By Dave Macleod, 29th January 2024
From Monday February 19th - Saturday February 24th, at 9pm, LEGEND goes into battle with WAR STORIES, a season of warfare action and drama, spearheaded by the Channel premieres of Enzo G. Castellari's terrific WW2 exploitation actioner THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (which inspired Tarantino's 2009 movie) and the Battle of the Bulge thriller COMPANY OF HEROES, starring Tom Sizemore and Vinnie Jones.
Other titles deployed are hard-hitting WW2 thrillers WAR PIGS, starring Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke and WHEELS OF TERROR, starring Bruce Davison, Oliver Reed and David Carradine. Then there's desert sniper thriller THE WALL, starring John Cena and Sidney J. Furie's aerial action sequel IRON EAGLE II, starring Louis Gosset Jr.
Other channel premieres include full-throttle thriller THE COURIER, starring Olga Kurylenko, Terence Young's wild spaghetti western RED SUN, gritty Canadian crime drama 2:22, starring Val Kilmer, Tony Scott's acclaimed psychological thriller THE FAN, starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes, KING ARTHUR: EXCALIBUR RISING, a vivid re-imagining of the Arthurian legend, hot crime drama NO MERCY, starring Richard Gere and Kim Basinger and the sci-fi thriller PROSPECT, heralded as the best indie sci-fi since Moon.
This month's THE VINTAGE VAULT, which journeys into the history of genre cinema every Sunday night, includes such classics as THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962), DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS and THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES.
Here's all the details you need to know:
Set against a gritty London backdrop, THE COURIER on the 3rd stars Olga Kurylenko as a tough motorbike courier who discovers that one of the packages she's transporting is a bomb, and that it is set to kill the only witness able to testify against ruthless crime lord Ezekiel Mannings (Gary Oldman). Can she evade Mannings' heavily armed army ad deliver justice? A channel premiere of a 70s on the 8th, RED SUN. A gang robs a train and steals a ceremonial Japanese sword meant as a gift for the U.S. President, prompting a manhunt to retrieve it. Starring Charles Bronson, Toshir? Mifune, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress.
Another date for your diary is the 9th and the channel premiere of 2:22. The plan was easy. The job was not. On a snowy night, a tight-knit crew of four criminals plan to pull of a routine heist. When things go horribly wrong, friendship, loyalty and trust are pushed to the limit. A Canadian crime thriller directed by Phillip Guzman and starring Mick Rossi, Robert Miano, Aaron Gallagher, and Jorge A. Jiminez. A stunning, star-studded thriller on the 10th with Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes, THE FAN. The impressive career of baseball superstar Bobby Rayburn (Snipes) means more to Gil Renard (De Niro) than any other fan. However, Renard's fixation starts to cross the line when his own life begins spiralling downward, and when his hero is replaced in the team, Renard's obsession takes a deadly turn.
Legends rise on LEGEND on the 15th in KING ARTHUR: EXCALIBUR RISING. In the heat of battle, Arth-yr lands his son, Mordred, a fatal blow with the legendary Excalibur, sword before receiving a deadly wound himself. Before dying, he tasks his loyal knight Sir Bedivere with returning Excalibur, the source of Arth-yr's powers, to the Lady in the Lake. Then we're back in the present on the 17th for NO MERCY. Chicago detective Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) poses as a hitman, but things go wrong, and his partner is brutally murdered. He follows suspect Michel (Kim Basinger) back to New Orleans and learns she in connected to a shadowy figure named Losado (Jeroen Krabbe). To bring him out in the open, Eddie abducts Michel, knowing the consequences could be fatal.
Showing as part of War Stories Season on the 19th prepare to meet THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS! Rebel AAC pilot Bob Yeager (Bo Svenson) and surly private Fred Canfield (Fred Williamson) are among a dozen soldiers on their way to face court-martials. But when German aircraft strafe their truck the pack of ex-crooks, loafers and misfits decide to fight their way to freedom in Switzerland - stealing a Nazi V2 rocket warhead en route. Also as part of the season don't miss COMPANY OF HEROES on the 24th. During the last major German offensive of World War II, a company of American soldiers is lost behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge, and they make a horrific discovery - Hitler has a super bomb in development. Faced with impossible odds, the company and an escaping POW go on a daring raid into the heart of Nazi Germany in pursuit of the scientist in charge of a Hitler's weapons programme.
Our final channel premiere is on the 29th and stars Hollywood's hottest star Pedro Pascal, PROSPECT . A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Also stars Sophie Thatcher and Jay Duplass.
MORE FEATURES LEGEND kicks off the New Year with thrilling round of premieres! Posted on 17th December 2024From cult classics like Roy Ward Baker's LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES to legendary director Walter Hill's BULLET TO THE HEAD and Sacha Bennett's WE STILL STEAL THE OLD WAY, LEGEND has scheduled eleven channel premieres in January to kick off the New Year in thrilling fashion.
Other premieres include the classic mercenary thriller THE WILD GEESE, starring screen legends Richard Burton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris, sci-fi actioner LOOPER, starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, sniper thriller DEADLY TARGET, crime drama EMPIRE STATE, starring Liam Hemsworth and Dwayne, biographical disaster movie DEEPWATER HORIZON, high-octane action thriller WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, British ...
LEGEND unwraps sixteen premieres for December Posted on 26th November 2024LEGEND unwraps sixteen channel premieres for December, filling the festive season with top-class thrillers, chillers and action-hitters, including Fred Zinnemann's 1973 classic THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, Robert Rodrigues' star-packed Machete sequel MACHETE KILLS (Lady Gaga, Mel Gibson), Michael Noer's gripping remake of PAPILLON (2017), the deadly diamond heist MOMENTUM, starring Oleg Kurylenko and the superb techno-thriller LIMITLESS, starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. De Niro also stars in RIGHTEOUS KILL, alongside Al Pacino.
During the month, Hollywood's most-celebrated muscle men are in crime-thrilling action, including Steven Seagal in DRIVEN TO KILL and BEYOND THE LAW, Dolph Lundgren a...
LEGEND reveals a bumper sixteen premieres for November Posted on 27th October 2024 Sixteen action-packed Channel premieres light up LEGEND this November, including a double-dose of weird, stylish and depraved action with CRANK, starring Jason Statham and Any Smart, who both team up again for the sequel CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE. There are also two of legendary director Sidney Lumet's films - the intense crime saga FAMILY BUSINESS, starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick and his critically acclaimed crime-legal drama Q & A, starring Nick Nolte and Timothy Hutton.Plus, there are first showings for John Irvin's underrated Vietnam war drama HAMBURGER HILL, Peter Berg's PATRIOTS DAY, based on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Brad Furman's slick Hollywood thriller RUNNER RUNNER,...
LEGEND reveals ten action-packed premieres for October Posted on 24th September 2024 Ten action-packed Channel premieres blast onto LEGEND this October, including Michael Mann's virtuoso cat-and-mouse thriller HEAT, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Steven Soderbergh's cult crime comedy OUT OF SIGHT, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller UNFAITHFUL, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, David Fincher's dangerous mystery thriller THE GAME, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn and John Badham's cop action comedy THE HARD WAY, starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods.Other primetime channel premieres are action thrillers DAYLIGHT, starring Sylvester Stallone, THE ENFORCER, starring Antonio Banderas and Kate Bosworth, Western THE VIRGINIAN, starring Ron Perlman, da...
LEGEND reveals ten epic premieres for September Posted on 29th August 2024Ten epic adventures have their Channel Premieres this September, including the star-studded neo-noir thriller L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, Jim Mickle's twisty crime thriller COLD IN JULY, John G. Avidsen's powerful South African drama THE POWER OF ONE, John Amiel's masterful psychological mystery ENTRAPMENT, starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Robert Aldrich's classic violent Western ULZANA'S RAID starring Burt Lancaster.
Other primetime channel premieres are action thrillers CROSS THE LINE, starring Michelle Barton and Luke Goss, ASSAULT ON STATION 33, starring Weston Cage Coppola (Nicolas Cage's son), THE HUNTED, starring Christopher Lambert, THE NEGIOT...
LEGEND reveals Saturday night slate of premieres for August Posted on 27th July 2024Saturday nights on LEGEND in August feature a slate of action thrillers including BUSHWICK, starring Dave Bautista, ARMED RESPONSE, starring Wesley Snipes and NIGHT HUNTER, starring Henry Cavill, Stanley Tucci and Ben Kingsley. Plus, there is epic adventure EDGE OF THE WORLD, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and psychological mystery thriller BACKTRACK, starring Adrian Brody and Sam Neill.
Also, the cult fantasy/science fiction anthology series THE TWILIGHT ZONE, continues on Saturday and Sunday nights with the Channel premiere of Season 3.
Here's everything you need to know.
Residing in the world of fantasy and science fiction, THE TWILIGHT ZONE has become the role model for TV anthologies, brilli...
Bad Lieutenant heads up Channel premieres on LEGEND this July Posted on 20th June 2024Abel Ferra's brilliant and controversial 70s neo-noir crime thriller BAD LIEUTENANT, featuring a magnetic performance from Harvey Keitel, gets its Channel premiere and heads up a summer season of action thrillers on LEGEND this July.
The exciting line-up includes the UK TV premiere of STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY, a sharp-shooting Canadian western based on the life story of the life story of outlaw Nathaniel Reed.
Other premieres are Lawrence Kasdan's Western caper SILVERADO, starring Kevin Costner and Kevin Cline, Nick Love's violent football drama THE FOOTBALL FACTORY, starring Danny Dyer, THE FAMILY (aka Violent City), an Italian / English crime thriller starring Charles Brons...
Summer sizzles on LEGEND this June with a season of hot premieres Posted on 21st May 2024Nordic warriors, arch assassins, menacing mercenaries and avenging heroes invade the June schedule on LEGEND, with Channel premieres for William Friedkin's star-studded military legal drama RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley, Viking Apocalypse fantasy HAMMER OF THE GODS, and muscle-men Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme get to one-up in submarine action thriller BLACK WATER.
Other Channel premieres include sinister survivalist thriller FUGITIVES, black-op thriller MAXIMUM CONVICTION, starring Stephen Seagal, stunningly visual historical action-drama SWORD OF VENGEANCE, Vietnam war thriller P.O.W. THE ESCAPE in whic...
Crime and sci-fi adventures headline May 2024 premieres on LEGEND Posted on 25th April 2024Crime dramas, action thrillers and sci-fi adventures headline the May line-up on LEGEND, with UK TV premieres for prison drama A VIOLENT MAN, starring an outstanding Craig Fairbrass and UNCHAINED, a riveting crime thriller starring Adrien Brody, Antonio Banderas and John Malkovich.
Channel premieres include two Dominic Cooper thrillers, STRATTON and THE ESCAPIST, which also stars Brian Cox and Joseph Fiennes. Then there's hard-hitting Brit gangster drama WE STILL KILL THE OLD WAY, and superior sci-fi drama THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, starring Ashton Kutcher.
Plus, there are first time showings for the star-studded LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, with Josh Harnett, Bruce Willis...
PICK OF THE WEEK