TV: Sky 148 / Virgin 149 / Freeview 41 / Freesat 137
The new year on LEGEND kicks off in action-packed style with ten Channel premieres including Hal Ashby’s electrifying murder thriller 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE, starring Jeff Bridges and Rosanna Arquette, the mystery serial-killer thriller STRIKING DISTANCE, starring Bruce Willis, hard-hitting historical epic ROBERT THE BRUCE, brutal crime drama KILLERMAN, and Rutger Hauer stars as a blind, sword-swinging Vietnam vet in Philip Noyce’s BLIND FURY, a US adaptation of Japan’s popular Zato-ichi films.
Other channel premieres include Aussie sci-fi mend-bender PREDESTINATION, starring Ethan Hawke, slick, gun-toting neo-noir thriller. HITMAN REDEMPTION, starring Ron Perlman, ASSASSINATION GAMES, in which Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins play deadly assassins and the classic 1964 epic ZULU, staring Stanley Baxter and Michael Caine.
This month’s THE VINTAGE VAULT strand on Sunday nights is headlined by the Channel premiere of supernatural horror HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, starring Vincent Price. Other genre gems include DRACULA (1958), THE MUMMY (1959), THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and CIRCUS OF HORRORS.
Plus, prime-time highlights on LEGEND XTRA, include Paul Hyett’s flesh-biting HOWL, Sci-Fi tech terror KILL COMMAND, cosmic chiller STRANGE INVADERS, serial-killer thriller DEADLY FORCE, classy vampire road movie STAKE LAND, Walter Hill’s car-chase classic THE DRIVER, the ever-haunting PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and intense thriller STANDOFF.
Legend premieres in transmission order:
Thurs 4 Jan @ 21:00 – ROBERT THE BRUCE (2019) *Channel Premiere
Robert the Bruce (Angus MacFadyen) crowns himself King and takes the ambition of Scotland’s freedom as his own. But he cannot overcome England’s power: defeated again and again, his army is scattered, and Scotland’s nobility abandons him. But his determination to do what is right, regardless of the cost, reinvigorates his passion to rise again. It’s not revenge he desires. It’s freedom.
Sat 6 Jan @ 21:00 –STRIKING DISTANCE (1993) *Channel premiere
Convinced that a newly active serial killer is the same gunman who murdered his father, disgraced cop Tom Hardy (Bruce Willis) is working outside of his jurisdiction to catch the murderer. At odds with his new partner (Sarah Jessica Parker), he goes around the system, as he races the clock to find the real killer before the wrong man is executed for the crime.
Thurs 11 Jan @ 21:00 – PREDESTINATION (2014) *Channel Premiere
A Temporal Agent (Ethan Hawke) is sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to ensure the continuation of his law enforcement career for all eternity. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time.
Sat 13 Jan @ 21:00 – 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE (1986) *Channel Premiere
Matt Scudder (Bridges) is an ex-cop with a bad drinking problem who freelances on jobs other cops won’t touch. When he accepts a fat fee to help a sex worker get free of her pimp, Scudder lands in the middle of a savage murder that hits too close to home, especially when he meets the enigmatic Sarah (Rosanna Arquette).
Wed 17 Dec @ 14:20 – ZULU (1964) *Channel premiere
Now a classic epic, made 50 years ago, this is the true story of the defence of a missionary station and hospital called Rorke’s Drift, where 139 soldiers of the South Wales Border regiment held off 4,000 Zulu warriors during the Zulu War of 1879. Stars Stanley Baker and Michael Caine.
Thurs 18 Dec HITMAN REDEMPTION (2018) *Channel Premiere
Asher (Ron Perlman), a former Mossad agent turned gun for hire, lives an austere life in Brooklyn. Approaching the end of his career, he breaks the oath he took as a young man when he meets Sophie (Famke Janssen) on a hit gone wrong. In order to have love in his life before it’s too late, he must kill the man he was for a chance at becoming the man he wants to be.
Sat 20 Dec @ 22:50 – BLIND FURY (1989) *Channel Premiere
The kid is a brat, and the bus ride from Miami to Reno is long, but Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer) promised the boy’s dying mom that he’d deliver the child to his father (Terry O’Quinn). She was killed by gangsters, and if not for Nick, they’d have the kid, too. Now the two are on the run, and thugs are waiting for them around every corner.
Sun 21 Dec @ 21:00 – HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) *Channel Premiere
*Part of The Vintage Vault
Eccentric millionaire Steven Price (Vincent Price) offers his party guests $1 million if they stay the night in a mansion that was once an insane asylum. Not knowing Price has rigged the house with spooky contraptions, the guests think they’ll make some easy money and leave unscathed in the morning. But, along with Price’s bogus scares, a very sinister — and real — spirit lurks in the house.
Thurs 25 Dec @ 21:00 – KILLERMAN (2019) *Channel Premiere
When NYC money launderer Moe Diamond (Liam Hemsworth) wakes up from a car crash, he’s left with no memory, millions in stolen cash, and an insane crew of dirty cops hunting him down. With a stranger (Emory Cohen) who says he’s his best friend and a fiancée he doesn’t remember, Moe must race against the clock to discover his own identity and escape his past, before it destroys any chance at a future.
Sat 27 Jan @ 22:50 – ASSASSINATION GAMES (2011) *Channel Premiere
Vincent Brazil (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Roland Flint (Scott Adkins) are elite assassins – but unknown to each other. While Conway is a master sharpshooter, Chase is equally skilled with a knife. The two rival assassins form an uneasy alliance to take down the head of a drug cartel, which is backed by the DEA.
