Your night in: Every movie on TV tonight rated or slated

From big, dumb and fun, to delicate and heartfelt, there’s plenty of variety on TV tonight including a hidden Daniel Day-Lewis gem and a separated-at-birth classic.

He just wants to dance in the ballet! Billy Elliot is on TV tonight.

THE ACCOUNTANT (MA15+)

***1/2

8.30pm 7MATE

So what if anything and everything in The Accountant doesn’t add up? In this particular (and peculiar) case, there is still more profit than loss to be claimed from this enjoyable action pic’s pursuit of pulpy thrills. Ben Affleck stars as Christian Wolff, a shy, softly-spoken man who channelled a diagnosis that placed him somewhere on the autism spectrum into a career that has put him on Most Wanted lists everywhere. To the naked eye, Wolff looks like an everyday shopping-mall accountant. Look a lot harder, however, and you will see one of the biggest launderers of dirty money in the world. Oh, and he’s also a trained assassin, just for good measure. This is as big, dumb and logistically dubious as a modern action movie can be. Nevertheless, all lack of outward authenticity or internal logic does not make The Accountant any less entertaining. A guided missile of guilty-pleasure escapism that hits all broad targets with ease. Co-stars Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons.

Accountant by day, assassin by night.

BROOKLYN (M)

****1/2

10.55pm SBS

At once openly tender-hearted and subtly tough-minded, Brooklyn is that rare feel-good romantic drama that finds something fresh and truly affecting in the most familiar and unaffected places. Due to the dire economy in her home village in Ireland, Eilis Lacey (a luminous Saoirse Ronan) must cross the seas in a crowded passenger liner and step onto the streets of 1950s New York. Only gradually – and on her own terms – can Eilis acclimatise to the American way of life. And once she does, her old village home begins calling her back in a way she did not foresee, demanding a painful, self-defining choice that must be made and lived with. Unfailingly modest yet rigidly true to itself, this movingly memorable adaptation (scripted by Nick Hornby) of Colm Toibin’s acclaimed 2009 novel makes for an intelligent and spirited screen experience. Highly recommended.

Saoirse Ronan is luminous in Brooklyn. Picture: Kerry Brown

PARENT TRAP (G)

***

6.30pm 7FLIX

Quite a decent facsimile of that excellent 1961 comedy of errors starring Hayley Mills. Lindsay Lohan plays long-separated identical twins who get the shock of their lives when they bump into one another at a summer camp. After indulging in a mutual passion for fencing, poker and practical jokes, the pair also discover that their parents (Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson) divorced when they were very young, and have refused to see each other since.

Lindsay Lohan is on double duty as long-separated twins Hallie and Annie.

HORRIBLE BOSSES (M)

***

9.10PM 7FLIX

Employers. Can’t live with ‘em. Might as well kill ‘em. So goes the logic behind a disposable, yet not so dismissible comedy. As far-fetched and filth-ridden as the film can be, there is a subversive universal appeal in play. Anyone holding too much workplace angst will find the right place to release all that negative energy here. Stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell and (yikes!) Kevin Spacey.

Despite the far-fetched premise, Horrible Bosses has appeal.

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (M)

***1/2

9.45PM GEM

A rare foray into the action genre for the great Daniel Day-Lewis is very much a hidden gem on his sparkling track record. The James Fenimore Cooper novel adapted here might be nearly 200 years old, but in the hands of Day-Lewis and director Michael Mann (Heat), it hits the ground (literally) running with a physicality that is almost exhausting to watch. A solid adventure tale told with intelligence and great energy.

Daniel Day-Lewis is, as always, excellent in Last of the Mohicans.

ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (PG)

***

7.30pm GO!

If you didn’t like the original Addams Family movie, there’s plenty happening in this far superior sequel. Fester finds love and, umm, takes a bath. Morticia has a baby, and Pugsley and Wednesday keep trying to kill it. Meanwhile Gomez (Raul Julia in cracking form) constantly jumps out of his skin at the sight of Morticia’s extended arm. Thing does his usual thing, Cousin It still has it, and Lurch lurches around as only he knows how.

They’re still creepy and kooky in the Addams Family sequel.

R.I.P.D. (M)

**

9.30pm GO!

It is not hard to understand why this indulgently eccentric action flick played to empty cinemas upon release. After all, the core premise here quite literally states that the only good cop is a dead cop. Not everyone’s gonna be on-board with that. However, R.I.P.D. is in no way an outright terrible movie. There is a handful of strange and rather awesome moments on offer, and some appealing kooky in-jokery rippled through the script. A mismatched Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges play deceased police officers who join a heavenly task force that hunt escapees from hell. Starts very solidly, but goes very soft by the end.

A mismatched Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges can’t save R.I.P.D. from being lacklustre.

BILLY ELLIOT

****

7.30PM WORLD MOVIES

The going was mighty tough during the miner’s strike that crippled northern England in 1984. Not exactly the best time, then, for 11-year-old Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) to start fancying himself as a ballet dancer. Especially when he’s been spending the money given to him for boxing classes by his down-and-out Dad (Gary Lewis) on becoming a better twinkle-toes. Doing the triumph-over-adversity thing in a fresh way is beyond most movies, but not this acclaimed British production. The key is how this socially conscious feel-gooder thinks with its head, but feels with its heart. The keynote scene is a stunning sequence where young Billy gives vent to his many frustrations by exploding into dance on the streets of his pokey home town. Take a twirl with Billy and you won’t be disappointed.

Billy Elliot thinks with its head but feels with its heart.

THE FIFTH ELEMENT (PG)

**

9.35PM WORLD MOVIES

Bruce Willis stars in this expensively-produced sci-fi meddle as a New York aerial taxi driver who alone can stop the Earth from being crushed by a comet-like superplanet of pure evil. The whole movie is stamped by an incredibly dazzling level of intricate visual detail, but blows its chances by trying to tell too many stories at once. Can only be likened to watching a great-looking video game being played with nobody at the controls. The brains behind The Fifth Element would have been better off adding a sixth element – common sense – to the plot, and allowing it to form a bridge between the film’s fantastic visual appeal and its ramshackle plot.

From the Sixth Sense to the Fifth Element – Bruce Willis can do it all.

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