HDTV Movie Highlights: May 1-7

Watchmen: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Sunday.

Imagine a world in which Richard Nixon was still President of the United States, vigilantes dress up as superheroes and James Ellroy had created Batman. That’s pretty much the premise of this enthralling dramatisation of the only graphic novel to make Time’s list of last century’s top 100 English-language novels. A dazzling, dizzying, epic take on the American Dream gone bad, it makes every other superhero franchise look puny and its sizzling cinematic panache is breathtaking to behold in HD. Zach Snyder (300) directs. (2009)

Bringing Down the House: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Sunday.

Steve Martin and Queen Latifah star in this odd-couple, culture-clash comedy about an escaped prisoner who moves in with a high-strung lawyer she wants to clear her name. Martin and Latifah get on like a house on fire but aside from a few bellylaughs, the humour’s more formulaic than funny. Eugene Levy and Joan Plowright co-star. (2003)

Bee Season: TV3, 10.25pm Sunday.

Quipped the Miami Herald: “A drama about dysfunction, spelling bees, mental illness, Hare Krishnas and kaballah. The movie is just as unwieldy as it sounds, except that it also stars Richard Gere.” Juliette Binoche and Kate Bosworth co-star. (2005)

Kiss the Girls: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Friday.

Morgan Freeman plays a serial killer-stalking cop in this suspenseful thriller co-starring Ashley Judd and Cary Elwes. The story stumbles towards the end but the tension and a nifty twist will keep you hooked. (1997)