2 Guns, Papadopoulos & Sons, Easy A, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Iceman: films on TV today

ANDREW COLLINS: FILM OF THE DAY 
PREMIERE 2 Guns ★★★★
9.00-11.10pm C4 

I make no highfalutin claims for this wise-cracking, pistol-packing action movie, but it’s a perfectly daft, undemanding way to spend an hour and a half or so, whose sheer firepower may require you to wear earplugs. But then you’d miss the macho banter between Denzel Washington’s DEA agent and Mark Wahlberg’s undercover Navy SEAL as they shoot their way across the Tex-Mex border and back while attempting to pin something on grizzled drug lord Edward James Olmos and defy moustachioed black-ops man Bill Paxton. Blake Masters finesses the story from a comic by Steven Grant but the film retains its hyperreal graphic style under Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (who would rein in the excesses for the more accomplished Everest). I was offended by the scene in which chickens are buried up to their necks as target practice, but if you can treat this as hi-jinx, 2 Guns will provide otherwise guilt-free kicks.

Papadopoulos & Sons ★★★
PREMIERE 9.55-11.40pm BBC2 

When the global financial crisis bites, self-made businessman Harry Papadopoulos decides to cash in his chips — and fish (mushy peas, optional).

Easy A ★★★★
12.15-2.00am C4 

In this smart comedy, Emma Stone stars as a high-school nobody who becomes a somebody after spreading nasty rumours — about herself.    

It’s a Wonderful Life ★★★★★
3.40-6.20pm More4 

It wouldn’t be Christmas without this one. James Stewart embodies good will to all mean playing a suicide case brought back from the brink by a guardian angel.    

The Iceman ★★★
9.00-11.10pm Film4 

Hit-man with a heart? No way. With both Michael Shannon and Ray Liotta headlining this fact-based Mob thriller, you just know heads are going to roll.     

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