Patch Picks: What to Watch on TV this Weekend

Feb. 24–Feb. 26, 2017

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

Avatar (2009)

Friday, Feb. 24 - Syfy- 4:30 p.m.

A friend once described James Cameron's Avatar as "Fern Gully with guns." But the film is much more than that. Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, Avatar explores concepts of imperialism, militarism, race, spirituality and "the other."

Set in the 22nd century, when humans are in the midst of colonizing the lush and inhabitable moon of Pandora in order to mine the mineral unobtanium, Avatar illustrates the expansion of the mining colony that threatens the prosperity of the Na'vi, a local tribe of humanoid species indigenous to the moon. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body that functions through the mind of a remotely located human.

Hunger Games (2012)

Saturday, Feb. 25 - Freeform - 3:10 p.m.

Directed by Gary Ross and based on the Suzanne Collins novel of the same name, Hunger Games tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, who offers to take her younger sister's place during the choosing of the next District 12 participants of the 74th Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is an annual event, enforced by the Capitol as punishment for the 12 districts' past rebellion, comprising two tributes from each district, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, who are chosen to fight to the death.

Critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes maintains an 84-percent approval rating for the film, based on 275 reviews. The Hunger Games generated$408 million in the U.S. and Canada, with a worldwide earning of $694.4 million.

Speed (1994)

Sunday, Feb. 26 - IFC- 1:45 p.m.

It was through Cujo director Jan de Bont's Speed film that I was introduced to the curiosity that is Keanu Reeves, and it was the second film in which I had seen Love Potion #9 star Sandra Bullock. The pair went on to co-star together in 2006's The Lake House, the on-set chemistry first realized between the two actors in Speed translating into a more modern-day incarnation.

Speed stars Reeves and Bullock in a fast-paced, heart-stopping adventure of an LAPD cop and commuter, respectively, who find themselves attempting to rescue civilians on a city bus rigged with a bomb programmed to explode if the bus slows below 50 mph. The film also features Dennis Hopper as the bomber as well as Alan Ruck, Jeff Daniels and Joe Morton. It became a critical and commercial success, winning two Academy Awards at the 67th ceremony.

Crash (2004)

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Paul Haggis's Crash was unlike any film I had ever seen the first time I watched it. The interwoven storylines impressed me throughout their demonstration and unraveling, culminating in the final moments that presented the exact intricacy of such overlapping.

Crash employs an all-star ensemble cast of Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Ryan Phillippe, Brendan Fraser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Michael Peña. The two-day storyline, set in Los Angeles, follows a black detective estranged from his mother, the detective's criminal younger brother, the white district attorney and his pampered wife, a black Hollywood director, a Persian-immigrant father, a hard-working Hispanic family man and a racist, white policeman who disgusts his younger partner.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

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My introduction to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, directed by Miloš Forman and adapted from the eponymous 1962 novel, came during an English-class lesson on controversial literature while I was in my sophomore year of high school.

Jack Nicholson—alongside a supporting cast of Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Will Sampson, Brad Dourif and Christopher Lloyd—stars as Randle McMurphy, a recidivist criminal who is transported to a mental institution after serving a short sentence on a prison farm for the statutory rape of a teenager. It is at the hospital that McMurphy, who is not actually mentally ill, meets a band of patients with whom he allies, but the ward is under the strict, oppressive watch of Nurse Ratched.

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Photo credit: Pixabay