Posted at 6 p.m. Friday, June 6

Three very different types of made-for-TV movies debut this weekend. Here’s my takes on “Sybil,” “Backwoods” and “The Circuit.”

Jessica Lange and Tammy Blanchard take the roles famously acted by Joanne Woodward and Sally Field in CBS' remake of "Sybil."

SYBIL
7 p.m. Saturday CBS
I’d watch Jessica Lange read the phone book. Thankfully she gets to do more in this made-for-TV movie, starring as a psychiatrist who helps a client, Sybil (Tammy Blanchard), deal with her 16 separate personalities. Unfortunately this update of the superior 1976 TV movie skips too much story, which lessens the impact of the shocking atrocities that caused Sybil’s psyche to split. It also plants doubt the story is true, suggesting the two women, who died in the 1990s, made the whole thing up.

BACKWOODS
8 p.m. Sunday Spike TV
Eight colleagues go off into the woods for a company retreat but end up being hunted by members of a cult right out of “Deliverance.” I’m talking crossed eyes and twangy gee-tars here. The actors—including Haylie Duff (right), Danny Nucci and Ryan Merriman—do a good job, um, screaming and running. The second-rate script gets too misogynistic, but go figure—we’re watching Spike. Despite that, it was fun to see an arrow pierce a guy’s neck and other “Rambo”-like ambushes.

Michelle Trachtenberg, Drew Fuller and Billy Campbell race cars in "The Circuit."

THE CIRCUIT
7 p.m. Sunday ABC Family
Fresh from playing bad girl Georgina Sparks on “Gossip Girl,” Michelle Trachtenberg replaces the bitchy with brassy as a budding NASCAR driver. She’s no Speed Racer, no matter how fast she go-go-goes, because she won’t follow directions. She also doesn’t get along with her estranged father, a NASCAR legend (Billy Campbell), and is sleeping with her biggest competition (Drew Fuller). This made-for-TV flick has bedroom antics, family melodrama, you-go-girl spunk and a predictably cheesy ending. And lap after lap, it drew me in.

Posted at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, May 22

Sunny Mabrey (left) and Dean Cain try to outwit Anthony Michael Hall (right) in "Final Approach."

Daryl Hannah, Dean Cain, John Schneider, Anthony Michael Hall, Lea Thompson—no, this isn’t the line-up for the next season of “Dancing with the Stars.” But after their latest disastrous projects air this weekend, these actors may beg for the positive exposure.

These stars are helping Hallmark Channel make Memorial Day Weekend an adventure-filled holiday.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, “Final Approach” flies into living rooms, and if any movie ever had a cast of one-time all-stars, it’s this. Cain channels Jack Bauer as former FBI agent Jack Bender, who ends up on a flight hijacked by Hall and his terrorist band. Thompson plays his wife, an FAA official who wears very short skirts. Even Tracey Gold from “Growing Pains” shows up as a TV journalist who is secretly filming the hijackers.

The movie has its good points—naming all the has-beens, for example—but is far too long and scattershot. If it had focused just on the action on the hijacked airplane, it might have worked.

Speaking of has-beens, in “Shark Swarm,” airing at 7 p.m. Sunday, Hannah and Schneider (left) play a happy couple whose idyllic, ocean-front town is threatened by a dishonest developer—and a mutant shark swarm! The “Jaws” rip-off part of this film actually has some teeth (heyo!), but it gets lost in the convoluted crime tale and eco-friendly preachiness.

Again, a tighter focus would do wonders to keep the relevant action moving.

As hard as “Swarm” tries to muffle the suspense, one genuinely “Jaws”-like moment will make you jump. And no, it’s not when Hannah’s swimming in the ocean and you get a peek at her Spanx.

Posted at 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 25

Fay Wray (above) hung out with the gorilla in the 1933 "King Kong," while Naomi Watts did in the 2005 version.

What do you get a giant gorilla for his birthday?

"King Kong" turns 75 in a few weeks, and Turner Classic Movies, TBS and TNT are throwing him a big viewing party.

At 7 p.m. April 7, the cable network will air the original 1933 “King Kong” film starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot. If you’ve never seen it—and you like the lovestruck gorilla—check it out.

The party will continue at 7 p.m. April 11, when TBS and TNT simulcast Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Although Jackson’s version has some eye-popping effects, I kind of appreciate the original even more.

Sure, the original has some scenes that with today’s special effects now seem laughable, but it’s an amazing film. It used Willis O’Brien’s model animation—cutting edge at the time—to create the gorilla.

Just as he did on his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Jackson used computer animation and a performance by Andy Serkis—who played Gollum in “Rings”—to bring King Kong to life. The film won Oscars for its visual effects, sound and sound effects editing. It earned more than $200 million in the U.S.

It’s too bad the networks won’t be airing the 1976 version of “King Kong.” Sure, it was B … A … D—awful, but it did introduce the world to one of my favorite actresses, Jessica Lange (left). She co-starred with Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin—and make-up artist Rick Baker in a gorilla suit.

The 1976 version also used a giant mechanical Kong hand. Critics hated it, but it was a hit and earned an Oscar for visual effects.

It’s one of those so-bad-its-good films, in my opinion. And like I said—it introduced me to Jessica Lange.

Other “King Kong” birthday events:

Posted at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 8

If you’re looking for something fun to watch Saturday night on cable, don’t opt for the following two made-for-cable movies. You’ll be disappointed.

Lea Thompson plays soccer mom/secret agent/sleuth Cathy Davis in another “Jane Doe” mystery movie at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Hallmark Channel.

In “Jane Doe: How to Fire Your Boss,” junior agents at the National Security Agency gun down their bosses and don’t remember the attacks.

Sound like a nefarious plot involving mind control, you say? Correct. But thanks to a predictable story and obvious culprit, you’ll have the case wrapped up before Cathy, er, Jane, does.

The biggest mystery about this movie is why we have to watch Cathy struggle with a store-bought lasagna.

You won’t fair much better at 8 p.m. over at the Sci Fi Channel, where it’s that time of year again in Ellensford, Pa., in “Ogre.”

It’s the season in which the bad ol’ ogre terrorizes Ellensford until he’s fed another human.

John Schneider stars in this bomb as a town magistrate/sorcerer who makes a devilish deal to save his people from disease in return for the annual sacrifice. Schneider left The CW’s “Smallville”—for this? Soon he’ll have to rehabilitate his career on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Posted at 11:15 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 24

Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad recreate their Broadway roles for TV.

Sean Combs is getting most of the attention for his role in reviving interest in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun.” Without P. Diddy’s star power, the 2004 Broadway revival would not have been a hit.

And now, as a producer, the mogul helped bring the story to TV in a new, three-hour movie (7 p.m. Monday, ABC).

As far the film’s acting goes, however, Combs doesn’t stand a chance compared to the women with whom he shares the screen.

Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald own this “Raisin.” The two actresses, who both one Tony Awards for the Broadway revival, make Combs look like the newbie he is.

Combs plays Walter Lee Younger Jr., a frustrated 1950’s family man who lives in a cramped South Side apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother. Walter is relying on a $10,000 insurance check that his mother is expecting to make his dreams come true.

Everyone in the apartment has an idea on how to spend the money. And as they squabble over the check, Walter Lee’s mom, Lena (Rashad), struggles to hold her family together and give them a better future.

Rashad is incredible as the devout, authoritative yet loving Lena. She’ll likely be placing an Emmy Award next to her Tony for the role.

Audra McDonald, as Walter Lee’s put-upon wife Ruth, almost make you forget the ABC series “Private Practice” in which she stars. She’s heartbreaking as Ruth, who must grapple with her own life-altering decision without the help of her selfish husband.

The third actress overshadowing Combs is Sanaa Lathan, who deftly handles her role as Walter Lee’s sister, Beneatha. Lathan shows both her free spirit and crushing disappointment.

Back to Combs. He makes a great effort and honestly isn’t bad as Walter Lee. But he’s more sullen child than “a volcano,” as Walter Lee describes himself. It’s hard not to think that David Oyelowo, who turns in a great performance as a Nigerian student interested in Beneatha, would have done much better as Walter Lee.

But give credit where it’s due. Without Combs, a new generation likely wouldn’t have the chance to see this still relevant classic about racism and the American dream.

Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan and David Oyelowo excel in "Raisin."

Posted at midnight, Jan. 11.

Are you ready for a wild and crazy road trip?

If you’re easily offended, don't turn to Comedy Central's "Katt Williams: American Hustle" at 9 p.m. Sunday.

It'll make your ears burn.

Comedian Williams and his comic pals--Luenell, Red Grant and Melanie Comarcho--take a no-holds-barred, cross-country drive to Chicago in the concert film.

Luenell’s inappropriate performance at an old folks’ home is pure gross-out genius. I just can't share any of it with you here.

When they reach Chicago, Williams delivers a sharp show about celebrity, sex and drugs.