Tonight’s free-to-air, streaming movies reviewed and rated

A deep-space Adam and Eve and a bizarre true Australian story are among your movie options tonight – if you can go past the enjoyably demented remake of a horror classic.

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in Passengers.

PASSENGERS (M)

***

8.30pm GO!

An intriguing plotline positions this intriguing (if thematically erratic) movie in the same broadly accessible universe of spacey storytelling as Gravity and The Martian. During a 120-year journey to a faraway planet, two snap-frozen passengers (Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence) are woken from their sleep pods 90 years early. Knowing they will die before the craft reaches their destination, this deep-space Adam and Eve gradually discover the luxury spacecraft that will be their home is anything but a Garden of Eden. Passengers does have its problems, some of which are never adequately solved. Pronounced lapses in momentum are the most marked shortcomings (even if they are due to certain key events in the story that cannot be mentioned here). Then there is the uneasy screen chemistry of Pratt and Lawrence, who both go through lengthy spells where their characters are somewhat difficult to relate to.

ORANGES AND SUNSHINE (M)

***1/2

7.30pm WORLD MOVIES

A work of controlled, retrospective outrage, telling the bizarre true story of how tens of thousands of young British lives were irrevocably ruined.

David Wenham and Emily Watson in Oranges and Sunshine.

On Australian turf. With the systematic and secretive support of our own government. The film centres on UK social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson), who inadvertently stumbled upon the scandal in the mid-1980s. With the aid of her husband (Richard Dillane), Margaret discovers that almost 150,000 British children placed in community care between 1947 and 1979 were relocated to Australia under false pretences. With an actor as gifted as Emily Watson at the centre of proceedings – and solid support coming from the likes of Australian stars David Wenham and Hugo Weaving – justice is bestowed upon a highly unjust tale. Directed by Jim Loach.

DREDD (MA15+)

***

9.30PM WORLD MOVIES

Futuristic action pulp of surprisingly consistently quality, good enough to obliterate the bad memories of Sylvester Stallone’s dreadful Judge Dredd (adapted from the same cult comic-book source). Karl Urban plays the title character, a hardline, no-frills cop spoiling for a fight when a killer narcotic nicknamed Slo-mo hits the streets of Mega-City One. Some clever set-piece chases and skirmishes, and a sly sense of humour round out a very solid effort. Co-stars Lena Headey.

DARKLAND

{not rated}

8.30pm VICELAND

Not seen around these here parts before. Hails from Denmark, apparently. Here’s the synopsis, just in case: “A successful doctor who loses his little brother in a gang-related assault gives up his privileged life to become a masked warrior and avenge his brother’s death.”

Three movie picks for streaming or rental

CHILD’S PLAY (MA15+)

***

FOXTEL, AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

Firstly, some (haunted) housekeeping: this is not a remake, reboot nor reimagining of the classic 1989 horror thriller. No, this is a reincarnation: the summoning of an evil little figure many of us were secretly hoping to never see again. So say hello once more to the one and only Chucky, the toy doll with a temperament that makes Pennywise the clown of It infamy look like a reasonable, well-balanced kinda dude.

He’s back!

In a production most horror fans will find eminently disposable, yet undeniably enjoyable, the Chuckster is still as old-fashioned a demented doll as ever, but for a thoroughly modern reason. He’s now a ‘smart toy’, an internet-connected plaything designed to befriend and babysit kids at the same time. What could possibly go wrong with that kind of arrangement? Well, once a disgruntled programmer removes a few lines of Chucky’s code, just about everything. Be aware the body count is moderate, but the methods used to rack up those numbers are enough to make a butcher turn vegan.

RICKI AND THE FLASH (PG)

***

BINGE

What we have here is a case of “no Meryl Streep, no movie.” Which is not to say there is much going wrong here. However, it is another deeply immersive performance from Streep that repeatedly lifts this bittersweet comedy-drama hybrid out of the doldrums. Streep plays Ricki, a woman well on the wrong side of 50 who ditched her family for a career in rock music that never took off. Co-stars Rick Springfield, Kevin Kline.

TABLOID (M)

****1/2

DOCPLAY; or rent via GOOGLE, iTunes, YOUTUBE MOVIES

This riveting doco tells the staggering tale of Miss Joyce McKinney. In 1977, the former American beauty became the talk of Britain for kidnapping a former fiance, chaining him to a bed in a remote rural hideaway, and then having her kinky way with him. While the UK legal system had no precedent for dealing with McKinney’s extraordinary actions, the Fleet Street papers just could not get enough of her bizarre escapades. Over three decades later, McKinney (a willing, even overenthusiastic participant in this film) turns out to have lost none of her uncanny knack for leading the media on a merry dance. The doco fascinates on a considerable number of levels, largely thanks to McKinney’s duplicitous skills before the camera. Those who believe the truth should never get in the way of a great story will find compelling, conclusive proof here. Another classic from director Errol Morris (The Fog of War).

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Originally published as Tonight’s free-to-air, streaming movies reviewed and rated