Your Night In: Every movie on Melbourne TV tonight rated
The Farrelly brothers get the laughs going in The Heartbreak Kid, Gal Gadot brings the superhero drama in Wonder Woman and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey offers some stoner comedy. Leigh Paatsch rates the TV offerings in Melbourne tonight.
Leigh Paatsch
Don't miss out on the headlines from Leigh Paatsch. Followed categories will be added to My News.
WONDER WOMAN
***1/2
8:30PM CH. 7
Having easily outshone her fellow DC Comics superheroes in Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) got a long-awaited solo shot. It was a big hit at the time, but a bit of a fizzer nowadays. The running time is way too long for a blockbuster noticeably bereft of wow-factor action spectacle. The drab, all-origin-story-all-the-time scripting rarely gets you caring much about the heroine’s formative years as an Amazonian princess, or how she singlehandedly beat up the Germans to win World War 1. Most importantly of all, crucial moments of high drama expose Gadot’s very limited range as an actor. While Gadot is impossibly photogenic from all angles, emoting the full force of her role’s fiery feminity eludes her. Luckily, the day is continually saved by Chris Pine as Wonder Woman’s wisecracking second banana and occasional love interest.
THE HEARTBREAK KID
***
8.30pm GO!
A raunchy reunion of the There’s Something About Mary team of star Ben Stiller and the writing-directing Farrelly brothers. Stiller stars as a serial commitment-phobe who gets married on impulse, only to meet the real woman of his dreams (Michelle Monaghan) while honeymooning with the new wife. A little bit hit-or-miss at times, but some big, brash (and tasteless) brilliance on display also.
NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST
***1/2
10:15PM VICELAND
Sweet indie comedy about a young musician (Michael Cera) who finds an unusual way to get over his ex-girlfriend during one fateful night in Manhattan. If you loved the under-rated 500 Days of Summer and want more along similar lines, this is a must-see.
MADE IN DAGENHAM
***
7:30PM WORLD MOVIES
Like The Full Monty, Brassed Off, Calendar Girls and the recent The Boat That Rocked, this British light drama takes a true story that might have meant something to a certain few, and turns it into something for everybody. Depicting a trying time for working women in Britain in the 1960s, the film focuses on a seminal strike called by an all-female assembly line at a Ford car factory. Despite a complete lack of political smarts or media savvy, the group’s quietly expressed belief that all women should be paid the same as their male counterparts swiftly booms into a national crusade. Stars Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins.
BILL AND TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY
**1/2
8:30PM VICELAND
A scrappy, sorta likeable sequel to the scrappy, sorta likeable stoner comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Journey. If you’re in active training for the imminent release of the very belated follow-up Bill & Ted Face the Music (starring original B&T duo Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, now both in their 50s!) then this will definitely serve a purpose.
THREE MOVIES TO STREAM OR RENT
ROCKETMAN (M)
**1/2
FOXTEL, AMAZON
This musical biopic of veteran singer-songwriter Elton John was originally hyped as playing in the same league as Bohemian Rhapsody. In truth, the first Mamma Mia! is a more relevant reference point for this cheesy, breezy rewrite of Elton’s colourful life and times. The star attraction, as it should be, is Elton’s thick back catalogue of classic hits. Thankfully, the elaborate song-and-dance sequences structured around seminal 70s hits like Crocodile Rock, Bennie and the Jets and Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting are definitely worth the price of admission. However, nothing in-between the tunes achieves takeoff. Sure, the narrative doesn’t hold back when laying out the table for Elton’s famed appetite for self-destruction. However, this excess-all-areas back stage pass can’t separate the actual man from his storied misdeeds. Taron Egerton toils hard in the role of Elton for moderate returns. The actor’s singing is strong in the up-tempo numbers, but found wanting with the ballads.
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (PG)
***
DISNEY+
Hugh Jackman sings! Hugh Jackman dances! Hugh Jackman wears a top hat, tails, and exclaims ‘Huzzah!’ You’re not in La La Land anymore, people: this is a weapons-grade musical of the old school, loaded to its high-spirited hilt with forced smiles and willful warbling. Those prepared to accept the open invitation to “step right up” will be rewarded with the glitzy, spritzy good time they were hoping for. In a true-ish tale of the formative days of the American circus, Jackman embraces the lead role of famous 1800s showbiz impresario P.T. Barnum with such an enthusiastic bear hug that resistance is pretty much not an option.
THE PERFECTION (MA15+)
***
NETFLIX
Though definitely a psychological thriller front-loaded with obvious flaws, The Perfection backs itself to get the job done with a riskily manic desire to keep viewers wide awake and wondering what the hell is coming next. Allison Williams (the devious devourer of boyfriends in the game-changing horror hit Get Out) stars as Charlotte, a former American cello prodigy who abandoned a glittering career to care for her dying mother. Years later, she reconnects with her former mentors, who have since launched another genius cellist, Lizzie (Logan Browning), to the big time. What Charlotte has in mind for Lizzie - whom she befriends, beds and bizarrely abandons in rapid succession - remains difficult to fathom (and often, hard to stomach) throughout. Allow this refreshingly unorthodox movie to get you in, and it will get on your nerves in the best possible way. However, if you do fail to stay on the same wavelength, The Perfection will get on your bad side and won’t be budged.