Your night in: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight rated
From Tom Hanks to Helen Mirren, Ryan Gosling to Rose Byrne, tonight’s list of movies is packed with stars. Leigh Paatsch rates every movie on TV for your Friday night in.
Leigh Paatsch
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HIDDEN FIGURES (PG)
***1/2
8.30pm Ch. 7
Few inspirational true stories hit the screen in such infectiously upbeat fashion as Hidden Figures. While amiably predictable at all times, the sheer energy of the cast and the pure curiosity provoked by its subject are simply too inviting to resist. This is the untold tale of a group of black female mathematicians employed by NASA during the crucial pre-Apollo years of the US space program. The film focuses on three high-achievers on this remarkable teamof aspiring aerospace engineer Mary Jackson (played by singer Janelle Monae), pioneering computer programmer Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and the brilliant geometrics analyst Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson). What truly impresses about this movie is how a fine balance is maintained between charting the personal journeys of the trio – who endured widespread discrimination both inside and outside NASA – and establishing the wider significance of their important contributions to the US space program. Overall, a great all-ages experience. Co-stars Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst.
TAKEN (MA15+)
***
7.30PM 7MATE
Liam Neeson carries on like Jason Bourne’s cranky uncle in this pulpy French-produced revenge pic. The star plays a retired US spy who returns to active duty when his daughter is kidnapped by Albanian slave traders in Paris. The film is very much an old-school, they’ve-messed-with-the-wrong-guy-and-now-they’re-gonna-pay affair, and all the better for it. Often bone-crackingly, flesh-rippingly violent, but no amount of excess detracts from this junky thriller’s jagged appeal. Co-stars Maggie Grace.
TAKEN 2 (MA15+)
**
9.30PM 7MATE
An oh-so-obligatory sequel is denied the ability to spring any element of surprise, and thereby flounders about without poise or purpose for much of its running time. Same goes for Neeson, who looks ever so slightly embarrassed to going through these motions all over again. The action is set in Turkey, where those pesky Albanian sex traffickers have unkindly kidnapped Neeson’s foxy ex-wife (Famke Janssen). Best enjoyed by those with short memories and an urge to double-up on needless Neeson niggle. Co-stars Maggie Grace.
THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY (PG)
***
8.30pm 7 FLIX
A rare serving of feelgood fare that keeps improving as its familiar ingredients settle and some subtler, unexpected flavours rise to the fore. Early on, it’s a soft and sunny tale of two rival restaurants separated by a stone’s throw in a picture-book-pretty French village. The first is a famously posh joint run by an imperious madam (Helen Mirren). The other, a traditional Indian family eatery run by newly-arrived immigrants, is yet to forge its reputation. Under the steady direction of Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat), this delightful tale (based on the bestseller by Richard C. Morais) takes a turn for the better once the head chef of one establishment crosses the street and sides with the enemy. The culinary craft on display is indeed mouth-watering, but it is the film’s winning collection of wonderful characters that will truly satisfy all tastes.
THE DA VINCI CODE (M)
*1/2
8.35PM CH. 9
Director Ron Howard’s blockbuster adaptation of the controversial Dan Brown bestseller is all talk and precious little action. Like one of the key symbols examined by hero Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) during his rush to learn the subversively shocking truth about the Holy Grail, the quality of the movie peaks in the middle and ends in a steep descent. Unwieldy scripting has the usually nimble Hanks tied down by tonnes of tongue-twisting expository dialogue. On the many occasions he must stand still and verbally hustle the story along to the next plot point, you begin to get the feeling you are watching the most expensive radio play ever committed to celluloid. Co-stars Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen.
RONIN (M)
***
8.30PM GEM
Robert De Niro’s edgy presence lends a silly plot about a stolen briefcase a much-needed veneer of credibility. Even when he goes to a vet clinic to get a bullet removed from his stomach. The standout scenes are a trio of breakneck-speed car chases, all of which take place on cobbled Parisian streets no wider than your average supermarket aisle. You remember supermarkets, don’t you?
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (MA15+)
***1/2
11.10PM GEM
A sprawling, archly ambitious drama is also very much a three-card trick of a movie. The first two narrative sleights-of-hand are handled exclusively by actors Ryan Gosling (as an outlaw motorbiker) and Bradley Cooper (the rookie cop in hot pursuit). Each gets a self-enclosed act of the picture to themselves, and rise to the occasion with performances that both near their career peaks. More often than not, there is an undeniable magic in the air. However, when it comes to the grand finale – resting as it does on circumstances sure to break the needle on your Movie-Coincidence-O-Meter – not everyone will blown away by the ‘big reveal’. While the contrasts between the main characters are all too obvious, each point of difference is skilfully rendered by director Derek Cianfrance, a rare filmmaking talent. Co-stars Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (PG)
***
7.30PM GO!
This enjoyable enough animated sequel starring haunted hotelier Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) is only a slight notch below the original. Does repeat the first one’s good gags a little too often though. Otherwise, the all-new bits concerning the Count’s worries about whether his new grandson will turn vampire or human go quite well indeed. Nothing flash, so probably best enjoyed by kids who don’t know how to work a remote.
ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS (PG)
**
9.15PM GO!
How long will it be in a movie titled When Nature Calls until star Jim Carrey might be seen to be taking a leak? Longer than you may think, actually. In this slapdash, contract-fulfilling sequel, we follow Carrey’s title character through the wilds of Africa in search of a white bat that will restore harmony to a pair of warring tribes. If you’ve never seen a grown man vomit-feed a young bird in its nest, stick his head out of a rhinoceros’ backside, or commit a wide variety of toilet humour-based atrocities in rapid-fire succession, cancel all other appointments this evening.
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN (M)
***1/2
10.55PM SBS
No matter how hard you think you are, you better get set to be softened up and then some. This weapons-grade weepie – from the backblocks of Belgium, of all places – earns each and every tear it is bound to squeeze from the driest of eyeballs. Aiding and abetting the film’s ability to lead its audience into a foggy state of sorrow is the importance country and western music plays in the narrative. Story centres on a young musician couple whose child contracts a terminal disease just as their lives are seemingly going perfectly. Unrelentingly bleak, but grittily beautiful stuff. Wonderful live music sequences sweeten an otherwise uncompromising deal.
JOURNEY’S END (M)
**1/2
7.30PM WORLD MOVIES
In this worthy, if slightly stilted screen adaptation of the classic 1928 stage play by R.C. Sherriff, we are transported to the trenches of Aisne in northern France as World War 1 is about to draw to a close. A small band of British soldiers are going about their business as usual, despite knowing deep down their next assignment has the makings of a suicide mission. This film’s theatrical origins are both a blessing and a curse here. Sherriff’s long, wordy exchanges remain as beautifully written and quietly powerful as ever. However, director Saul Bibb has his work cut out sustaining a strong cinematic momentum. Stars Asa Butterfield, Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones.
MOVIE PICKS FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
LITTLE MONSTERS (MA15+)
***
FOXTEL, AMAZON
Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) is clearly the best thing about this Australian-made zombie flick, throwing herself into both her role and the bloody mayhem oozing around her with a conviction that dazzles as it frazzles. Nyong’o plays Miss Caroline, a sweet-natured kindergarten teacher whose plans for a happy field trip to a local petting zoo are soured by a zombie outbreak. Once the splatter factor really kicks in, the movie hits a gruesome groove which will be best appreciated by those who thought the recent Zombieland didn’t quite go hard enough with the goofy gore when required.
LIFE, ANIMATED (PG)
***
AMAZON; or rent via GOOGLE, YOUTUBE MOVIES
A beautiful little documentary with a big, life-affirming story to tell. At the age of 3, Owen Suskind suddenly plunged to the deep end of the autism spectrum. Then came the kind of miracle you might only find in a Disney movie. In fact, it was a miracle brought about by Disney movies. By endlessly viewing and memorising every Disney animated classic, Owen defied his original diagnosis and developed the ability to learn to speak. Then came reading and writing. Amazing stuff.
GLORIA BELL (M)
***1/2
NETFLIX; or rent via GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
A gently inquisitive drama framed around yet another intensely vivid performance from the great Julianne Moore. She plays Gloria, a fiftysomething divorcee looking to make sense of the rest of her life now that her children no longer need her. A man enters the picture, an ex-Marine named Arnold (John Turturro), and he is at once both needy and not-so-available. Gloria likes what she can see. But will she love what he is yet to reveal? What will enrapture and enlighten is Moore’s deft creation: a woman taken for granted for seeing life through a glass half- full, and taking steps towards living life as a glass unbreakable.
Originally published as Your night in: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight rated
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