Your night in: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight - rated and slated
Tonight’s at-home entertainment includes Tom Hanks and his pal Wilson, the formidable performance of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment, and The Secret Life of Pets to please the kids.
Leigh Paatsch
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CAST AWAY (PG)
****
8.30PM CH. 7
Despite a sluggish opening, this big box-office hit about a man stranded alone on a deserted island gets very good, very quickly. After surviving a plane crash (a compelling scene shot entirely from inside the cabin), FedEx manager Chuck (Tom Hanks) finds himself the star of a one-man series of Survivor. However, Chuck will never have the option of voting himself off, and must somehow summon the self-preservation skills necessary to keep going with only (I kid you not) a deflated volleyball to talk to. Hanks rises to the challenge of his demanding, dangerously non-dimensional role with a magnetism and physical commitment (losing weight at an alarming weight throughout the film) that virtually puts us right there with him.
IRON MAN 2 (M)
***
8.30PM 7MATE
Marvel’s sequel to their 2008 action blockbuster Iron Man falls ever so slightly short of its predecessor. Proceedings kick off on a slashing note, with the introduction of some great new characters (including Mickey Rourke as a rogue Russian physicist and Scarlett Johansson as a butt-kicking secretary) culminating in a brilliant stunt sequence staged at the Monaco Grand Prix. Robert Downey Jr is as wired and inspired as ever as tycoon-turned-superhero Tony Stark. Only real sticking point is that the armour-suited fights at the climax play like Transformers out-takes. Co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle.
UPGRADE (MA15+)
**
11.05PM 7MATE
Though very slickly executed for what is essentially a low-budget production, Upgrade continually loses itself in thematic and creative no-man’s-lands. A banal and all-too-familiar story is set in a near-future where technology has come a long way, fast. We’re not just talking self-driving cars and virtual assistants. There is now a digital implant available that can function as a complete operating system for the human body. Known as STEM, this nascent tech may have some wonky moral judgments in its coding, which could prove to be both a help and a hindrance to Upgrade’s hero. He looks a bit like Tom Hardy, is out to avenge the death of a beloved wife, and has lots of strained conversations with STEM, a digital smart-aleck who gets too many lines and gets on your nerves.
HIGH CRIMES (M)
**1/2
7.30PM GEM
A strong-willed lawyer (Ashley Judd) fights to get her hubby (Jim Caviezel) off the hook when he is accused of murdering innocent civilians in his past life as a Marine commando. Standard-format military courtroom drama brightened considerably by the casting of Morgan Freeman as a legal eagle whose wings have been clipped by alcoholism.
ENTRAPMENT (M)
**1/2
9.55PM GEM
Did a seventy-something star ever have more to do in a movie than Sean Connery in Entrapment? He runs, jumps, dangles precariously from a high-rise building, operates some swish gadgetry, and bravely tries on a full-length leather jumpsuit. Connery even busts a few not-so-fatherly moves on his curvaceous co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones, some 4 decades his junior in real life. Most impressively of all, not once during all this life-threatening action does Sean’s old-age pensioner card pop out of his back pocket. The film itself isn’t too bad as far as Hollywood thrillers go, but if Connery wasn’t always there defying the ageing process, you’d probably be reaching for the remote control.
ASTRO BOY (PG)
**1/2
7.30PM GO!
A very Americanised movie reboot of the popular Japanese TV cartoon from the 1960s. Long-time fans of the little orphan robot kid that could will be disappointed by the dumbing-down done here. Primary schoolers who like lots of bright colours and big explosions will not care less. Starring the voices of Freddie Highmore and Nicolas Cage.
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (M)
****1/2
8.50PM GO!
As Aliens is to Alien, Terminator 2 is that rare breed of movie animal – a sequel superior to the original. The twist to this action classic is that Arnie changed his stripes to be the good cyborg in the follow-up, and in the shapeshifting form of rogue robot Robert Patrick, director James Cameron created one of the all-time great screen villains. If you’re wondering whatever became of Arnie’s young offsider Edward Furlong (also very good here), he never really went on to do much of note apart from the underrated American History X.
TOP PICKS FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
EMMA (PG)
***1/2
rent via GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
Some costume drama fans found fault with the recent Little Women for taking too many modern liberties with the impeccable book from which it was drawn. These same pernickety types will warmly embrace Emma for its more traditional tendencies in adapting the time-honoured novel by Jane Austen. The movie goes big with the frilly bonnets, hooped dresses and starched collars, and is a small delight to marvel at for its attractive wardrobe work alone. Same goes for a frame-filling production design, which effortlessly transports us into the Austen universe. Anya Taylor-Joy does well in the title role, a capriciously meddlesome young matchmaker who will burning and rebuilding many romantic bridges throughout Austen’s characteristically busy tale. Sure, it doesn’t seem much, but the whole things feels so right once each member of an accomplished cast (including Bill Nighy as Emma’s hypochondriac father Mr Woodhouse, and Johnny Flynn as her sardonic neighbour Mr Knightley) has made their presence felt.
THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 (PG)
***
FOXTEL, AMAZON
The first one was a thinly-disguised clone of Toy Story, with domesticated animals subbing for discarded playthings. This second one has a few fresher stories to tell, and the end result is slightly better. The main plot once again revolves around the adventures of a jumpy Jack Russell Terrier named Max (voiced by Patton Oswalt), now taking a sabbatical out on the farm after life in the city gets a bit much.
ISN’T IT ROMANTIC (M)
**1/2
NETFLIX
Rebel Wilson’s solo starring debut in a Hollywood movie was a runaway success at the US box office, grossing over 60 million dollars. Here in Australia, the movie went straight to Netflix, but do not that let put you off. Particularly if you are in the market for a romantic comedy that sends up all other romantic comedies with some good-natured, on-target shots at the genre. It is by no means a great movie, but it does get some good jabs in here and there, largely due to Wilson’s trademark self-deprecating sarcasm. Wilson can be hit or miss most of the time, but she is in strong form here. She plays Natalie, a young woman who has had enough of the kissy cliches and corny rules of the rom-com world. As if by magic, Natalie suddenly finds herself living inside a rom-com world where all of those cliches and rules (the Mr Right who is really Mr Wrong, the shopping montage sequence, the gay BFF, and the should-be lover who has been friend-zoned) are considered normal, everyday stuff.