Monday, January 30, 2012 12:25 PM

Lake, Porter, Starke and LaPorte Counties in Northwest Indiana

Sunday   Monday   Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday   Friday   Saturday

Monday

Monday, Jan. 30, 8-10 p.m. EST (TCM) "Jane Eyre" (1944). Moody dramatization of Charlotte Bronte's dark romance about a lonely orphan (Peggy Ann Garner) in 19th-century England who grows to womanhood (Joan Fontaine) in a cruel school for unfortunates, then is hired as governess for the lonely ward (Margaret O'Brien) of a wealthy eccentric (Orson Welles) tormented by a tragic secret. Director Robert Stevenson makes good use of the bleak school and remote Yorkshire settings to deepen sympathy for the unhappy heroine's loveless childhood and later emotional yearnings for a brooding employer who has hidden away his demented wife. Romantic complications. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 9-10 p.m. EST (PBS) "Ice Age Death Trap." This episode of the series "Nova" visits a unique site packed with the astonishingly preserved bones of mammoths, mastodons and other giant extinct beasts (TV-G -- general audience).

Thursday

Thursday, Feb. 2, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. EST (EWTN) "Vespers With Religious on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Live)." From Rome's St. Peter's Basilica, on the World Day for Consecrated Life, Pope Benedict XVI presides at this service of evening prayer with the members of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The liturgy will be rerun 6:30-8 p.m. EST.

Thursday, Feb. 2, 8-11 p.m. EST (AMC) "The Natural" (1984). Screen version of the Bernard Malamud novel about a phenomenal baseball player (Robert Redford) is as much a fable about the temptations of worldly glory and the flesh as it is a red-blooded sports saga. Directed by Barry Levinson, it has a strong supporting cast (Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Wilford Brimley) but muddles the story's underlying themes of self-deceit, evil and mortality. Promiscuity figures in the plot but is treated with restraint. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Thursday, Feb. 2, 10:15 p.m.-12:30 a.m. EST (TCM) "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948). A trio of down-on-their-luck Americans in Mexico (Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt) pool their stakes to prospect for gold in the mountainous backcountry, stumble upon a rich vein of ore and then face dissension over dividing their sudden wealth and getting it past a local band of murderous cutthroats. Director John Huston's suspenseful adventure tale features standout performances by his father Walter as a happy-go-lucky veteran prospector and Bogart as a penny-ante drifter driven over the edge by greed. Some intense menace. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Friday

Friday, Feb. 3, 9-10 p.m. EST (PBS) "Time Machines." Kicking off the second season of his series "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook," the celebrated singer explores how technology has preserved -- and altered -- the way we think about the great songs and singers of the past (TV-PG -- parental guidance suggested).

Saturday

Saturday, Feb. 4, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. EST (AMC) "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). Stylish seriocomic Western set at the end of the 19th century when a pair of outlaws, Butch (Paul Newman) and the Kid (Robert Redford), realize that civilization has overtaken their profession and head for the Bolivian frontier. Director George Roy Hill brings off the action scenes with gusto and the proper amount of humor though, beneath the surface of the laughter and the silly mishaps, there are enough realistic scenes to show that their criminal exploits have serious consequences. Much stylized violence and a sexually suggestive situation. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Saturday, Feb. 4, 8-9:45 p.m. EST (HBO) "Rio" (2011). Buoyant animated adventure with music about a Brazilian-born macaw (voice of Jesse Eisenberg) raised as a cosseted pet in Minnesota. Informed by an eccentric Rio-based scientist (voice of Rodrigo Santoro) that her feathery friend is the last male of his species, his devoted owner (voice of Leslie Mann) reluctantly brings him back to his native land so that he can mate with his sole remaining female counterpart (voice of Anne Hathaway). But the potential lovebirds get caught up in the illegal avian trade. Lessons about environmental stewardship and love-inspired loyalty are decked out in kaleidoscopic colors and delivered in an overwhelmingly child-friendly tone in director Carlos Saldanha's 3-D flight of fancy. A few nursery-level bathroom references, a fleeting double entendre. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was G -- general audiences.

Saturday, Feb. 4, 8-11 p.m. EST (ABC) "Transformers" (2007). Engineered to appeal to a wide cross section of the public, this lumbering, mindless summertime entertainment -- based on the Hasbro action toys from the 1980s -- follows a teenager (Shia LaBeouf) embroiled in a battle between two factions of shape-shifting alien robots, with the fate of mankind and the universe hanging in the balance. Director Michael Bay has evidently benefited from working with executive producer Steven Spielberg, because humanistic themes offset Bay's propensity to fetishize weaponry and explosions, but not the movie's large amount of gratuitous material inappropriate for children and teens. Numerous sexual references, some crude language, a vulgar gesture, disrespectful racial jokes, drug references and some moderately violent action sequences. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Sunday

Sunday, Feb. 12, 8-11:30 p.m. EST (CBS) "The 54th Annual Grammy Awards." Rapper-actor LL Cool J hosts this live broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles of the ceremony recognizing musical excellence in a wide variety of genres, including rock, pop and rap. Scheduled performers include Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, Coldplay, Rihanna, Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Paul McCartney, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 8-10 p.m. EST (Lifetime) "A Lot Like Love" (2005). Occasionally appealing but mostly forgettable romantic comedy about a button-down Internet entrepreneur (Ashton Kutcher) and an impulsive free spirit (Amanda Peet) who, after an anonymous sexual tryst on a cross-country flight, continue to wander in and out of each other's life as they search for love, only to be drawn closer together with each meeting. Directed by Nigel Cole, the kismet-themed love story is weighed down by a predictable opposites-attract plot and bland performances and its breezy message about "taking chances" is dampened by its casual attitude toward premarital sex. Several sexual encounters, including one with shadowy nudity, drunkenness and some crude language. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 10 p.m.-midnight EST (Lifetime) "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" (2009). Pleasant, if largely predictable, romantic comedy in which a recently separated New York couple (Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) accidentally witness the contract killing of an arms dealer and, as part of the government's protection program, are abruptly relocated to rural Wyoming where, sheltered and shielded by a no-nonsense federal marshal (Sam Elliott) and his gun-toting wife (Mary Steenburgen), they gradually discover the joys of down-home living as they reassess their relationship. Writer-director Marc Lawrence's fish-out-of-water tale is an unabashed celebration of marriage and family life and, though it features extensive discussion of the negative effects of infidelity, is mostly free of objectionable material, making it probably acceptable for older teens. Adultery and infertility themes, off-screen marital lovemaking, a few mildly sexual jokes, at least one crude and one crass term. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 10:45 p.m.-12:30 a.m. EST (TCM) "Hester Street" (1975). Lively tale of Jewish immigrant life in New York's Lower East Side just before the turn of the century tells of the conflict between a husband (Steven Keats) who wants to forget all traces of his origins and his wife (Carol Kane) who refuses to abandon the Russian Jewish traditions in which she was raised. Directed by Joan Micklin Silver, it is a film to be seen as a piece of Americana but also to be savored for the many brilliant little scenes that comprise a pulsating mosaic of the immigrant experience shared by so many Americans of diverse national origins. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

NEXT WEEK SNEAK PEAK HERE......