Your night in: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight – rated and slated
From a sequel as great, grating and grotesquely funny as the original to a minor masterpiece about the war on drugs, there’s plenty of excellent viewing on TV tonight. Here’s what to watch and what to avoid.
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DEADPOOL 2 (MA15+)
***1/2
9.00pm Ch. 7
A sequel every bit as great, grating and grotesquely funny as the original. While relatively measured this time in its release of reckless energy, the sequel does not mess with what makes the title character such a radical departure from any costumed crime fighter we have seen before. The man, the motormouth and the mess of contradictions that is Deadpool is once again played by Ryan Reynolds with just the right/wrong notes of panache, arrogance and rapid-fire wit. A pulpy plot explores Deadpool’s quest to find a new sense of purpose after a sudden tragedy pushes him to the brink of giving up. Along the way, a strong, diverse and fascinating array of new characters is thrown into the fray. These include the time-travelling mercenary Cable (Josh Brolin), teenage tearaway Russell (Julian Dennison, aka the chubby kid from the NZ hit Hunt for the Wilderpeople) and the endearingly nonchalant fighter Domino (Zazie Beetz of TV’s Atlanta).
UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (MA15+)
**1/2
8.30pm 7MATE
And tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1991. And your hosts for the evening will be two of the leading lugs who passed for major stars in that year, Mr Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mr Dolph Lundgren. They’re out front of a crackpot conspiracy theory of a plot concerning a SWAT team of robots made from dead Vietnam soldiers. What follows is a surprisingly entertaining no-brainer that knows it’s never going to change the world, and quite frankly, couldn’t care less. All brawn, no brains, but grows on you if you can prefer your action in one big, dumb hulking slab of alpha-male aggression.
SICARIO (MA15+)
****1/2
9.00pm GO!
A minor masterpiece about one of the major issues of our time: the war on drugs. Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) takes us to where he believes the height of the fighting remains at its most intense. The battle zone is a small cross-section of the border where Texas meets Mexico. Emily BluntX stars as a low-level FBI agent invited to join a black-ops project whose prime architects (played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro) are working to a radical new agenda. A devastating piece of work that casts an intimidating spell.
99 HOMES (M)
****
7.30pm WORLD MOVIES
Worried about how you’re going to pay that next clump of bills? Then this devastating absence-of-morality tale will bring on long and lasting nightmares. In a Florida city where most ordinary citizens have gone bust, it is boom time for rogue real estate predator Rick Carver (Michael Shannon). If you have defaulted on a mortgage, the delightful Mr Carver is only too happy to put you on the street and pick off your premises at a bargain price. Sharp writing strengthens Shannon’s sinewy, yet supremely centred brand of acting, which makes a punishing fit for the reprehensible role of Carver. Co-stars Andrew Garfield.
MARGIN CALL (M)
***1/2
9.35pm WORLD MOVIES
Just in case you missed the final results of the Global Financial Crisis, here is a quick recap. They won. You lost. This superb drama, set on a single fateful evening before the big meltdown of 2008, communicates all too powerfully how it all happened. In the darkened offices of a Wall Street investment firm, one cold, hard decision must – and will – be made. A decision that could save the company from ruin, but will consign its customers and even its own employees to the scrap heap. Though an excessively talky affair, the screenplay’s abundance of great dialogue and powerful storytelling smarts casts a dazzling spell. Especially on those occasions where the complexities of the financial world threaten to get the better of the average viewer. It is here the likes of Jeremy Irons (the ruthless CEO), Kevin Spacey (his loyal, yet conflicted attack dog) and Australia’s Simon Baker (a slick blame-shifter par excellence) step forward to simplify and humanise the tale in terms we can all understand.
THREE MOVIE PICKS FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
DA 5 BLOODS (MA15+)
NETFLIX
****
Just like with his last movie, 2018’s Blackkklansman, decorated filmmaker Spike Lee sneaks in a hard-hitting history lesson behind a seemingly conventional adventure yarn. Delroy Lindo spearheads a quartet of African-American ex-soldiers who return to Vietnam to sort out some unfinished business. While out to honour the memory of a fallen comrade (Chadwick Boseman), the fellas also have a heads-up on some missing treasure that just might make up for the many missed chances in their respective lives. Be patient during a plodding midsection, because the exciting finale is well worth sticking around for.
THE INVENTOR: OUT FOR BLOOD IN SILICON VALLEY (M)
****1/2
BINGE, FOXTEL
Gripping documentary about one of the most blatant cases of corporate fraud to ever make billions disappear in dodgy circumstances. And it all happened just recently, in plain view of the whole world. Charismatic young entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes took some big names for a ride with her feel-good pitch for a machine that could test for a multitude of diseases in a mere fraction of the time usually taken by conventional medicine. There was just one problem: the technology she was talking up was a dodgy blood-testing box that contravened the laws of good science and standard hygiene. Oh, and it didn’t work whatsoever. The beauty of this expertly researched and mounted doco (produced by HBO) is that there is a stack of footage of Holmes in full flight, telling untruths left, right and centre. Holmes couldn’t resist a publicity opportunity of any size. For a while there, a gullible media had her marked down as “the next Steve Jobs”. As you watch her do her thing, you wonder why nobody bothered to ask her if her crazy claims were actually for real.
OFFICIAL SECRETS (M)
***1/2
RENT VIA FOXTEL STORE, GOOGLE PLAY, YOUTUBE MOVIES
Movies about those fearless enough to speak against the wishes of the powers-that-be inevitably zero in on the same personal quandary. How do you successfully blow the whistle without spectacularly blowing up your own world in the process? British filmmakers execute this fare better than most, and so it proves yet again with this conscientious take on the true story of Katherine Gun (Keira Knightley). This low-level intelligence analyst rattled her higher-ups in 2003 by leaking documents showing Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Cabinet were dodgily accelerating moves to go to war with Iraq. Co-stars Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode.