HDTV Movie Premieres: August 28-September 3

The History Boys: TV3, 10.20pm Saturday.

If you liked the stage play, you’ll probably give this quirky comedy high marks. But those new to its questionable scenario won’t be won over by the exaggerated performances, grotesque and clichéd characterisations, or dull direction. The perennially unappealing Richard Griffiths plays a maverick history teacher with a predilection for groping his older students’ loins but who is, nonetheless, the stuff of which outstanding grammar school graduates are made – or, in this case, Oxford and Cambridge hopefuls who are as insufferably precocious as they are ridiculously miscast. (2006)

The Hangover: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Sunday.

Three guys wake up in a Vegas hotel room unable to find their best friend, who’s mysteriously disappeared on his wedding day. Thereupon ensues what Variety memorably summed up as “a boys-gone-wild laff riot that also clicks as a seriocomic beat-the-clock detective story”. Todd Phillips (Starsky & Hutch, Old School) directs Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha and Zach Galifianakis. (2009)

Jaws: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Sunday.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the box, here comes Steven Spielberg’s milestone man-eater of a thriller in HD. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw star in the box office phenomenon that spawned not only imitations but also changed the marketing and making of Hollywood films. It also made a star of its 26-year-old director, who somehow survived the nightmarish, all-at-sea shoot and a mechanical shark that, because it sunk more often than it swam, was nicknamed “The Great White Turd”. (1995)

Adventureland: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Tuesday.

Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) and Kirsten Stewart (Jumper) star in this odd-couple romantic-comedy set in a mid-’80s amusement park that steers clear of the typical teen nostalgia clichés. As The Washington Post said of writer/director Greg Mottola (Superbad): “Thanks to an exceptionally deft touch, Mottola manages to capture the absurdity and anguish of young adulthood, while never sacrificing meaning on the altar of crude humour.” (2009)

After the Sunset: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Thursday.

Entertaining crime caper in which Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek play crackerjack jewel thieves eluding FBI agent Woody Harrelson on the eve of going straight. Or are they? Brett Ratner directs a screenplay by Paul Zbyszewski, the writer/producer of TV’s Lost and Day Break. (2004)