INSP is offering a mini-marathon of movies starring the C&I reader favorite.
Tom Selleck is back for your viewing pleasure this weekend as INSP presents new fewer than six movies — including three westerns — starring the mustachioed C&I reader favorite. The lineup includes:
Crossfire Trail (2001)
With director Simon Wincer again serving as his trail boss 11 years after they teamed for Quigley Down Under, Selleck saddled up for this western based on the Louis L’Amour novel of the same title, this time playing a gruff but noble drifter who makes good on his promise to a dying man that he’ll look after the luckless fellow’s widow (Virginia Madsen) and Wyoming ranch. Selleck is as effortlessly authoritative as always, but the big surprise here is seeing Mark Harmon (NCIS) cast against type as a two-faced, back-shooting land-grabber. (8 pm ET Friday, 2 pm ET Sunday)
Jesse Stone: Night Passage (2006)
Even though it actually had its prime-time premiere one year after Jesse Stone: Stone Cold, this drama is based on the first in the series of novels by Robert B. Parker about the title character, a former LAPD homicide detective whose heavy drinking cost him his gig in the City of Angels. Stone (a perfectly cast Selleck) is mildly surprised when he lands the position of police chief in the small coastal town of Paradise, Massachusetts, even after he shows up drunk for his official job interview. Only gradually does he realize he was hired because the corrupt town council chair (Saul Rubinek) thought Stone would be easy to control. But, of course, Stone isn’t. (10 pm ET Friday)
Last Stand at Saber River (1997)
Arguably the very best western on Selleck’s resume, this unabashedly old-fashioned and enjoyably exciting drama (based on a novel by Elmore Leonard) finds the charismatic star at the top of his form as an ex-Confederate cavalryman who seeks a new life with his strong-willed wife (Suzy Amis) and their two children (Haley Joel Osment — who’d later find fame in The Sixth Sense — and Rachel Duncan) on an Arizona homestead. Unfortunately, two Union-sympathizing brothers (played by real-life siblings Keith and David Carradine) have their own designs on the land. (8 pm ET Saturday)
Jesse Stone: Stone Cold (2005)
Selleck played Jesse Stone, the small-town New England police chief of Robert B. Parker’s popular series of novels, for the first time in this made-for-TV drama. The former LAPD homicide detective draws upon his years of experience catching murderers while gathering evidence against two wealthy middle-aged “thrill Killers” (Jane Adams, Reg Rogers) who have Stone’s friends-with-benefits (Polly Shannon) on their hit list. (10 pm ET Saturday)
Quigley Down Under (1990)
Selleck’s only theatrically released western, directed by Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove), imaginatively transplants the conventions of a Wild West yarn to an Australian setting. Matthew Quigley (Selleck), a sharpshooting good guy, makes the mistake of answering a help-wanted ad by a truth-twisting bad guy (Alan Rickman of Die Hard), a wicked rancher who wants to annihilate Aboriginal people with fair claim on the villain’s land. When Quigley refuses to co-operate, the rancher’s men take our hero and a half-crazed heroine (Laura San Giancomo) out into the Outback, and leave them to die. Not surprisingly, Quigley doesn’t take kindly to this. (8 pm ET Sunday)
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise (2006)
Selleck’s third movie as Jesse Stone has the small-town New England police chief investigating the murder of a teenage girl whose body is found floating in a lake. Is the culprit Norman Shaw (Gary Basaraba), a local author rumored to be obsessed with females below the age of consent? Or is it Leo Finn (Steven Flynn), a Boston mobster who’s the subject of Shaw’s upcoming book? Tune in and find out. (10:30 pm Sunday)