Romy And Michele's High School Reunion Pearl, 9.30pm This comedy went very quickly from cinema to video stores but that does not mean it is not good. Quite the contrary, with Lisa Kudrow and Oscar-winning Mira Sorvino (both above) as the leads and Janeane Garofalo supporting, Romy And Michele's High School Reunion is an above-average 'chick flick' with a huge cult following. Romy White (Sorvino) and Michele Weinberger (Kudrow) are party girls who, 10 years after high school, haven't changed the slightest. Misfits as teenagers, they stuck together and moved out to enjoy the fast life of Los Angeles. When they catch wind of their high school's 10-year reunion, they pledge to make a big splash and impress all their former tormentors. The problem? They've done nothing with their lives over the past decade. They have one week to reinvent themselves before the reunion. However, when the girls arrive at the much-anticipated event, they find there's one person who could ruin their well-rehearsed charade - a former classmate (Garofalo) who knows the real story of their lives. The movie, peppered with flashbacks, begins well but starts to slacken after an hour or so. But most of it is still hilarious. Critics have said that this movie is Dumb And Dumber on high heels, with excellent performances from two likable actresses. OK, Kudrow has transplanted her role from television's Friends with very little variation. But Sorvino is a great counterweight, as the equally air-headed Romy. Garofalo's small role as a bitter, sarcastic former schoolmate is classic. (1997) Space Medicine World, 10pm A programme that attempts to make a connection between space technology and medical science. How? Well, the first of this two-part documentary series explores the technology behind the American space programme that is now used in medical care. It looks at how the same pump that propels fuel through the space shuttle's engines now pumps blood through a diseased heart. And computer chips that give the Hubble telescope 20/20 vision are used to spot tumours that grow deep inside the human body. Rashomon Movie 2, 12.15am A cinema classic that is worth staying up for. Directed by legendary Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosawa (above), Rashomon is, as one critic pointed out, 'both surprisingly simple and deceptively complex'. The film title has since been used to describe an event that can be interpreted in many ways. The central tale of the rape of a woman (Machiko Kyo) and the murder of a man (Masayuki Mori), possibly by a bandit (Toshiro Mifune), and is presented entirely in flashbacks from the perspectives of four narrators. One of the men, a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura), was a witness to the events, and, with the help of a priest (Minoru Chiaki), he puzzles over what really happened and what such horrible events say about human nature. In each of the four versions of the story, the characters are the same, as are many of the details. But much is also different. The only 'impartial' witness, the woodcutter, weaves a story that intertwines elements of the other three, leaving the viewer wondering if he truly saw anything at all. (1951)
