SATURDAY

The Lego Batman Movie

TVNZ 2, 7pm

Voices Clancy Brown, Troy Baker A literal block-buster, the usual characters from Batman are joined by The Justice League after arch villain The Joker steals Bruce Wayne's Man Of The Year award. It’s so good you have to ask yourself if we really need actors. ★★★★

Rock Dog Three, 7pm Voices Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard. Tibetan mastiffs charged with protecting sheep from a wolf pack avoid all distractions, including music. However, when Bodi, the mastiff’s leader’s son, discovers a radio that magically fell from the sky, he decides he wants to become a rock’n’roll star. ★★

Stuart Little 3 M ori TV, 7pm Voices Michael J Fox, Geena Davis. Direct-to-video second sequel to the popular live action Stuart Little. This one is entirely animated, although with the same voice stars. Nice, colourful stuff for the kids. ★★★

The Dead Don’t Die Sky Premiere, 8.30pm Starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver. Shaun Of The Dead set the bar pretty high for zomcoms and The

Dead Don’t Die doesn’t quite nudge it. It’s funny enough though, with the laughs getting more screen time than gore. So be warned: if you want all-out horror, The Walking Dead might be a better fit. Here Bill Murray plays the police chief of a small town where a song titled The Dead Don’t Die seems to be the prelude to zombie manifestations. You can read many things into the script – diatribes about climate change, consumerism and so forth. But you can take or leave that and just laugh at a smart film. ★★★

Carol M ori TV, 8.30pm Starring Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett. An excellent and sensitive film set in the 1950s about an affair between two women – an aspiring photographer and an older woman, going through a difficult divorce. It is based on an autobiographical novel and, while capturing some of the homophobia of the post-war years, is a beautiful love story at heart. ★★★★

Molly’s Game Choice, 8.30pm Starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin delivers the goods on every level in this amazing real-life tale. Molly’s Game tells the story of Molly Bloom, a promising Olympic skier turned queen of the underground poker scene in America. She counted business tycoons, Hollywood moguls and sports stars among her clients until an FBI raid brought it all crashing down. The movie is squarely about how a woman can take it to the boys in the criminal underworld. ★★★★

Beowulf

TVNZ Duke, 8.30pm

Voices Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie. Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis used the latest technology in creating this stunningly animated retelling of the 1300-year-old epic poem about a hero who slays a monster and its devilish mother. The amazing visuals are backed up with a solid story and a stellar cast. ★★★★

Interstellar

TVNZ 2, 8.45pm

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway. An engrossing sci-fi drama that explores the somewhat difficult notion of intersellar travel and the use of spacetime wormholes – something which in the hands of a lesser director than Christopher Nolan could have become a mess mired in scientific hokum. ★★★★

The Heartbreak Kid Three, 8.45pm Starring Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan. Remake of the 1972 film has Ben Stiller meeting the perfect woman while on honeymoon with his detestable new wife after an all-too-hasty romance. Inconsistent effort from the Farrelly brothers with some uncomfortably crude moments that tend to overshadow any genuine comedic value. Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin did a much classier, and funnier, job all those years ago. ★★

About Schmidt

TVNZ 1, 11.10pm

Starring Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates. Jack Nicholson is superb in this drama about a confused man who begins to question his unfulfilling and lonely life upon retirement and the death of his wife. Nicholson’s realistic performance never wavers and mixes well with Alexander Payne’s script, which is also enhanced by contrasting warm performances from Kathy Bates and Howard Hesseman. ★★★★

Deception

TVNZ 2, 11.50pm

Starring Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor. A workaholic accountant (Ewan McGregor) is introduced to an exclusive sex club for

Wall Street’s rich and powerful by an upper crust corporate lawyer (Hugh Jackman) in this melodramatic look at the rotten core of American corporate life. It’s an OK erotic thriller, but lets titillation get in the way of tension. ★★★

Cold Creek Manor

TVNZ 2, 1.45am (Sun)

Starring Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone. City slickers pack up their kids and move into a dilapidated repossessed mansion in the country. Bad mistake. Seems the previous occupant, a twitchy ex-con they have taken on as a handyman, wants to reclaim his birthright. Sluggish and not particularly scary, this sub-par thriller is particularly ill-served by a jarring score. ★★

Joker Sky Premiere, 8.30pm Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro. It is one of the most controversial movies of all time and a huge box-office hit. Joker tells the back story of the Batman villain, formerly Arthur Fleck, a delusional, lonely man who ekes out a miserable living as a party clown and aspiring stand-up comedian. It’s a clever film, brilliantly scripted and produced, and with a masterful performance from Joaquin Phoenix. Deep down though, it does raise unease over its dark, violent content, particularly in context of the 2012 massacre of 12 people during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises by a mentally disturbed man who had dyed his hair red. ★★★

Jackie M ori TV, 8.30pm Starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard. Jackie is the story of former First Lady Jackie Onassis and her life after the assassination of her first husband, John F Kennedy. It may twist the truth in some areas, but largely keeps to what is considered to be the historical record and does it in a way that viewers will be dragged into what was most certainly no ordinary life. ★★★★

Central Intelligence Three, 8.35pm Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart. A somewhat mishmash of a plot is saved by the comic talents of Johnson and Hart. Johnson plays Bob Stone, a boy who was bullied at school but is now a CIA agent. He needs the help of Calvin Joyner (Hart), a former classmate who’s now a forensic accountant, to stop a terrorist selling America’s satellite codes. ★★★

Parenthood Bravo, 9.05pm Starring Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen. Oscar-nominated film that takes a realistic look at parenthood and the challenges and joys of family life. Featuring good performances from an ensemble cast that includes Steve Martin, Keanu Reeves and Joaquin Phoenix, this excellent mix of comedy and drama is surprisingly thoughtful. ★★★★

Burnt

TVNZ 2, 9.10pm

Starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller. John Wells never really seems to know whether he is directing a drama or a comedy in this half-baked story of a disgraced chef who sets out to rebuild his life in London. Bradley Cooper seems to be channelling the film’s executive producer (the potty-mouthed Gordon Ramsay) as the chef flambeing his way to redemption while failing to set the film alight. ★★

The Green Hornet

TVNZ Duke, 9.50pm

Starring Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz. Seth Rogen isn’t exactly your typical comic-book superhero-type, but then again, this action comedy isn’t your typical comic-book superhero movie either. Unfortunately, in this case that is not a good thing. Rogen’s inadequacy as a crimefighter is all too obvious without actually crossing over the line into full tongue-in-cheek superhero satire. ★★

Wilson

TVNZ 1, 10.30pm

Starring Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern. A lonely and neurotic middle-aged man tries to rebuild his relationship with his ex-wife and teenage daughter. Woody Harrelson plays the titular character. ★★★

Underworld: Blood Wars

TVNZ 2, 11.55pm

Starring Kate Beckinsale. The bloody war between Lycan and Vampire continues in the fifth instalment of the Underworld saga, limping to the finish line with most of its body parts missing. ★