HD Highlights: July 31

Sky Movies Greats Premiere: Poseidon (Sky 22, 8.30, 5.1) The killer wave can’t come quick enough in this lame duck of a disaster movie that’s a technical tour-de-force but a damp squib dramatically. It completes director Wolfgang Petersen’s so-called “water trilogy” yet sails perilously close to being his Waterloo in the wake of Das Boot and The Perfect Storm. Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss and Emmy Rossum star. For an insight into the special effects, and how the filmmakers built a highly detailed model of 6,500 pieces so it would be perfectly manageable, see Animation World Network’s in-depth report. (2006) ✭✭✩

Season Premiere: Coastwatch (TV One, 7.30) See what’s involved in patrolling and enforcing the law that protects our coastlines, waterways and billion dollar Kai-moana industries. ✭✭✭

Kings Cross ER (TV3, 8.00) It’s emergency medicine at its toughest when all relevant staff are called to the resus bay for a Code Crimson trauma – the highest priority emergency. A young man has been stabbed in the heart at a nightclub in Potts Point and his body is shutting down as the paramedics bring him in. Racing against time to save his life, the Emergency Team are forced to perform a high-risk heart procedure in the trauma bay. ✭✭✭✭

First Crossings (TV One, 8.30) Kevin and Jamie re-trace the first ascent of Mount de la Beche by Tom Fyfe and George Graham in 1894 – the first major peak conquered by New Zealand-born climbers. In the shadow of Mount Cook, they traverse through crevice filled glaciers, before climbing a rock wall likened to a vertical bowling alley and making their way across a thin ice shelf before overcoming the altitude-sapping, last haul to the summit. Said the Nelson Mail’s Alistair Paulin of this rugged newcomer: “The genetic forebear to the show is Man vs Wild but, happily, First Crossings is not all about Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald, the daring duo who, before they set about recreating pioneering Kiwi explorations, did things like row across the Atlantic together. On Man vs Wild, Bear Grylls is forever turning to the camera to tell us how gnarly what he just did was. Kevin and Jamie turn to the camera to marvel at how tough the original explorers must have been. The bravado on display does not feel like hollow boasting, but hard-earned admiration for the men who opened up New Zealand’s early routes.” ✭✭✭✭

Hawaii Five-0 (TV3, 9.30, 5.1) Five-0 investigates a suspicious plane crash and the death of a customs agent who was on board. The case takes a twist when the probe reveals the victim was dead before the plane took flight. With an opening that could be from a Michael  Bay movie, could this be the episode the lifts Five-0 out of the ratings doldrums? TV Fanatic said it “clicked on nearly every level” while Five-0 Undercover declared: “Dare I say that for the first time this season, the Five-0 team is back to their old form? McGarrett has been cleared of the Governor’s murder, Kono is no longer undercover nor under Captain Fry’s thumb, Chin isn’t begging Kono to resist the Dark Side, and Danny is no longer mopey about Rachel.  This is episode eight and I finally got the vibe that things were back to normal.” ✭✭✭