HDTV Movie Premieres: November 26-December 2

Just Like Heaven: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Saturday.

Reese Witherspoon walks the line between two worlds in an appealing but pedestrian romantic comedy about a workaholic who doesn’t have a life until she enters the afterlife. She plays a dateless doctor at Death’s door whose spirit haunts her old apartment when it’s sublet to a grieving architect (Mark Ruffalo). Despite reuniting Freaky Friday director Mark Waters and scriptwriter Leslie Dixon, Just Like Heaven never rivals that out-of-body romp for wit, energy or fun. (2005)

It’s Complicated: TV3, 8.30pm Sunday.

It’s funny – much more so than you would expect given the track record of writer/director Nancy Meyers (The Holiday, Father of the Bride). True, the trite last act is reminiscent of her previous comedies but for the most part It’s Complicated is a sweet, droll romp, with a love triangle twist, about middle-aged dread: not only learning to date again but, worse, having an affair with the philandering ex- you dumped 10 years earlier. Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Steve Martin star. (2009)

The Dilemma: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Sunday.

On the eve of two best friends clinching a deal to launch their company, one suspects the other’s wife of infidelity and agonises over what to tell him. Vince Vaughn and Kevin James star in what Variety said was “not a particularly funny movie. Indeed, the true dilemma of this misguided seriocomedy lies in the filmmakers’ confusion as to whether they’re making a side-splitting bromance (nope) or an unsparing, warts-and-all look at screwed-up relationships (sort of).” (2011)

X-Men 2: TV3, 8.30pm Monday.

This sequel marked the 40th anniversary of the Marvel comic book about mutants with mind-boggling powers who, after being exiled by Earthlings, have mutated into two factions — one led by the war-mongering Magneto (Ian McKellen), the other by the peace-spouting Xavier (Patrick Stewart). The old friends-turned-foes unite to stop a new threat from exterminating their kind in a storyline as jaded as another Star Trek instalment but with super-heroic special effects. (2003)

Thank You for Smoking: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Monday.

Scorching smoke-and-mirrors satire about a tobacco industry lobbyist who’s a self-proclaimed “merchant of death” with “a moral flexibility that goes beyond most people”. Although more than a decade’s passed since the novel was published, the timing of this witty and subversive poke at politicians and the PR industry couldn’t be more relevant. Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno) directs his own screenplay; Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello and JK Simmons star. (2005)

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Tuesday.

Entourage’s Jeremy Piven plays a wheeler-dealer whose team of “car mercenaries” specialise in salvaging car yards under threat of liquidation. Most critics thought the movie a train wreck — “tediously one-note” (The Hollywood Reporter), “sloppy compendium of filthy jokes and lowbrow sight gags” (The Washington Post) — but Roger Ebert thought it “a cheerfully energetically and very vulgar comedy”. Ring Vhames and Step Brothers’ Kathryn Hahn co-star. (2009)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Wednesday.

Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie try to save the world in this novel blend of Flash Gordon gung-ho heroism and computer animation rooted in the Metropolis of nearly 80 years ago. The art deco visuals dazzle with their virtuosity, the special effects are fabulous and the corny but never campy dialogue is peppered with delights like “Good luck, Skip” and “Alert the amphibious squadron!” (2005)

Dumb & Dumber: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Friday.

Numbskull comedies don’t come funnier than this Jim Carrey hit about two Looney Tunes losers who are let loose together on a road trip. Jeff Daniels is more than a moronic match for Carrey and while the laughs are unrelentingly lowbrow, the leads are so likeable and their antics so uproarious that you’ll be Dumb-founded by your baser instincts. The Farrelly Brothers direct their first movie. (2001)