Family reunion turns to chaos

AS imperiously focused as its opinionated lead character, No. 2 (Saturday, 2am, Seven) is the confident, insightful 2006 directorial debut of playwright Toa Fraser.

Ruby Dee

AS imperiously focused as its opinionated lead character, No. 2 (Saturday, 2am, Seven) is the confident, insightful 2006 directorial debut of playwright Toa Fraser.

It's adapted from his 2000 stage work about a strong-willed Fijian matriarch (Ruby Dee) in Auckland's Mt Roskill neighbourhood who abruptly calls a family reunion that becomes chaotic and revelatory.

Dee sets a high bar that is cleared by the capable and good-looking ensemble of local talent. And Fraser's point, that family trumps all, is delivered with beguiling energy.

Guilty pleasures don't come guiltier, or more pleasurable, than the 1989 slacker science fiction time-travel rock comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Friday, 9.30pm, 7Mate).

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter seem born for their roles as a pair of cheerfully lazy high schoolers who travel through time to harvest "historical figures" for their final exam.

In addition to the raft of rock music jokes, including the inevitable Iron Maiden pun, supporting players include the unlikely trio of The Tubes' Fee Waybill, Martha Davis from Martha and the Muffins and Clarence Clemons from Bruce Springsteen's band as, wait for it,

The Three Most Important People in the World. What's most excellent is that Reeves has recently confirmed a finished script for the second sequel.

The robust 1994 period melodrama Legends of the Fall (Friday, 8.30pm, Gem) stars Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas as the bonded sons of reclusive retired soldier Anthony Hopkins and the woman, played by Julia Ormond, who destabilises the family.

Hopkins is also in fine form as New Zealand speed bike racer Burt Munro in director Roger Donaldson's solid, straightforward biography The World's Fastest Indian (Friday, 8.30pm, SBS One). Some of Munro's eccentricities were borrowed from the director's father.

BEST ON SHOW
No. 2 (M) , 4 stars, Saturday, 2am, Seven
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (PG), 3½ stars, Friday, 9.30pm, 7Mate
Legends of the Fall (M), 3 ½ stars, Friday, 8.30pm, Gem