist Louise Banks, whose expertise is called upon after 12 extraterrestrial spacecrafts appear and station themselves in various locations throughout the world. Louise and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) are brought to a U.S. military camp in Montana near one of the spacecrafts, making contact with a pair of seven-limbed aliens on board. Louise discovers that the aliens have a written language of complex symbols and comes to learn that the symbols correspond to a basic vocabulary.

Critically acclaimed, Arrival garnered a number of nominations, including eight Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress (Adams) and Best Original Score.

E.T.

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E.T. tells the story of Elliott, a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, affectionately nicknamed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. Elliot and his siblings help E.T. return home while attempting to keep the alien hidden from their mother and government forces. Themes of extraterrestrial-supernatural themes are explored in the eventual psychic connection that Elliot and E.T. experience as well as E.T.'s occasional demonstrations of telekinetic capability.

The highest-grossing film of the 1980s, E.T. is regarded as a timeless story of friendship, ranking as the greatest science fiction film ever made in a Rotten Tomatoes survey. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994 as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

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Image via Pixabay