Combine the flavor of the old Brian Winston Reads TV Guide cable-access program (minus the pretentious social commentary), a taste for obscure movies, and an admittedly snobbish level of viewing discretion, and what do you get? Nathan’s Recommended Cable Viewing List. It is my opinion that the advent of DVD has made television viewing much less interesting; but with the presence of such wonderful networks as Encore, TCM, Sundance, IFC and Flix, that doesn’t have to be the case. (Yes, these channels still screen pictures that aren’t available on video). Here is my top-ten list of recommended features, documentaries and shorts airing on major cable stations for the week of February 3-9, 2008 – all four-star films that are not yet available on video. So sit back with me, pour yourself a glass of Chateau de Pommes 1975, and fire up that glitter box.

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There’s been a lot of gossip and speculation over the past few days over the fact that, as Anime News Network reported, ADV films has pulled a number of trailers from its website and yanked even more titles from its online store such as Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK, and Pumpkin Scissors. ADV also announced this month that it will be shutting down publication of the major anime magazine Newtype USA, and beginning work on a new magazine called PiQ, which will cover anime as part of the larger cultural spectrum it’s supposedly a part of, including anime, manga, and video games.

Rumors are flying that ADV is about to go the way of Geneon and shut down, and unsubstantiated speculation is rampant. Some forum-based gossip even claims that ADV is bankrupt from pouring too much money into the live action Neon Genesis Evangelion movie, which began development in 2003 but has been on hold for the past three years. That all seems pretty unlikely though. If ADV is indeed trimming a whole crap load of anime titles out of their distribution list, and are going forward with a pop-culture magazine that broadens its coverage to deal with more than just anime, then it sounds like ADV is just changing focus, and tweaking its place in the market. The anime titles that have suddenly gone missing from the website are almost all relatively obscure stateside — not shows that have generated major cult followings or been snatched up by Cartoon Network. Looks like they just don’t plan on continuing to include the hardcore otaku in their consumer base. It sucks, but that’s what fansubs are for.

Some years back, I began hearing rumblings of a curious movie phenomena known as “The Wilhelm Scream.” Having been an avid movie buff my entire life, I instantly thought I knew precisely what this was. Over the years I had repeatedly heard a very distinct scream in various films and, excited at the prospect of finally finding out exactly where this scream originated, I clicked on a YouTube link directing me to a compilation of so-called “Wilhelm” screams. Much to my dismay, I instantly realized that a lingering movie mystery had not been solved, but in fact grown more complex than ever before. The scream I had been hearing all these movies and falsely assumed to be the “Wilhelm Scream” was in fact something else entirely - but what? …and where did this scream originate?

I wish I had the answer to this question, though the research I have conducted simply hasn’t yielded any solid results. That said, I’m putting this out there in hopes that our readers may be able to shed some light on a movie mystery that has perplexed me for some time now. Included below is a link to the scream I had assumed to be the “Wilhelm Scream.” The most recent places I recall hearing the scream are in the movie Face/Off as Sean Archer (in Castor Troy-face) shoots a guard in the foot while making a dangerous prison break, and in the final frames of the trailer for the hallucinogenic comedy horror Shrooms.

Check out the mystery scream by clicking here, and by all means let us know if you can shed some much needed light on the matter!

Daddy Day Camp: If you squint, the leads in this look a lot like Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garland. And if you squint harder and plug your ears, watching it might not make you want to jump out a window.

The Comebacks: If you’re one of the people who propelled Meet the Spartans to the top of the box-office over the weekend… well, you probably aren’t able to read this, are you?

Ricco the Mean Machine: The English translation of the original Italian title for this 70s exploitation flick is Some Guy with a Strange Face is Looking for You to Kill You. And yes, the movie pays off on the promise of that title.

King of Kong - Fistful of Quarters: See the film critics have called one of the fifteen greatest documentaries about Donkey Kong released in the second-half of this decade so far.

The Nines: Two better than Se7en, half better than 8 1/2, but not quite as good as The Ten and far worse than 300.

The Invasion: Nicole Kidman stars in this film about cold, unemotional humanoids. It is not a documentary.

Also out today: The King of California, Right at Your Door, Feel the Noise and Rocket Science

An adaptation of Bari Wood’s cult novel A Doll’s Eyes, Neil Jordan’s In Dreams is a surrealistic, gothic thriller that received a harsh critical drubbing when it first bowed 9 years ago this month. Watching it on home video, I found it neither as pretentious nor as cliched as most critics did; in fact, I regard it - though not 100% successful - as one of the most interesting and underrated horror films of the ’90s. Adventuresome genre lovers might want to give this one a look.

The story concerns children’s book illustrator Claire Cooper (Annette Bening) a woman who moves to a farmhouse near a local reservoir with her young daughter Rebecca (Katie Sagona) and airline pilot husband Paul (Aidan Quinn).

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Bloated beefcake brawn rules in Rambo, the fourth entry that picks up twenty years after audiences last saw Sylvester Stallone stretching his pumped up musculature as the disillusioned action hero, John Rambo. This time, the character is pulled into the war-torn country of Burma, where genocide runs rampant as Christian peasants are blown to bits by meth-addled soldiers just waiting to get their throats ripped out by the puffy workhorse that is Stallone. Something the film is not, is schmaltzy — which is where one would think the aging screen star would skew the franchise after the saccharine-filled sentimentality of Rocky Balboa released just one year before. No, this Rambo is a mean buffet of kinetic action filmmaking that dares audiences to sit up in their seats and root for gore-filled retribution served up Stallone-style. The question is – are they ready for it?

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The Screen Actors Guild Award telecast went off last night with the blessing of the striking writers, and for those of us who have an unnatural affinity for these things it was a smashing return to the durable genre’s form. Those of us who love the combination of showbiz obsequiousness, false humility, genuine joy, and heartfelt gratitude probably probably had our spirits raised very early in the night when the disembodied emcee announced, “Ladies and gentlemen…Debra Messing and Zac Efron!”

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With the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild handing out their year-end awards over the weekend, those of you betting in your office Academy Award pools should be just about ready to go. The DGA and the SAG awards are traditionally two of the most reliable Oscar predictors, so rest assured that Daniel Day-Lewis is a mortal lock to win the Oscar (quite deservingly) for There Will Be Blood. Javier Bardem is a heavy favorite to take home the Best Supporting Actor Academy statuette, although there is a slim slim chance of Hal Holbrook pulling off an upset. Julie Christie is also a safe bet to take home the Best Actress award on February 24, but if anyone pulls off the surprise it just might be Ellen Page. Best supporting actress is still a tough call. After her surprise win last night you have to think Ruby Dee has a slight edge, but Amy Ryan won every critics award and Cate Blanchett is revered (although she has won recently which works against her this year).

The Coen Brothers snagged the award from the Directors Guild making them a huge favorite to take home the Oscar. The winner of that award takes home the Academy Award over 90% of the time. And since best director and Best Picture go hand in hand more often than not, No Country for Old Men seems at this point to be the odds on favorite for that prize. Only There Will Be Blood, which is the only film this year to successfully run an old-school prestige-pic Oscar campaign, could manage to take it away. Either way, a genuinely worthy film will take home the big prize