Oscars for a manic Mozart
DECISIONS, decisions . . . prime time viewing on the Hongkong channels is a choice between a bit of culture in the form of a manic Mozart, or a bit of fun in the company of naked, pouting space vampresses. This must be a job for the VCR.
THE screen adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus (Pearl 9.45pm Original Running Time 158 mins) won an impressive eight Oscars in 1984 and spawned what seemed to be a global obsession with the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (including those schlock ''rock'' renditions, remember?).
Most well-deserved of the awards was Best Supporting Actor for F. Murray Abraham (The Name of the Rose). He plays mediocre composer Salieri whose music is completely eclipsed when boorish musical genius Mozart (Tom Hulce) arrives on the scene.
True, it's very unlikely that Salieri was connected in any way with Mozart's demise, but Abraham makes his embittered, lonely character believable.
Only two faults: It's too long; and those American accents are inappropriate.
TOBE Hooper's over-the-top sci-fi fantasy cum vampire yarn Lifeforce (World 9.30pm. ORT 101 mins) is a wizard wheeze, darling, based on Colin Wilson's novel Space Vampires.
Three extra-terrestrial humanoids are dumped on London where they turn half the population into sex-crazed zombies - just what the London Underground needs on a Monday morning.
Comes across like Quatermass meets Star Trek - talking of which, look out for actor Patrick Stewart who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
People disintegrate, Chancery Lane is reduced to rubble and gorgeous naked space vampresses rule London - what more do you need by way of entertainment? HAVING unplugged the jukebox on World Video Jury last week, World now fills the slot with a tribute to Mother's Day in Mum's The Word (9pm).
It's billed as a lighthearted look at motherhood and includes visits to Matilda Hospital to talk to mothers to be, as well as brand new mums and their babies.
IT'S a case of Brideshead Revisited revisited with the film version of Evelyn Waugh's indictment of the idle rich, A Handful of Dust (Pearl 2pm).
James Wilby (Maurice) is superb as tradition-bound husband Tony Last, whose worthless wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) has an affair out of boredom with Rupert Graves (A Room with a View). Director Charles Sturridge seems at times to miss the point, but it's a good period piece. THE first day of the third test between Pakistan and West Indies will be broadcast live (Prime Sports 12.45am).
The big question on everybody's lips - particularly those of the beleaguered Prime Sports programmers - is, can it last the whole five days?
