# Premium Channel Premieres: February 2010



## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

As has been the case lately, Starz has their information available now, so I'm putting up the schedule information for February 2010, at least as it stands at the time I'm posting this.

_Hopefully this thread will be updated as information becomes available and folks are able to post the information here. As always, everyone will hopefully of course appreciate any information you may be able to add (such as the always helpful Pablo has been able to provide :up. If you find the information useful, you may wish to subscribe to this thread so you'll receive e-mails as information is added _

All Premiere's on Saturdays, unless otherwise noted.
All times east unless otherwise noted.

Note please that I haven't confirmed that the programs I have listed are actually premiering for the first time on these channels. These programs may have been shown on channels, or on other nites before the dates shown. The information below is just a look at the list of movies and major programs that are upcoming and seem to be showing for the 'first time' (on the network that is shown) on the dates noted.

*Starz/Encore channels*

In February, *Starz* will continue with their new original "*Spartacus: Blood and Sand*", airing on Friday nights at 10:00p.m. (east).
*The Starz Saturday Premiere* -- every Saturday night at 9p.m. (east) offers *The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3* (2/20); and *Year One* (2/27).

*Encore* features alternate programming for Valentines day with *Football Withdrawal Theater*. Where most people might expect to find a sugary sweet collection of love stories, instead, well it's a marathon of testosterone. The line-up includes *Enemy of the State*, *Rambo III*, *Point Break*, *Bad Boys*, *Broken Arrow*, *The Mummy Returns*, and the incredibly cheesy *Speed*.
The channel also has a spotlight on *Goldie Hawn*.

*Starz*
Saturday Night Movies: Hit movies premiering every Saturday night at 9 p.m. (except, well, except for 2/6 and 2/13, when the premieres are currently slated to be repeats of _Paul Blart: Mall Cop_, and _Race to Witch Mountain_)

* The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3* 2/20 - (Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzman)
*Year One* 2/27 (Jack Black, Michael Cera, Olivia Wilde)

I recently watched the new version of *Pelham 1, 2, 3* and would have to say it was ok. If you had never seen the original film, and/or didn't have any pre-conceived notion of what the film should be like you would probably say it was enjoyable. I wouldn't go out of my way to see it (though I did bother to put it on my Blu-ray rental list), but wouldn't go out of my way to avoid it either.
I can't think of anything that would make me want to see *Year One*. (Well, actually, I could think of some twins, or, uh, pairs of things that might, but I seriously doubt there's any worth worrying about in this particular film.) I admit, I've not seen it and only saw the stupid trailers and billboard ads for it, but there was nothing about those trailers that inspires me to waste time or money seeing this film.

*HBO*
From info in HBO/Cinemax's January downloadable guide: in January, expect HBO to have the 2009 version of *Fast & Furious* along with their original series *Big Love*. Additionally HBO will have *Temple Grandin*, an original starring Claire Danes. Tagline/promo material says: "What made her different made her exceptional", along with "Autism gave her a vision. She gave it a voice." Given my now departed wife's fascination with the topic, I'm sorry she's no longer with us to see this one.

*Temple Grandin* (Claire Danes, David Stathaim, Catherine O'Hara, Julia Ormond) 2/6 8pm
*17 Again* (Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Sterling Knight, Melora Hardin, Brian Doyle-Murray, Allison Miller, Matthew Perry, Hunter Parrish, Nicole Sullivan, Jim Gaffigan) 2/13 8pm
*Bill Maher... But I'm Not Wrong* (Bill Maher) 2/13 10pm
*Fast and Furious* (Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, John Ortiz, Liza Lapira, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Assaf Cohen, Gal Gadot, Mirtha Michelle, Jack Conley, Shea Whigham, Sung Kang, Tego Calderon, Don Omar) 2/27 8pm

While I don't yet know the air dates for the touted HBO films (from their January online guide), I also have to admit to not knowing anything about _Fast & Furious_ other than that it brings back the same formula that was used earlier in the series.
I'm quite interested in seeing _Temple Grandin_, and really wish that my wife had lived long enough to see it. 

*Cinemax*
From info in HBO/Cinemax's January downloadable guide: in January, expect Cinemax to have *Miss March* and *The Last House on the Left*.

*Dragonball Evolution* (Justin Chatwin, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, James Marsters, Joong-Hoon Park, Randall Duk Kim, Ernie Hudson, Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Megumi Seki, Ian Whyte, Eriko Tamura) 2/6 10pm
*Miss March* (Raquel Alessi, Molly Stanton, Holly Hindman, Craig Robinson, Trevor Moore, Sara Jean Underwood, Zach Cregger) 2/13 10pm
*The Last House on the Left* (Tony Goldwyn, Garret Dillahunt, Martha Macisaac, Monica Potter, Spencer Treat Clark, Sara Paxton, Michael Bowen, Riki Lindhome, Aaron Paul, Joshua Cox) 2/20 10pm

Again, I don't yet know the air dates for the touted films for Cinemax in February, at least I know the titles, but that is all I can really say about them. Well, I might claim some interest in _Miss March_, but not enough to pay for Cinemax 

*Showtime*
Thanks to Pablo for catching Showtime's premieres, I've updated here. Showtime will premiere *The Family that Preys* along with *The Reader*.

*Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys* (Alfre Woodard, Kathy Bates, Tyler Perry, Sanaa Lathan, Rockmond Dunbar, Cole Hauser) 2/20 9pm
*The Reader* (Kate Winslett, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin) 2/27 9pm
I can't say anything about the Tyler Perry flick, but I did see *The Reader* and found it interesting though predictable. It features an award winning performance by it's female lead, though again is worth viewing. Note that it is not what I'd call a family friendly film. Some readers of my review of it at Amazon thought that might be obvious to most, but in case it isn't, I'd recommend screening the film yourself before watching with younger family members (due to sexual content).

*The Movie Channel*
It looks like The Movie Channel will be continuing their *Splatterday* on Saturdays line-up of horror themed films (double feature of horror themed movies on Saturday nites actually) for June.
(If you aren't a horror fan then it seems that The Movie Channel is going to have slim pickin's for you )


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

Lord Vader said:


> I can't see spending an extra $9.99 per month to watch this channel, which is essentially a rehash of other channels.


I think you might have been replying to discussion in the *January* thread, where someone was talking about the new *Epix* channel.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Probably. Too much eggnog perhaps.


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

Lord Vader said:


> Probably. *Too much eggnog perhaps.*


Impossible.


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

Links and information for HBO/MAX shows updated. I haven't checked for Showtime's information yet but have no confidence that they'll have anything posted yet. Give them a week or three and they might get around to putting their information up.


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

Ack... distinctly unsatisfying. I guess I'm dropping HBO next Tuesday. (We're working our way through Season 3 of Big Love, so we'll let that finish... it isn't worth keeping HBO just for Season 4 of Big Love -- we can get that on DVD next year.)


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## sorentodd45 (May 12, 2009)

The Starz "turn-around" window is really quick, as Year One and Pelham are still available on my pay per view VOD. It's clearly the best of the premiums (for movies anyways, as they don't have much original programming).


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

First of all - thank you for producing these lists.

My observation is that it will be interesting to see just what content is provided later in 2010 based on the lead time to the premium channels - 2009 was much less than an average quality movie year - so pickins may be slim for some months.

My local Blockbuster just finished their worst rental year ever, and reports I've read are that while 2009 receipts were up in *total* $$$, when you remove the top 10-12 "blockbusters" at the ticket booth.....the rest of the year was pretty dismal.

I would not be surprised to see more re-runs of some older titles - more than in previous years - to make up for the absense of quality movies from this past year.


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

bicker1 said:


> Ack... distinctly unsatisfying. I guess I'm dropping HBO next Tuesday. (We're working our way through Season 3 of Big Love, so we'll let that finish... it isn't worth keeping HBO just for Season 4 of Big Love -- we can get that on DVD next year.)


I wouldn't be so quick to drop HBO, or at least if you do drop it, I'd expect to be wanting to add it back in March when *The Pacific* starts it's run.

I've not heard when Hung comes back for another season, but I'm looking forward to it and will be ok on paying for HBO to get to see it.

Add in Entourage (whenever it comes back) and a few HBO specials (like the one I highlighted above) and I'm ok on handing my money to HBO.

The January thread had some discussion of the new Epix channel. I've been mildly interested in that channel, but I've been getting enough Blu-ray's either from buying or renting them from Blockbuster.com I admit, lately the pickings have been somewhat slim, but then again I have a good stockpile of titles that I can toss in my player and enjoy, most of which I've not seen yet. Epix has a few movies that I might be interested in catching, but DirecTV doesn't offer it and I don't have Verizon FiOS set-up in enough convenient locations in my house to make it worth having there.


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## ShawnL25 (Mar 2, 2007)

HBO and Cinemax thru March and Returning show dates

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20100114hbo06


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## pablo (Oct 11, 2007)

Showtime premieres:

2/13: The Family That Preys
2/20: The Reader


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

pablo said:


> Showtime premieres:
> 
> 2/13: The Family That Preys
> 2/20: The Reader


Updated above, thanks for catching this information (as always).


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## pablo (Oct 11, 2007)

HBO Coraline 2/4 9PM


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## russ9 (Jan 28, 2004)

pablo said:


> HBO Coraline 2/4 9PM


Thanks for catching that. Strange that it was a midweek premier over the Saturday one.


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## pablo (Oct 11, 2007)

HBO and other channels often do show premieres mid-week, I know it's annoying that they're not really advertised, I don't know why they do that.


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## pablo (Oct 11, 2007)

The new season of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher starts up on 02/19 at 10PM.


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## anubys (Jan 19, 2006)

I just noticed that "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is playing on 2/27 on Cinemax...

not sure if it's a premiere...but it's the first time I'm seeing it...


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## pablo (Oct 11, 2007)

It premiered a couple of months ago, I believe.


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