WILLOW (TVB Pearl, 9.30pm) stars Val Kilmer - who is about to become the caped crusader in Batman 3 this summer - and his wife, Joanne Whalley (Scarlett). They actually met on this set, under the direction of Ron Howard, and naturally their on-screen love affair has that little bit of extra gusto.
Made in 1988, Willow is a fiercely ambitious fantasy; a supposedly children's fairytale produced by George Lucas which probably has more appeal for daydreaming adults. Warwick Davis stars as the dwarf, Willow, who finds a baby on a crude raft which has been swept along by the river waters. He doesn't know that in a biblical twist, the baby has been dispatched in an attempt to escape the evil queen Bavmorda's (Jean Marsh) decree that all girls should be killed. She feels her successor has been born.
Willow takes on the task of delivering the baby to a far-off crossroads where she can be found by her people; at the crossroads he meets Madmartigan (Kilmer), a warrior who has been imprisoned in a cage. Willow frees the man, and they form an alliance to continue their quest - which means battling Bavmorda's chief warrior Sorsha (Whalley) and encountering a two-headed, fire-breathing dragon outside Bavmorda's fortress.
With a huge budget and a slew of special effects, Willow is reminiscent of many other pictures, especially 1985's Ladyhawke. But it's fairly solid entertainment. While on the subject of personal trivia, though, it's interesting to note that George Lucas was going through a bitter divorce when he created this fantasy - and placed all the power in the hands of the movie's women. Hmm. FOR some reason, Steve Martin's LA Story (ATV World, 11.55pm) was panned by the critics on release in 1991 - audiences proved extremely apathetic too. But everyone who has ever been to Los Angeles will laugh at his deft but wacky observations of the city. And the love story at the movie's heart, between Martin and his real-life wife Victoria Tennant, is very affecting.
Martin plays a Los Angeles weatherman who gets the boot after recording his tapes in advance - during the one week in Los Angeles when it rains. Tennant is a visiting British journalist, and Richard E. Grant is wonderfully stuffy as her boyfriend. Sarah Jessica Parker also does an eccentric turn as Martin's Valley Girl fling.
Memorable scenes include Martin roller-skating in a museum, desperately trying to get a reservation at a chi-chi restaurant, taking life-lessons from a road sign, and debating what kind of coffee to order with his friends. With music by Enya, LA Story is an extremely enjoyable soft comedy. It's a shame Tennant and Martin split up last year, though. CONFESSION time: I went to see Grease five times when it was released in 1978. We won't get into ages, but I thought it was simply fab at the time.
