Your Night In: Every movie on TV tonight rated and slated
Sean Connery goes on an action adventure in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Woody Allen takes us on a Spanish romp in Vicky, Cristina Barcelona and a West Texas high-school football team captivates in Friday Night Lights. Here’s all tonight’s TV fare rated.
Entertainment
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THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (M)
***
8:30 PM 7MATE
Your enjoyment of this fascinatingly flawed action-adventure fantasy will come down to how far you are prepared to go along with its original and absolutely off-the-wall premise. Get this. A secret society of superheroes sourced from the pages of 19th century pulp fiction are enlisted to save the world from a diabolical dude with designs on world domination. Don’t get it? Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of company. The year is 1899. With the British Empire looking to head an inevitable World War off at the pass, the call goes out to big-game hunter Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), currently living in exile in the wilds of Africa. Upon his reluctant arrival in London, Quatermain meets a mysterious intelligence agent named M (Richard Roxburgh), who introduces him to the rest of the consortium out to stop a forthcoming assassination attempt upon several world leaders meeting in Vienna.
CONGO (M)
**1/2
10:45 PM 7MATE
As oozed from the pen of one-man beach-novel factory Michael Crichton (remember Jurassic Park, anyone ?), Congo is that hoary old adventure chestnut King Solomon’s Mines juiced on screenplay steroids. A journey into the wilds of Africa in search of fabled treasure is mashed-up with some New Age feel-goodery (a brainy ape named Amy is transported back to her native habitat) and big-business fright-wiggery (a female ex-CIA agent is sent to investigate the mysterious deaths of a diamond-mining crew) to create a great-looking, but ultimately meaningless slab of escapism. Stars Laura Linney.
BRING IT ON (PG)
***1/2
7:30 PM GO!
One of the better teen comedies of the past two decades is a snappy satire of high-school cheerleading, which somehow turned into a televised sport in the US when no-one was looking. A sport? You bet. There is no potential for blood or broken bones, of course, but a hell of lot of sweat and tears can be spilled whenever pure, unbridled pom-pom power is switched on. Kirsten Dunst heads a fantastic young cast, playing an ambitious mover and shaker ashamed to discover her team has been ripping off routines from other schools. Not quite the powder-puff fluff it might have been.
EASY A (M)
***
9:30 PM GO!
A smart, sussed take on the life of the modern teenager. The central figure in a tangled tale of enhanced notoriety at the expense of repressed chastity is 16-year-old student Olive (Emma Stone). Don’t give in to the inkling we have a girl’s own Superbad on our hands here. Easy A is much less coarse and a lot more cultured than that.
ROLLING TO YOU (M)
*1/2
7:30 PM WORLD MOVIES
Dodgy middle-aged bloke wanting to put a move on a pretty younger woman fakes he’s confined to a wheelchair. Then he gets the hots for her sister. And she is authentically wheelchair-bound. This tacky, out-of-touch French affair is supposed to be a comedy, but rarely coughs up anything resembling a chuckle. No.
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (M)
***1/2
9:30 PM WORLD MOVIES
A lively comedy of manners, morals and mischief from filmmaker Woody Allen. Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Halls star as two young American tourists who fall under the spell of a seductive artist (No Country for Old Men’s Javier Bardem) during summer holidays in the Spanish city. This is Allen’s most laidback movie in memory, but the relaxed, carefree vibe does not blunt the edge of the humour. The city of Barcelona is a delight to gaze at throughout too.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (M)
***1/2
9:30 PM NITV
A gritty and engrossing real-life sports drama, based on the true story of a talented high-school football team from the backblocks of West Texas. The game sequences do stand out, but this refreshingly no-frills affair also finds time to question the value of the win-at-all-costs ethos rife in modern sport. Based on a wonderful book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning author H.G. Bissinger, which also later spawned a fantastic TV series. Stars Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Derek Luke.
THREE MOVIES FOR STREAMING OR RENTAL
THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (MA15+)
***
NETFLIX
This moody, broody and unapologetically intimidating drama is set in the Ohio town of Knockemstiff. A fitting choice for a movie out to rough-up its audience whenever it gets the chance. Our chief protagonist is His name is Arvin (Tom Holland), a loner whose protective instincts towards his adoptive stepsister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen) are in the process of becoming feelings of a loving nature. The arrival to the region of a predatory preacher who bills himself as the Reverend Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson) raises and multiplies the many pressures Arvin is already under. An unpredictable and enjoyably over-the-top performance from Pattinson is definitely a plus because of it showy nature. However, it is Holland — in a world far, far away from anything his Spiderman alter ego Peter Parker would ever encounter — who leaves the most lasting (and least loathsome) impression here.
SPIES IN DISGUISE (PG)
***
FOXTEL, DISNEY+
The most pleasing point of difference to this action-animation affair is a welcome anti-violence message underpinning its story of high-stakes international espionage. The young tech prodigy at the centre of the tale - Walter, voiced by current Spider-Man lead Tom Holland - has a policy of assisting in the fighting of crime only if it means no bullets, bombs or bloodshed. Sometimes Walter’s desire to experiment with gadgetry, DNA and data can generate results that do not quite work in the best interests of the top-secret agency using his services. Such as when he accidentally turns his employer’s best super-spy, Lance Sterling (Will Smith), into a pigeon. Fast-paced, yet quite easy to follow, Spies in Disguise is a solid effort that comes off as a semi-engaging mix of a Mission: Impossible adventure and a James Bond flick by way of The Incredibles. A major plus is the vocal teaming of Holland and Smith, which always keeps the comedy stuff in the right zone with a pleasing lightness of touch.
RBG (PG)
****
BINGE, FOXTEL
Some of the finer points of this gently engrossing documentary (which went close to winning the Best Doco Oscar a few years ago) will be lost on Australian viewers. Nevertheless, the subject herself will win all hearts and minds in seconds flat. This is the inspirational life story of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose sad passing last week made headline around the world. Before her controversial appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993 — selections for seats on the bench are political in nature, and can shape the direction of the nation for decades to come — Ginsburg made her name as a tireless defender of women’s rights. Having experienced outright discrimination in the formative phase of her career, Ginsburg went on argue several crucial cases as a trial lawyer that transformed equality for women into an issue that had to be finally (but not always fairly) addressed.