TV: Small screen movies

Get out the tissues, dog lovers, for this corny but irresistible canine fable about a stray puppy's adventures. Played by real dogs but voiced by Matthew Modine, he's helped to adapt to the streets by Samuel L Jackson's streetwise mutt. But apart from loveable doggie antics, there's something else going on: Fluke doesn't just voiceover like a man, he used to be one – and as his human memories come back, he remembers that his surviving human family need protecting. Based on James Herbert's bestseller and directed by Carlo Carlei, this is a sneaky heart-warmer. Also showing

Deficit

***

Wednesday, Film4, 11:05pm

Premiere of this interesting Mexican movie, directed by young Gael Garca Bernal who also plays the annoying rich kid whose attempts to throw a party in his parents' mansion while they're away go horribly wrong.

Hitman

***

Sunday, Channel 4, 10pm

Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant is the tough guy in this thriller about an assassin on the run from deadly organisations and trying to find an identity beyond killing. It's not as good as Bourne, but it's mean and moody.

Deathwatch

***

Friday, More4, 9pm

As if the trenches of the First World War weren't bad enough, a group of British soldiers manage to survive going over the top in 1917 to find that there's something worse than Germans lying in wait, in this spooky supernatural horror.

This article was first published in the Scotsman, May 8, 2010