TONIGHT'S movies should bring about a strong sense of deja vu in regular viewers since they've all been on before - in some cases, several times before. RUSSELL Mulcahy used to make rock videos before he directed Highlander (World 9.30pm, Original Running Time 116 mins) which could account for the excess of dizzy camera angles. The story concerns a strange gang of immortals who engage in mortal combat in a variety of locations down through the ages, from the Scottish Highlands of the Middle Ages to modern-day America. Christopher Lambert (Greystokes Tarzan) is the hero with the perpetually pained look who's instructed in the art of survival by dashing Sean Connery (Medicine Man ). The script is dreadful, the storyline preposterous, but the frenzied pace and a wonderful villain help make the film a bit of ludicrous fun. ONE of the few merits that Jaws 3 (Pearl 9.30pm, ORT 99 mins) had when it was released in the cinema was the novelty value of being in 3-D. Without that, this tale, which is unrelated to the first two Jaws except by contrivance, is sadly lacking. It's a case of Jaws goes to Ocean Park, as the big fish goes on the rampage in Florida's new Undersea Kingdom, having entered via a broken sea-gate. Dennis Quaid (The Big Easy ) is the designer of the giant aquarium and Bess Armstrong plays dolphin girl.Neither realises anything's amiss until people start disappearing then reappearing in pieces. Comfort yourself with the thought there's only one more Jaws to go. BARRY Manilow makes a guest appearance on Murphy Brown (Pearl 6.55pm) playing himself - and the piano. As regular viewers will be aware Manilow's is the only music that Murphy's son Avery can fall asleep to, so Frank Fontana invites the star to the kid's first birthday party. Believing the singer to have left, Murphy (Candice Bergen) admits she can't stand his music. According to the synopsis, Manilow then enters the room, sits at the piano and attempts to convert her musical tastes. What it doesn't say is whether he succeeds. VAMPIRE movies are given a much-needed transfusion in Near Dark (Pearl 12.40am, ORT 94 mins), about a bunch of contemporary bloodsuckers who roam the arid farmlands of the mid-West looking for young blood. Farmboy Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) joins the gang after being given a lethal love-bite by Mae (Jenny Wright). But he can't bring himself to make a kill and is soon torn between his lust for blood and his blood relatives who are attempting to rescue him. This vampiric romance gives a whole new meaning to love at first bite. THE official line on the position of women in China is that they have full equality with men. The unofficial truth is different. In a recent listing of countries based on the real status of women in those countries, China ranked 132nd. While women have come to prominence as leaders in several countries around the world, including traditionally sexist Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Turkey, in Chinese politics they are almost invisible. The media is highlighting the anomaly between the sexes and becoming a force for change, bringing into the open views that have until now been under-represented by the official party organisations. In Media Watch, on World, at 7.30pm, Professor Stanley Rosen talks about the effect the media has had on women in China.
