Your night in: Every Movie Tonight on Melbourne TV – Rated or Slated
From Hannibal Lecter’s second spine-tingling turn to a stirring battle epic that made a bona fide star out of Mel Gibson, there are a whole lot of killer – and filler – movies on TV tonight.
Leigh Paatsch
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BRAVEHEART (M)
***1/2
8.30PM 7FLIX
As far as epics go, Braveheart was certainly a surprise packet at the time of its release. Some industry observers believed Mel Gibson was putting his career on the line believing that there was an audience out there willing to watch men in skirts fight to the death for an obscure Scottish warrior named William Wallace. The sceptics were wrong and Mel was right, and the inspirational thrall of the open-air action raised the entire period genre to a new level. Stirring re-stagings of the savage battles of Stirling and Falkirk remain the calling cards of the production, and still send a chill up the spine of even the most jaded moviegoers.
50 FIRST DATES (PG)
**1/2
9.00PM CH. 9
A lovestruck vet (Adam Sandler) must reintroduce himself to his amnesiac girlfriend (Drew Barrymore) every morning, persuade her they are indeed a couple, and then make the best of the time remaining in each day to advance the courtship. Effective combination of sweet romantic comedy and broad slapstick that often plays like a direct cross between Groundhog Day and When Harry Met Sally.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (MA15+)
****1/2
8.40PM GEM
Hannibal Lecter has been a busy little big-screen cannibal ever since first chowing down in the Michael Mann-directed Manhunter in 1986. However, Silence of the Lambs remains Hannibal’s finest hour as a villain. This very unsettling chiller has since been elevated to classic status by virtue of the eerie chemistry few would have seen coming from the odd-couple pairing of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. If only Dr Lecter could have a quiet word with those sure to insert way too many commercial breaks in this free-to-air screening.
WATERWORLD (M)
***
7.30PM GO!
Shout-out to Jonathan Brown of Nova Breakfast and Fox Footy fame. Take off your beer-binoculars and take a closer look: I’m ranking Waterworld as a better movie than Coming to America. My Kevin Costner gettin’ all Mad Max on a turbo jet-ski beats your Eddie Murphy goin’ through the motions.
RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (M)
*
10.10pm GO!
Part two of Milla Jovovich’s long-running battle with the staggering sufferers of a corporate-created virus. The non-storytelling department – which, come to think of it, is just about the entire flick – is a hopeless blight for sore eyes, emptying its small box of shonky effects with the lights turned way down low. The prize for the biggest unintentional laugh goes to the supposedly horrifying monster known as Nemesis, who really resembles the hairless love child of Hellboy and Chewbacca.
THE NAMESAKE (M)
**1/2
7.30pm WORLD MOVIES
One of those films that easily wins your respect, but struggles to hold your attention. Kal Penn stars as the American-born son of Indian immigrants, rebelling against his ethnicity until fate decrees he must accept it. Director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) skilfully lays the groundwork for cultures to clash and generations to keep their distance. Nevertheless, her efficiency with this material also strips it of any urgency or bite.
Three movie picks for streaming or rental to get you through the evening
THE END OF THE TOUR (M)
****
AMAZON, or rent via GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
A riveting re-staging of five days in the life of the late American author David Foster Wallace (played with astonishing nuance and unexpected verve by Jason Segel in a legitimate breakout performance). The year is 1996, and with Wallace about to finish up promotion of his landmark best-seller Infinite Jest, rookie magazine journalist David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) tags along for the ride. The two men’s conversations (replayed here from their coverage in a later book by Lipsky) cover a vast array of thematic territory, both highbrow and lowbrow. The more you listen in, the more you can feel both your mind expanding and emotional guard dropping. The movie (and the two excellent actors propelling it) can often hit the same lofty heights as the best of Wallace’s writing. That should be recommendation enough.
DOWNTON ABBEY (PG)
***
FOXTEL, AMAZON
After six sumptuous seasons and then a four-year hiatus, the 21st century’s most popular costume drama – well, until The Crown came along, anyway – returned last year for a shot at the big-screen big-time. If you are a Downton fan, you will be happy to know that creator Julian Fellowes and his cast of regulars are in all the kind of form that ensures this lavish production is on-target throughout. Fellowes has packed enough plots, sub-plots and side details into the movie to fill an entire season in its own right. If anything, Abbey addicts will feel the whole thing whooshes by too quickly. Without giving too much away, this standalone story is set in 1927, with the Crawley family and their loyal staff all in a flap over the news their beautiful estate will host an official royal visit from King George V and Queen Mary. The emphasis here is more on catching up with old friends and favourites than shock developments, but for almost everyone, that’ll do just nicely. Stars Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter.
THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD (MA15+)
*****
NETFLIX
This spellbinding documentary by master filmmaker Peter Jackson blends a mesmerising level of cinematic innovation with a disarmingly vivid brand of storytelling that brokers a new understanding of one of history’s darkest conflicts. The ancient black and white footage we all associate with World War 1 – scratchy, flickering and sped up due to the camera frame rates of the era – is virtually nowhere to be seen. Thanks to advances in processing technology, that footage is now of the highest quality: crystal clear, full of astonishing detail, and free of all staccato, herky-jerky movement. Somewhat audaciously, Jackson has raised the stakes by hand-colouring the footage. The risks taken pay off in spectacular and gripping fashion. The wildly varying rhythms of a soldier’s life on the battlefields on France – the fixed routines, the unpredictable brutality and the sheer humanity – are captured powerfully and poignantly, with a level of detail that is highly immersive.
Originally published as Your night in: Every Movie Tonight on Melbourne TV – Rated or Slated
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