HD Highlights: July 30

Network Movie Premiere: The A-Team (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) There’s something absurdly compelling about this outrageously ludicrous update of the dopey ‘80s TV hit. The original was named after four hired guns who were veterans of the Vietnam war on the run from the military for a crime they didn’t commit. Fast-forward 25 years and the set-up’s the same, but with an Iraq backdrop, a female nemesis and a visual effects budget bigger than the Pentagon’s. Pity the fool who expects this A-Team to be anything more than an alphabet soup of alpha-male malarkey. Joe Carnahan (Narc, The Grey) directs Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Gerald McRaney. (2010) ✭✭✭

SoHo Highlight: The Pillars of the Earth (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) In the penultimate episode, Jack learns how to build a cathedral filled with light, Waleran offers Philip a new position and Kingsbridge becomes prosperous again. Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Philip, will swap his cassock for Victorian garb when he stars as an EastEnd detective on the trail of Jack the Ripper in his next period drama series, Ripper Street. ✭✭✭✩