Entertainment

Reel good

IT’S COMPLICATED, 2009
Monday, 9:30 a.m., USA (©Universal/courtesy Everett / Ev)

MAD MAX, 1979
Thursday, 4:30 p.m., AMC (©American International Pictures)

INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1996
Saturday, 5 p.m., Spike (20th Century Fox Licensing/Merch)

Peyton Place, 1957

Sunday, 10:15 a.m, TCM

Allison McKenzie (Diane Varsi) looks back on life pre-Pearl Harbor in the small New England town of Peyton Place. It looks staid and sweet, but the place is seething with incest, adultery, scandal and buried secrets. What’s not to love? With Lana Turner and Hope Lange, the movie was so scandalously hot for its time that it launched an equally successful TV series starring — are you ready? — Ryan O’Neal and Mia Farrow.

It’s Complicated, 2009

Monday, 9:30 a.m., USA

A funny almost-love story starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin as a couple who’ve been divorced for 10 years but who get drunk in New York City after a family celebration. They end up sleeping together, which makes it all, well, complicated, within their family, with his wife and her semi-boyfriend (Steve Martin).

Mad Max, 1979

Thursday, 4:30 p.m., AMC

Before Mel Gibson became Mad Mel he was Mad Max, one of the great action/adventure characters in all of moviedom. It’s post-apocalyptic Australia and the world is on the verge of total chaos when the best friend, wife and baby of Max — a cop — are murdered. This turns him into judge, jury, executioner and all-around mad man on a quest for revenge. “Mad Max” was made on the cheap for $650,000 and ended up earning $100,000,000.

Independence Day, 1996

Saturday, 5 p.m., Spike

A great sci-fi disaster movie about a gigantic alien space craft heading towards Earth with the intention of turning us into ash. After NYC, LA and DC are destroyed on July 3rd, a scientist (Jeff Goldblum), a military man (Will Smith) and some survivors head to Area 51, where it is believed that an alien spaceship and/or alien captives are held. It’s up to the scientist, the captain and US president (Bill Pullman) to fight aliens with aliens. There are spectacular special effects and enough pyrotechnics for any action fan.