What to watch on free-to-air and streaming services
Horror, action, Monty Python and a Frank Sinatra classic — there’s a movie for everyone on TV tonight. Here’s your guide to the best movies on the box for another night in lockdown.
Leigh Paatsch
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10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (M)
***1/2
7.30PM 7FLIX
You didn’t see it coming. You won’t know where it’s going. That is the selective takeaway from 10 Cloverfield Lane, a shrewdly efficient thriller from first-time filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg. Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Michelle, a young woman who awakens from an accident inside an underground bunker. Her host (a creepy John Goodman) advises her the world outside has come under chemical attack, and it won’t be safe outside for a long time to come. The entire movie hinges on an audaciously sudden shift in tone that cannot be alluded to here. While this could leave 10 Cloverfield Lane looking like a one-trick pony to some, no-one will be forgetting the wild blindfolded ride ultimately on offer here.
ALIEN RESURRECTION (MA15+)
**1/2
8.30PM 7MATE
1997’s fourth instalment in the Alien series takes a little explaining. 200 years after carking it, the long-dead Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has been cloned from a drop of her own blood. This new improved Ripley is also with child, eventually giving birth to the same multi-headed alien creature she did battle with in the previous three movies. White-coated scientists think that they can breed and tame the infant monster. The fools. As a bunch of space commandos board the ship, the alien begins pumping out mutant offspring at a rate of knots. The best way to enjoy this so-so effort is to treat the whole shebang like a football match where everybody already knows the result. Cheer on the dumb humans, boo the even dumber aliens.
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (PG)
***1/2
8.40PM GEM
The classic 1950s melodrama based on the book by James Jones. Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) is US Army Sergeant stationed in Hawaii in 1941. Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr), wife of his commanding officer. He is single and bored. She is married and unhappy. Yep, this going to end well. And that’s not even factoring in the Japanese are about to bomb the joint at any minute.
PULP FICTION (MA15+)
*****
8.30PM GO!
Much imitated, never surpassed, and always worth spending some with. It was with Pulp Fiction that Quentin Tarantino established his credentials as a true movie master, taking select elements of the *dime store* crime novels of the 1950s and turning them into something entirely modern. A rousing ensemble of varying abilities and credibilities (Travolta, Keitel, Willis, Jackson, Thurman and Walken) are whipped into action courtesy of some electric dialogue, innovative scene settings and breathtaking departures from conventional filmmaking form. A pinnacle of pop-culture perfection.
LIFE OF BRIAN (M)
***1/2
7.30PM WORLD MOVIES
Monty Python’s best-known cinematic work tells the stirring biblical tale of a man named Brian (Graham Chapman) who becomes confused with Jesus Christ by the general public of Israel in the year 30 A.D. The plot treads a narrow, semi-blasphemous path through ancient times, intertwining Brian’s fate with that of Christ in increasingly ludicrous fashion. Classic routines such as “he’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”, “blessed are the cheesemakers” and the song Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life will provoke the right guffaws of recognition throughout.
SEXY BEAST (MA15+)
****
9.15PM WORLD MOVIES
A stylish, innovative and utterly compelling British crime drama which has stood the test of time very well indeed. Ray Winstone is a retired con living the high life in sun-drenched Spain until an old cohort (a mesmerisingly menacing Ben Kingsley) comes a’callin’ to play the old “one last job” card. What develops from here is exceptionally hard to predict, especially when Kingsley suddenly disappears, leaving Winstone to complete the assignment without him.
ANONYMOUS (M)
***1/2
10.55PM WORLD MOVIES
This unorthodox period piece goes postal on the reputation of the most influential playwright of them all, Mr William Shakespeare. You can put away your posh literary textbooks. They won’t be needed here. The key point of the campy conspiracy theory spouted here is that Shakespeare was a frontman for Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans), a former lover and longtime thorn in the side of Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave). Though Anonymous is historical hogwash of the highest order — the film’s audacious claims have already bunched the undies of many Shakespeare buffs overseas — it is never less than highly entertaining. Well worth checking out. Co-stars Joely Richardson, Rafe Spall, David Thewlis.
BLACK SHEEP (MA15+)
***
9.35PM NITV
They used to say New Zealand was the land where men are men, and the sheep are nervous. That equation may be reversed forevermore after this very entertaining Kiwi horror-comedy, which transforms the farmyard world’s most docile residents into fluffy killing machines. Treads the fine line between hilarity and repulsion with sly cunning and some fine ideas. This is what you truly call raising the baa. Stars Nathan Meister.
FIVE MOVIE PICKS FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
CHAPPAQUIDDICK (M)
****
SBS ON DEMAND
The story begins on July 18, 1969, where a car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy (played by Australian actor Jason Clarke) spirals off a bridge and into the water. Kennedy walks away from the accident unscathed. Meanwhile, the other passenger in the vehicle, Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) is left behind to drown. In the days that follow — after Kennedy took a staggering 8 hours to acknowledge his part in the tragedy — several shockingly cynical attempts are made to get the Senator looking like a heroically innocent victim of bad luck. This powerful tale of galling entitlement and ruthless insensitivity is filtered through an impressive performance by Clarke, who finds in Kennedy the pathological combination of a man stunned by what he has done, yet stirred by what he must do.
THE LEISURE SEEKER (M)
***
FOXTEL, NETFLIX
A sincere, if cloying comedy-drama. It will either touch you, or torment you. Anyone who knows good casting when they see it will give the movie the benefit of the doubt, largely because Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are simply wonderful together here. They play Ella and John Spencer, an ageing married couple who have taken off in their beloved family campervan without informing their snooty grown-up kids of their motivation or destination. Though designed to be a feel-good trip down the highway to Florida, there is an air of finality hanging over the journey: John is living with a state of dementia that is beginning to erase the last of his cherished memories.
LBJ (M)
***
AMAZON; or rent via iTUNES
You wanna go all the way with LBJ? Woody Harrelson will do his level best to get you there. Won’t be his fault if you find this endearing, if this slight political biopic falls short. This is two stories for the price of one: how the jowly, scowly bear of a Texan man that was Lyndon Baines Johnson (Harrelson) handled being overlooked for the job of 35th President of the United States, then handled himself as the 36th in tragic, trying circumstances.
GRINGO (MA15+)
***1/2
STAN; rent via GOOGLE PLAY, iTUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
A reckless, yet effective white-collar-crime caper gets away with just about everything it should not. A sticky web of plotting hangs from a manager at a pharmaceutical company named Harold (played by David Oyelowo). Harold is hearing things about his employers (Joel Edgerton and Charlize Theron) that do not augur well for a business trip he must take with them to Mexico.
JAWS (M)
****1/2
FOXTEL, NETFLIX
It all started with an innocent midnight skinny-dip. A naked water nymph feels a slight tingling sensation in her legs. Then it goes away. And so do her legs. In the summer of 1975-76, beach attendances dropped for the first time in the 20th century, and it was all because of this movie. Master filmmaker Steven Spielberg doesn’t show much of the most famous shark of all time, but you can always sense he’s never far away. If you want even more bites and frights for your buck, both Foxtel and Netflix are currently hosting all the Jaws sequels as well. Don’t settle for any old Sharknado tosh when the original and the best is available.
READ MORE:
JAMES BOND’S BEST AND WORST MOVIES
THE BEST MOVIE JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY MISSED
28 THINGS TO WATCH WHILE STUCK AT HOME
Originally published as What to watch on free-to-air and streaming services
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