Movie Spotlight

The 1993 Beethoven’s 2nd (NBC Sunday at 7 p.m.) is just as funny and appealing as “Beethoven” the first, a family film that actually can be enjoyed by the whole family. As millions of moviegoers will recall, Beethoven is the name given to a lovable but horrendously messy Saint Bernard who escapes dognapers to become adopted by the Newtons, much to the chagrin of the fussy head of the family, George Newton (Charles Grodin). Now it’s time for Beethoven to fall in love--with Missy, whose owner is played by Debi Mazar with hilarious, scene-stealing nastiness.

Andre (ABC Sunday at 7 p.m.) is as irresistible as the adorable baby seal from which it takes its title. It is the quintessential family film: appealing to all ages, insulting to the intelligence of none, and going out of its way to avoid an aura of contrivance. When Harry Whitney (Keith Carradine), harbor master for picturesque Rockport, Me., and his younger daughter, Toni (Tina Majorino), encounter a freshly orphaned baby seal with great big dark eyes and a perplexed, scared expression, what can they do but try to nurse it back to health?

The makers of the 1996 four-hour, two-part Titanic (CBS Sunday at 9 p.m., completed Tuesday at 9 p.m.) might have benefited from more modest aspirations. Rather than turn their production into an epic involving numerous subplots, they would have been better served had they concentrated on delving into the hearts and souls of the ship’s vain manager, J. Bruce Ismay (Roger Rees), and George C. Scott’s Capt. Edward J. Smith.

Although Shirley MacLaine and Nicolas Cage seem disparate performers, they find common ground in the delicately funny 1994 Guarding Tess (NBC Sunday at 9 p.m.), a chamber comedy about the war of nerves between a formidable former First Lady (MacLaine) and the dissatisfied Secret Service agent (Cage) assigned to her. Unfortunately, it takes an unexpected and unsatisfactory turn that undercuts all the good things that have gone before.

In Warren Leight’s deft 1993 romantic comedy of errors The Night We Never Met (KTLA Thursday at 8 p.m.) a young Manhattan stockbroker has moved in with his fiancee but holds on to his apartment in a fine old Greenwich Village townhouse. Two days a week he rents it to Sam (Matthew Broderick); Ellen (Annabella Sciorra) also takes two days, seeking a refuge where she can paint. The stockbroker, Sam and Ellen have never met, but the latter two begin leaving notes to each other. The calamity that ensues is beautifully sustained with a zingy domino effect.