Your Night In: Every movie on TV tonight rated
Aliens, gangs and psycho killers run riot on TV screens tonight, but there’s also romance, seduction and an Indie gem. Leigh Paatsch rates — and slates — all the viewing options for the evening.
Leigh Paatsch
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WAR OF THE WORLDS
****
8:30 PM
At the very height of its power – which the Steven Spielberg-directed film sustains for an incredible proportion of its running time – War of the Worlds pulses with excitement, danger and palpable nervous energy that generates a legitimate and lasting awe. Much of the story is seen through the eyes of divorced dockside worker Ray Ferrier (a serviceable, if not sensational Tom Cruise) and his two children, 10-year-old Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and her teenage brother Robbie (Justin Chatwin). Of course, the domestic disturbances swiftly disappear off the radar once the aliens descend from the skies under the cloak of a spectacular global electrical storm. The planet’s plunge into chaos is expertly established by Spielberg, with a sobering extended action sequence strongly reminiscent of the Omaha Beach landing in Saving Private Ryan.
FREE FIRE
***1/2
8:30 PM VICELAND
The only way to remotely adequately describe Free Fire is as the ultimate shootout for shut-ins. Get this: the entire movie is one, long, surreal and sustained gunfight. What’s more (or less, if you’re being picky), all ammo is being let go inside the claustrophobic confines of a dockyard warehouse. There is nowhere to hide. If you’re alive and on the premises, then you are a target. A majority of the shooters (but importantly, not all) are split between two loose alliances. One gang has shown up wanting to purchase arms for the IRA. The others have hauled along the goods for inspection. A dispute breaks out between buyers and sellers. Then comes all-out mayhem. Remarkably, the film generates much excitement and many unpredictable changes of mood within its harsh limitations. Oh, and it’s often bloody funny too (if you can hear what’s being said at the height of the fighting.) Something different, and dangerous too. Stars Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy.
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
***1/2
10:05 PM VICELAND
If you fell hard for the Oscar-nominated hit Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, you should make a point of doubling back and catching the previous movie from its insanely gifted writer-director, Martin McDonagh. This is a crazed crime thriller with an astute comic edge: menacing, meaningless and massively funny, all at once. Colin Farrell plays an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter trying to pen a script about psycho killers, and being forced to research the topic in the company of actual nut-jobs. Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Woody Harrelson and the great Christopher Walken are at their brilliant best when the mayhem breaks out. An under-rated gem.
THE FACE OF LOVE
**
7:50 PM WORLD MOVIES
A strange, silly movie about discovering a first love the second time around. Annette Bening plays a with-it kind of widow who loses it in a major kind of way when she spies a fellow (Ed Harris) who looks exactly like her late husband. After a little stalking and a lot of talking, the pair become an item. From here, the awkwardness just keeps on coming. Bening gets the worst of a script that fails to click as either heartfelt drama or semi-unintentional comedy. Which is not to say Harris doesn’t have to utter a howler or two. When he tells his co-star he “could take a bath in the way you look at me,” you just might have heard the worst line uttered in a movie in the past decade.
YOUNG ADAM
*1/2
9:30 PM WORLD MOVIES
Bleak, bitsy drama where a down-and-out Ewan McGregor partakes in heavy bouts of grubby Scotsman sex with a passing parade of grubby Scotswomen. Throws up a smokescreen of serious intent, but the primary aim is to find new and kinky ways to get its star laid. Amidst all the dropping of troosers and unbuttoning of blooses, there might well be a story going on, but you will be hard-pressed to follow it for long. McGregor stars as Joe, a young writer looking to work up some material for future novels by slumming it as a deputy bargeman on the canals of country Scotland in the 1950s. The highly effective seduction technique employed by this floating gigolo is to wait until the man of the house (or the boat) is down the pub (or working night shift). Then it’s game on, and clothes off.
THREE MOVIES FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
OUTLAW KING (MA15+)
***1/2
NETFLIX
Mel Gibson’s hit action picture of yesteryear, Braveheart, was all over the place when it came to nailing down a reliable line through a crucial phase in Scottish history. Outlaw King takes a rougher, tougher and downright more accurate lash at the same period, this time by focusing on another key figure in the turmoil of the era, Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine). It is the early 14th century, and William Wallace’s stirring rebellion against the English crown has come to nothing. However, Robert the Bruce is not about to let English King Edward I (Stephen Dillane) have an easy time of it as the new ruler of Scotland. After securing the grudging support of the Scottish church and his fellow noblemen, Robert hits the battlefield with a brutally efficient new tactical approach that soon has the English army quaking in their boots. While there are problems with pacing here, the authenticity of the battle scenes and a highly credible performance from the curiously cast Pine delivers when it counts. Directed by David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water).
THE EQUALIZER 2 (MA15+)
***
stream via FOXTEL; rent via GOOGLE, APPLE, YOUTUBE
With much whacking, whomping and egregious body harm to dish out here, Denzel Washington (in his first ever sequel) is disarmingly fighting fit for a man of 63 years of age. In an often brutal, bare-bones action thriller, Washington solemnly reprises the role of deep-cover freelance vigilante Robert ‘Bob’ McCall. While Old Bob now turns a buck as an indie ride-share driver, he is still open to certain offers should there be a wrong in need of righting. Once we’re across all that, the movie rather tactlessly, yet moderately effectively, plays the “this time it’s personal” card. Bob’s close friend and former CIA teammate Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) has been murdered in what appears to be a random hotel room robbery. Needless to say, a vast conspiracy is afoot, and only Robert McCall can slice, dice and thump his way through to the truth. Overall, this could a bit of grind for anyone bar action hardliners, who will definitely dig the climactic dispensation of rough justice (amidst a wild hurricane, of all things).
PATERSON (M)
****
SBS ON DEMAND, NETFLIX
If you have Paterson high up on your must-see list, there are a few matters that are best dealt with ahead of time. Firstly, lead actor, Adam Driver is playing a bus driver. Secondly, his character is named Paterson, and lives in the city of Paterson, New Jersey. Over the course of one week, we witness Paterson, a man in his early thirties, go through the cycle of a typical day. However, the more this rigid schedule is repeated in the film, the more deep, meaningful and amusingly moving does Paterson’s fixed way of living his life become. A real gem from veteran American indie master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers).
Originally published as Your Night In: Every movie on TV tonight rated