ESPN, 4:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s World Cup game won’t have the tension of other games thus far, because the two teams participating, the Netherlands and host country Brazil, have lost already in the semifinals, and are playing for pride and a third-place finish. For Brazil, any pride the team can salvage would help, because it lost its last game by suffering Brazil’s worst defeat in World Cup history, being trounced by Germany 7-1 (pictured). The Netherlands, meanwhile, after holding Argentina to a draw for 120 minutes of regulation and overtime play, lost in a penalty-kick shootout.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
At this year's Golden Globes, co-host Tina Fey summarized the plot of this 2013 movie, which stars Sandra Bullock as an astronaut stranded in orbit, thusly: “George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.” It was a perfectly written, timed and delivered joke, and even Clooney laughed about it: “That’s a good one,” he said admiringly. “It’s a well-constructed joke.” But since then, he’s been working on pranking Fey and co-host Amy Poehler, with so far entertaining results. Speaking of entertaining: the special effects in this film are out of this world. Really.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 1956 film was Marilyn Monroe’s first film after studying at the Actors Studio, and also was her first starring role in a dramatic film. It is, however, a film with music, and Monroe performs it – under-performs it, really – completely in character. Think of her down-and-out nightclub singer, Cherie, as the American equivalent of Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
Syfy, 9:00 p.m. ET
This 2004 movie is entertaining on its own merits, and a film that beat to the punch most of the current wave of movies based on graphic novels. There are two reasons to watch it at this moment in pop-culture time. One, to catch Ron Perlman’s starring performance, as a demon turned superhero, four years before he co-starred on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, in a role he recently, uh, relinquished. And the other is to catch an early, stylish directorial effort by Guillermo del Toro, who tomorrow night unveils a new TV series, The Strain, based on a series of novels he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan. Not graphic novels. Novels.
BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET
Poppy (Amy Hoggart) took in all the glamour of New York City and Fashion Week. In this week’s episode, they take in all the glamour of… Detroit. Including the ballet.