Your night in: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight rated

World War II, Adam Sandler and a western horror headline the movie picks on TV tonight. Leigh Paatsch rates every movie on the box tonight to help you make the most of your Monday night in.

Lake Bell delivers an irresistible anchoring performance in Man Up.

FURY (MA15+)

***1/2

8.30pm 7MATE

All that can be said of Fury is that it is what is: a brutally basic war picture. If you like your military combat cut through with outlandish humour (Inglorious Basterds) or historically verified heroics (Saving Private Ryan), you’ve come to the wrong place. This is just five men stuck inside the one artillery tank, trying to survive what little is left of WWII as the Allies advance across Germany in 1945. Brad Pitt stars as tank commander Don Collier, the sole reason why his close-knit team has survived a hellish odyssey all the way from North Africa. Though much takes place within the tank, it is what could happen outside at any moment that defines a vicious, visceral screen experience. No German citizen can be trusted. The Americans have a licence to kill, and are compelled to use it. These narrow storytelling parameters give Fury a near-biblical simplicity that goes quaintly, yet bravely against the grain of a majority of today’s war movies.

Fury bravely goes against the grain of a majority of today’s war movies. Picture: Columbia Pictures

THE WORLD’S END (MA15+)

**1/2

11.15pm 7MATE

The team of japesters that brought you the classic zom-rom-com Shaun of the Dead and that culty cop caper Hot Fuzz complete a trilogy of sorts here. There are laughs to be had, as is always the case when Brit double-act Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are in the mix. However, there is tedium to endure as well. An inventive tale about a village pub crawl that intersects with a secret alien incursion doesn’t quite live up to its potential. In spite of a first-rate ensemble cast – including Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and, err, Pierce Brosnan – the anything-goes energy that coursed through the earlier pictures can only occasionally be detected. This world does indeed end with a bang, but it’s a slightly muffled one.

The World’s End mixes a few laughs with plenty of tedium.

THE COBBLER (M)

*1/2

7.35pm WORLD MOVIES

This is an Adam Sandler movie, but it is not a comedy. Nor does it feature one of his usually exemplary performances when he is seen in serious surrounds (a la the recent Uncut Gems). Nope, this is a flat-out dud, and it is the fault of the source material more than anything else. Sandler plays a shoe repairer who discovers a magic heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers. Dim whimsy abounds.

Adam Sandler in The Cobbler

BONE TOMAHAWK (M)

(not rated)

9.30pm WORLD MOVIES

I’ve never set eyes on this one. But going on the official synopsis, I’m not sure I’ve missed all that much: “When a group of cannibal savages kidnaps settlers from the small town of Bright Hope, an unlikely team of gunslingers, led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt, sets out to bring them home. But their enemy is more ruthless than anyone could have imagined, putting their mission – and survival itself – in serious jeopardy.” Stars Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox.

THREE MOVIE PICKS FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL

2040 (G)

***1/2

BINGE, FOXTEL & rent via GOOGLE

Damon Gameau follows up his surprise edu-doco hit That Sugar Film by taking on a more complex and contentious issue: the future environmental health of our planet. The target audience here is schoolchildren, who will be of adult age by the year quoted in the title. So too will Gameau’s own young daughter, and it is with her in mind that the filmmaker travels the globe for an array of perspectives on how our world might look in 2040. The tone here is more sky’s-the-limit than sky-is-falling, so Gameau’s modest, yet refreshingly upbeat game plan is all about looking for solutions, rather than anguishing over ideologies. Straightforwardly informative, relatable and engaging throughout.

Damon Gameau’s documentary 2040 is about looking for solutions, rather than anguishing over ideologies. Picture: Madman

MA (MA15+)

***

BINGE, FOXTEL, AMAZON

This is one likably loopy thriller, giving off just a faint whiff of trashy treasure that makes it perfect for use as end-of-the-week escapism. Octavia Spencer (The Help) is the title character, a rather strange woman who mistakenly thinks she has made some new friends when some teenage kids ask her to buy ‘em some booze.

Octavia Spencer in Ma. Picture: Universal Pictures

MAN UP (M)

***

Rent via ITUNES

The comically contradictory star of the show is Nancy (Lake Bell), a loser in love who can’t believe she has met her winning match. Unfortunately, she has landed the perfect night out with Jack (Simon Pegg) by hijacking a blind date that rightfully belongs to someone else. The compressed time frame in which Man Up takes place – the entire movie covers just a straight 24-hour period in Nancy’s cynically single life – gives the humour an urgency and spark which carries it a long way. Bell’s irresistible anchoring performance (and her flawless British accent) elevates this above mere ‘chick flick’ fare.

Simon Pegg and Lake Bell in Man Up.

@leighpaatsch

Originally published as Your night in: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight rated