Big screen

Opening Thursday

A Good Day to Die Hard (R): His pals Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone both flopped at the box office recently. Bruce Willis is the last hope of the 1980s action-movie stars, and he’s going to try his hardest with this fifth installment of the smash franchise. The good news: The series returns to R-rated territory unlike the last film, which was PG-13. The bad news: The director is John Moore, whose name does not get our hopes up ( Max Payne, The Omen). Also, shouldn’t a good Die Hard movie come out during the summer?

Safe Haven (PG-13): Another Valentine’s Day, another Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Julianne Hough stars as a woman who shares a dark secret with a widower (Josh Duhamel). Directed by Lasse Hallstrom ( The Hoax, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen).

Beautiful Creatures (PG-13): Writer-turned-director Richard LaGravenese ( The Fisher King) cooked up this fantasy drama about two young people stranded in a small town and trying to run away. The supporting cast includes Viola Davis, Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson, so this one may be more substantial than it seems.

Opening Friday

Escape from Planet Earth (PG): Sarah Jessica Parker, Sofia Vergara, Brendan Fraser and Ricky Gervais provide the voices for this animated comedy about an astronaut who answers a distress call hailing from a highly dangerous planet.

Rene Rodriguez

Small screen

Kings of Crash (10 p.m. Sunday, Velocity) A reality show about the professional demolition derby circuit. So what’s next? A taxidermy competition show?

Zero Hour (8 p.m. Thursday, ABC) A conspiracy thriller that begins with a kidnapping from an antique clock store. Ye gods, is nowhere safe anymore?

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (9 p.m. Thursday, Investigation Discovery) If you don’t get what you’re expecting from your soon-to-be-ex-honey on Valentine’s Day, this documentary provides a helpful list of ways other people have broken up over the years. Warning: the list of stuff you’ll need starts with nail glue, moves on to pregnant strippers, and then... well, you get the idea.

Immortalized (10 p.m. Thursday, AMC) A taxidermy competition show. What’s next? A ... oh, I’d better not say it. Hey, I once interviewed Roy Rogers, who had both his dog Bullet and his horse Trigger stuffed when they headed off to The Big Fake TV Ranch in the Sky. He told me Dale Evans wasn’t real keen about this and threatened to stuff him when he died. Now a dead-Hollywood-celebrity-stuffing competition — I could get into that.

Glenn Garvin

Let Miami Herald TV critic Glenn Garvin program your TiVo! Just click on his best bets for the week at http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-tco/mix/index.do