TV Films Fiona Rae
A Guide to the Week’s Viewing
SATURDAY JANUARY 5
King Kong (Three, 7.00pm).
The movie that Peter Jackson wanted to make before all that Lord of the Rings malarkey. However, all that technology invented for the Rings cycle must have helped. The CGI is almost seamless, but for all his nerd delight in making dinosaurs and giant wetas come to life, not to mention a certain XXXL gorilla, Jackson never forgets the human emotion, and for that he has the sublime Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow. Kong is also a creature of pathos, lonely and misunderstood, thanks again to Andy Serkis in a motioncapture suit. Awesome. (2005) Hedd Wyn (Māori TV, 8.30pm). Hedd Wyn screened without fanfare, and subtitles, last year, but Māori TV is rectifying that with a prime-time slot for the first Welsh-language film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Hedd Wyn, meaning Blessed Peace, was the bardic name of poet Ellis Evans (Huw Garmon), who was one of two poets to be killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele. The film tells the story of Evans’ life in the village of Trawsfynydd, his reluctance to enlist (he was a pacifist and went to spare his brother) and his training with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers before he was shipped to Belgium. (1992)
Concussion (TVNZ 1, 9.00pm). Another dreary role for Will Smith, whose career seems to swing between likeable action guys and cloying Oscar attempts. Writer-director Peter Landesman, an investigative journalist whose films have largely been biographies (he wrote Kill the Messenger and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and wrote and directed Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House), slips in an America-the-great message even while telling the story of Nigerian forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, who discovered traumatic brain injury in NFL players and had to fight hard to have it recognised. Leave it to Albert Brooks, as county coroner Cyril Wecht, to tell it straight: “The NFL owns a day of the week. The same day the Church used to own.” (2015) Lincoln (Three, 10.30pm). A movie about an icon directed by an icon: Steven Spielberg’s biopic of Abraham Lincoln is almost beyond criticism, such is the reverence accorded the author of the Gettysburg Address and the director of Indiana Jones. For a job he initially turned down, Daniel Day-Lewis is startlingly accurate as Abe (it could have been Liam Neeson); put him next to a picture of the 16th President and it would be difficult to tell them apart. For his commitment to the role, Day-Lewis became the only triple lead-actor Oscar winner. Sally Field, who plays Mary Todd Lincoln, was nominated. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the Lincolns’ only surviving son, Robert. (2012)
SUNDAY JANUARY 6
Zootopia (TVNZ 2, 7.00pm). An inclusiveness message wrapped in some typically eye-popping animation, and Judy
Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) is no Disney princess, either. She’s the smart and scrappy rookie cop who is underestimated by the chief. “Sir, I’m not just some token bunny!” Plenty of good jokes – sloths run the DMV – and references to The Godfather, Chinatown and LA Confidential make it a kid-adult crossover. Voice talent also includes
Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Tommy Chong and Shakira as famous pop-star “Gazelle”. (2016)
The Ghost Writer (Choice TV, 8.30pm). Upon its release, Pierce Brosnan was the centre of attention as a slick Tony Blair-like former British PM who hires Ewan McGregor to write his memoir. But Roman Polanski layers this flashy veneer over what amounts to an old-fashioned Hitchcockian thriller, complete with spooky house, isolated location (it was shot on islands in the North and Baltic seas) and wheels-within-wheels political intrigue. Really worth it for McGregor and Olivia Williams’ performances – she’s the pissed-off wife – and a classic 60s-thriller ending. (2010)
Tomb Raider (Sky Premiere, Sky 030, 8.30pm). A better Indiana Jones sequel than the Indiana Jones sequel, with tight action sequences and a clever, but not invulnerable, lead star in Alicia Vikander. She’s a young Lara Croft, led into a mystery by a recorded message from her missing father (Dominic West). Vikander is a lean Lara for the 21st century who has a wealth of girl-power skills,
including archery and, ah, fighting. In fact, one of the most exciting sequences is a bike courier chase through a vibrant and sunny London at the beginning of the film. (2018)
Suicide Squad (TVNZ 2, 9.00pm). The DC attempt at a “fun” superhero movie did not go so well. In fact, the only one who comes through this mess of bad dialogue and heavy-handed direction well is Margot Robbie as the toxic, unpredictable Harley Quinn. It’s the old story of a team of “disposable” crims recruited to do bad things for the government; they include Will Smith as Deadshot and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc. Despite the shambles, Suicide Squad made enough at the box office to warrant a currently-in-development sequel that will be co-written by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn. (2016)
THURSDAY JANUARY 10
Quantum of Solace (Three, 7.00pm). Still the worst of the Daniel Craig Bonds, possibly due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike that left the production without a working script. It’s a plodder and Bond’s motivation is, unusually, revenge for his dear departed Vesper Lynd. There’s a conservation message involving a fake environmentalist (Mathieu Amalric) whose real goal is to dry up Bolivia. Or something. Who knows what motivates psychopaths? Amalric has said that he used the “smile of Tony Blair and the craziness of Sarkozy” for the character. The new Bond was supposed to be better than this – and it was, once Sam Mendes got hold of the next picture, Skyfall. (2008)
Iron Man 2 (TVNZ 2, 8.30pm). Why do comic-book movie sequels always assume that more is better? After the fun, lean first Iron Man, another bloated franchise is born.
Jon Favreau and writer Justin Theroux may have been under studio orders, but their confusing story with too many characters is doing no one any favours. Scarlett Johansson makes the most of her few scenes on debut as Black Widow, and Mickey Rourke is a fine Russian villain, otherwise, kinda dull. (2010)
FRIDAY JANUARY 11
Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (Three, 4.15pm). A lovely thing, this adaptation, and the first fully CGI version of a Dr Seuss story. Jim Carrey puts the horror of How the Grinch Stole Christmas behind him and voices the big guy well and Steve Carell is a terrific mayor of Whoville. Also with Carol Burnett, Seth Rogen, Amy Poehler and Jonah Hill. (2008)