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SCMP Reporter

The Specialist

Pearl, 9.30pm

Despite the alliteration nightmare of their names the unlikely coupling of Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone works well in this action thriller directed by Luis Llosa.

Stallone (above) is Ray Quick, an ex-CIA explosives expert who is now a freelance hitman in Miami, Florida. May Munro (Stone) hears about his talents and hires him to kill Tomas Leon (Eric Roberts), a member of the Miami underworld who killed her parents when she was just a girl. Things get a bit sticky when Ned Trent (James Woods), Quick's embittered ex-partner, is assigned to protect one of the mobsters that Quick is trying to bump off. All in all a decent evening's entertainment. Also starring Rod Steiger, Mario Ernesto Sanchez and Emilio Estefan Jnr. (1994)

Boys

Pearl, 12.50am

Bit of a strange one this. Winona Ryder is Patty Vare, a woman with a troubled past. After a visit from the police she tries to hightail it out of town on her horse but she is involved in an accident and is found unconscious by prep school student John Baker Jnr (Lukas Haas). He takes her back to his dorm and they develop a relationship that helps them both deal with their troubled lives. Also starring John C Reilly, Bill Sage and Skeet Ulrich. (1996)

National Geographic: Talons Of Terror

World, 10pm

Beautiful to us, scary if you are a rodent. Raptors or birds of prey are deadly hunters, armed with fierce, gripping weaponry. They are wild, majestic, beautiful and mysterious creatures who appear in our myths, legends and art as powerful symbols of natural forces.

Talons Of Terror traces the evolution of the raptors by looking at the range of predators, from weak-footed scavengers to some of the largest and most powerful birds such as the bald eagle (above).

Soccer: English

Premier - Arsenal vs Southampton (live)

ESPN, 10.50pm

Arsenal are second in the league and just a point behind the Premiership leaders Manchester United but they again revealed an unpredictability that could cost them another championship this week. The Gunners cruised to a

2-0 lead at Ewood Park, let it slip in a spate of temper and uncertainty at the back, only to snatch three points when Robert Pires put Denis Bergkamp (above) through for a winning strike.

Arsenal are favourites for another win at Highbury and their build-ups should be entertaining with Patrick Vieira, Sylain Wiltord and Pires all in fine form, but 11th-placed Southampton are buoyant after a Houdini-like escape from the relegation zone and an impressive 2-0 home victory over West Ham last weekend. Look out for the Saints' new French signing from Rennes, Fabrice Fernandes. He stunned the Hammers with his long-range blasts at St Mary's and should test the wobbly Gunners in set pieces tonight.

William Wadsworth



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