Your Night In: Every movie on TV tonight rated or slated
Your night on the couch is sorted with two Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry comedy capers you can watch back-to-back, a Guy Pearce “Aussie western” or an absence-makes-the-heart-go-haywire romance flick.
Leigh Paatsch
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THE PROPOSITION (MA15+)
****1/2
9.30PM WORLD MOVIES
In the Australian outback of the 1880s, a fugitive (Guy Pearce) is offered a deal by the police. If he kills his psychotic older brother, his younger sibling will be spared the hangman’s noose. This self-styled “Australian western” is powerful, punishing drama of the highest class. The violence is graphic, and all emotion is repressed, but the atmosphere is totally compelling. Based on a screenplay by singer Nick Cave, who also collaborated on the soundtrack with former Bad Seeds bandmate Warren Ellis. Co-stars Ray Winstone, David Wenham, Emily Watson.
CONTACT (M)
***
8.30PM 7FLIX
Jodie Foster stars as a serious, all-work-no-fun type who devotes her entire being to the pursuit of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Cruising the galaxies with her headphones plugged into gigantic telescopes, she hears a signal that just might prove her theory that E.T. was phoning home for a very good reason. Naturally, the government and extremists from the religious right want to hush the whole thing up. Sci-fi with a dash of substance, even if Foster’s romance with a badly-cast Matthew McConaughey is an unnecessary diversion.
THE WHOLE NINE YARDS (M)
**1/2
7.30PM GO!
Straightforward caper comedy starring Bruce Willis as a hyper-cool hitman, and Friends’ Matthew Perry as his nervy, nerdy next-door neighbour. The laughs don’t exactly come thick and fast, but they do keep coming (a blessing in disguise when you consider how many mainstream comedies lose their ability to amuse by the halfway mark). Support player Amanda Peet steals much of the film’s thunder as a ditzy receptionist just dying to become a trainee hit woman under Willis’ guidance. Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) also sparks a chuckle or two as a Mafia boss severely challenged by most words in the English language.
THE WHOLE TEN YARDS (M)
*
9.30PM GO!
Willis, Perry and company reconvened a few years later to cash in on the success of the first one. Needless to say – and even if you prefer your measurements in metrics – this effort does not go the distance.
LIKE CRAZY (M)
***1/2
7.30PM WORLD MOVIES
A tale of how absence makes the heart go haywire. Felicity Jones plays a British exchange student in LA, banished back home after overstaying her visa to be near her boyfriend (Anton Yelchin). The film, for the most part, is quiet, intimate, and willing to reach for an emotional authenticity that could leave everyone involved looking rather silly. That they do not in any way is testament enough to Like Crazy’s class. Recommended if you’ve overdosed on too many rom-coms lately.
THREE MOVIE PICKS FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (MA15+)
***
FOXTEL, AMAZON & rent via GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE
Did they really need to go and make a sequel to the 2009 comedy thriller Zombieland? No, they, did not. Have they gone and made a decent fist of that sequel anyway? Yes, indeed they have. If you remember the original at all, it will still be fondly, if kind of vaguely. No crime in having a hazy memory on this front. Let’s be frank: a helluva lot of zombie-ness has passed through the collective consciousness in the last decade. Anyway, the most important factor in play here is that most of the original cast has returned to active duty. When you’re talking names such as Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson – all bigger names now than they were back then – a diminished team sheet would have guaranteed a diminished movie. Not so here. Though a slight notch down from its predecessor, Double Tap goes about its undead and up-to-something business the right way from go to whoa.
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS (PG)
***
SBS ON DEMAND, NETFLIX
On a good night in the 1940s, New York socialite Florence (Meryl Streep) hits notes known only to canines. On a bad night, eardrums and windows alike are in imminent danger of cracking. While the similar-themed Marguerite is better at capturing the tragicomic commitment of a rich woman to a deluded folly, this has Meryl Streep. Whenever she shows up, it is never just for the pay cheque. Co-stars Hugh Grant.
THE ROAD (2009)
***1/2
BINGE, FOXTEL & rent via GOOGLE
If you’re blown away by The Proposition (screening tonight on World Movies) you should take a look at what Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat got up to a few years further down the track. In the aftermath of a global catastrophe, a father and son wander across the US. The fundamentals of nature – animals, plants, clean water – are now just distant memories. Food is whatever you can get your hands on. And tear apart. Like the Cormac McCarthy novel on which it is very closely based, The Road is essentially a work of horror. But it is not a horror movie. Director Hillcoat is obsessed with the raw humanity of McCarthy’s tale, and the brutal base instincts that drive the will to survive. The opposite of escapist entertainment, this rugged and wearing screen experience is tough, uncompromising stuff. Stars Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee.
@leighpaatsch
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Originally published as Your Night In: Every movie on TV tonight rated or slated
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