Film Highlights Friday

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

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Sky Movies Drama, 10.45pm

This inventive and original comedy from Glenn Ficarra and John Requa stars Steve Carell as Cal Weaver, an easy-going middle-aged family man with bad fashion sense and a pudding bowl haircut. He thinks his life is going swimmingly until his wife of 20-something years, Emily (Julianne Moore) abruptly tells him she wants a divorce.

Devastated, Cal retreats to a soulless apartment where he's visited by his bemused children on weekends. He spends most of his free time aimlessly loitering in a singles bar bemoaning his fate and doing little else.

There, a suave young ladies' man called Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) takes pity on the gormless Cal, and decides to take him under his wing and teach him how to score with women. Analeigh Tipton, Emma Stone and Jonah Bobo co-star.

Murphy's War (1971)

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Channel 4, 1.05pm

This rousing, eccentric war drama from the late Peter Yates stars Peter O'Toole as an Irish merchant seaman who sets out to wreak revenge on a German U-boat that sinks his boat in a treacherous south American river. O'Toole's then-wife Sian Phillips plays a Quaker doctor.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

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RTE Two, 9.00pm

In this spectacular and noisy sequel to the 2007 summer hit Transformers, Sam Witwicky and his stunning girlfriend Mikeala set out to help Optimus Prime and friends stop the evil Decepticon robots from colonising the Earth. With Shia LaBoeuf.

The Unforgiven (1960)

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TG4, 9.05pm

John Huston's fine western drama stars Audrey Hepburn as Rachel Zachary, the beautiful daughter of a respectable frontier family who causes a scandal when it's revealed that she was born a Native American and adopted as a child. With Burt Lancaster.

City by the Sea (2002)

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TV3, 12.00am

Robert De Niro leads a fine cast in this low-key thriller from Michael Caton-Jones. De Niro is a veteran cop haunted by the crimes of his father who faces a terrible moral dilemma when he finds out his own son has been implicated in a drug-related killing. James Franco and Eliza Dushku co-star.

The Four Seasons (1981)

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RTE One, 12.00am

Alan Alda's career as one of America's top TV actors somewhat eclipsed his talents as a writer and director, but he's on good form in this urbane romantic comedy about three couples who take four holidays together during the course of a year. But when one of the men leaves his wife and brings a younger woman as well, things get messy.

Irish Independent