THIS week really is a cinematic extravaganza. One-Bond-wonder George Lazenby plays 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Tonight, Pearl, 9.30 pm), with the eternal bachelor getting married in between some terrific action sequences. For those who prefer a tearjerker, Forever Young (Tonight, World, 9.30 pm) should deliver the goods, with Mel Gibson as a World War II test pilot who takes part in a cryogenics experiment and wakes up in 1992, looked after by Lee Curtis (left). Sink The Bismarck (Tonight, World, 11.45 pm) is a tense wartime drama about British ships tracking down the fearsome German surface raider.
Cable is screening films that were premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year. These include A Girl Alone (Monday, 1 am) and Roula (Wednesday, 1 am). The pick of them must be Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea (Friday, 1 am) which studies the friendship between an opium addicted sailor and a 10-year-old Chinese girl who cleans his ship while it's anchored off Hong Kong.
The multi-talented Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of a struggling actress who succumbs to drugs in Postcards From The Edge (Monday, Pearl, 9.30 pm), though sadly didn't get it. The lavish Nicholas And Alexandra (Monday, World, 9.30 pm) looks at the demise of the Russian czar Nicholas II, though the length of the film may test the viewers' patience.
Glenn Close (left) is brilliant as a Swedish opera diva who has an affair with a Hungarian conductor in Meeting Venus (Tuesday, World, 9.30 pm) - the storyline doubles as a metaphor for European integration and unification.
Leonard Di Caprio (left) is outstanding as the mentally disabled brother whom Johnny Depp has to look after in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Thursday, Pearl, 9.30 pm), an off-centre look at life and prejudices in small-town America. Time for some more tissues over on World as Michael Keaton is the dying father who films his last moments for his unborn child in the shameless weepie My Life (Thursday, 9.30 pm).
The gripping thriller The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (Friday, World, 1.40 am) has a cold-blooded, calculated Robert Shaw hijacking a New York subway train and holding the passengers for ransom. I wonder if it will put people off travelling on the MTR? Oops.