Remakes on the premium channels

I noticed that those of us with DirecTV have a Free Preview weekend running through the 20th, which I would presume means the midnight between Monday and Tuesday. So I was paying a bit more attention to what's on those channels, and noticed a couple of American remakes of British classics.

First is the Tom Hanks version of The Ladykillers, which will be on Showtime Women at 3:00 PM today, and again at 1:35 AM tomorrow, or overnight tonight, since that would be Sunday evening Pacific time if you've got the east coast feed. I haven't seen this version of the Ealing Studios classic about a bunch of guys who plan to rob a bank, and hole up in the boarding house of an elderly lady to plot the robbery, only for things to go awry when the elderly woman figures out what's going on. I have to admit that I personally prefer some of the other comedies to The Ladykillers, but that a whole lot of people consider it to be one of the very best movies from Ealing's output. (I prefer The Lavender Hill Mob and Kind Hearts and Coronets.)

Tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM on TMC Xtra you can watch the 2006 film School for Scoundrels. I haven't seen this remake either, so I can't comment on it any more than the plot synopsis and reviews I've read. Jon Heder plays a New York parking cop who loses his girl, and takes an assertiveness class from Billy Bob Thornton to try to get the girl back. Only, he apparently finds out that the Thornton character also wants to win the girl's heart, so Heder and the rest of the students try to turn the table on Thornton. IMDb reivews vary widely on this one. Then again, I had significant problems with the original, too.