SATURDAY

American Dreamz Bravo, 2.05pm Starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid. This faintly ridiculous political satire on the American way of life has its funny moments, but possibly tries a little bit too hard at times. The lack of any truly likeable characters for the audience to attach themselves to also hampers proceedings. ★★

Lassie M ori TV, 7pm Starring Helen Slater, Michelle Williams. This might not be faithful to English author Eric Knight’s original 1940 novel in which a Yorkshire family are forced to sell their son’s dog to a duke, but it is still a well-acted piece of cinema, albeit one set in America. ★★★★

The Adventures Of Tintin Three, 7pm Starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have done a masterful job of bringing this childhood icon to life. Recreating the charmingly naive world of Herge’s comic-book creation was never going to be easy, but the use of photo-realistic technology fleshes out the characters in a way that exceeds all expectations. All of our favourite figures are here, from Snowy the dog to bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson, but it is Jamie Bell in the title role who brings it home, perfectly capturing the essence of the enthusiastic boy reporter. ★★★★

Meet The Parents

TVNZ 2, 7pm

Starring Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller. The man who portrayed such menacing characters as Al Capone in The Untouchables and Max Cady in Cape Fear has now carved out a late-career niche as a comic actor. In Meet The Parents, De Niro is well-matched with experienced funnyman Ben Stiller, who delivers a happily toned-down performance as a male nurse unlucky enough to be saddled with the intimidating De Niro – playing an ex-CIA agent, now in retirement – as his prospective father-in-law. It’s a match made in hell for the characters, but in heaven for viewers. Laugh-out-loud stuff. ★★★★

Terminator: Dark Fate Sky Premiere, 8.30pm Starring Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger. This 2019 movie was intended to resurrect the franchise after 2015’s disappointing Terminator Genisys.

Dark Fate sort of reboots things by being in effect a direct sequel to 1991’s Judgement Day, and disregarding Rise Of The Machines and the awful Genisys in the franchise’s narrative. Original stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger return, ostensibly to pass the baton on to new characters. It didn’t fare too well financially, but was a welcome return to the style of the earlier Terminator films. ★★★

Tanna M ori TV, 8.40pm Starring Marie Wawa, Mungau Dain. Romeo And Juliet is set on the remote Vanuatu island of Tanna in this rare film about authentic Pacific Island culture. Two young lovers, Dain and Wawa (the actors’ actual surnames), run foul of traditional values, known as Kastom, when the girl refuses to accept an arranged marriage within a rival tribe. It’s a simple story, but well told against the stunning backdrop of a beautiful location. ★★★★

Murder At 1600

TVNZ Duke, 9pm

Starring Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane. Bit of trivia first. The 1600 refers to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of the White House. Wesley Snipes plays a detective assigned to cover the

death of a secretary in a restroom at the White House, a murder which soon has wide-ranging national security implications. The plot is intriguing, but never really gets going. ★★

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery

TVNZ 2, 9.10pm

Starring Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley. This surprisingly funny 007 comedy spoof seemed to come out of nowhere in 1997 and went a long way towards establishing Mike Myers as an international comedy star. He plays a cryogenically frozen secret agent from the 60s who is taken out of deep freeze to battle his old nemesis Dr Evil, who Myers also played after Jim Carrey apparently turned down the part. Let’s hope Myers got two pay cheques – he deserves it for two excellent performances. ★★★★

The Wedding Ringer Three, 9.10pm Starring Kevin Hart, Josh Gad. Fans of funnymen Kevin Hart and Josh Gad – probably better known as Olaf the snowman from Frozen – will no doubt enjoy this profanity-laden comedy in which a friendless groom-to-be hires a fake best man, but others are likely to find it galling and derivative. ★★

Addicted To Love

TVNZ 2, 11pm

Starring Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick. Dark, slightly twisted comedy about two dumped exes who plot revenge against their former lovers. There are some clever scenes but character and script development could have been better. ★★★

Warcraft Three, 11.15pm Starring Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton. Computer games and movies have never had the best of relationships and Warcraft, based on the popular video-game series, is evidence of this. It does a good job of incorporating special effects and live action seamlessly but that’s about the only thing it gets right with the film boasting a convoluted plot and weak characters. ★★

Unknown

TVNZ 2, 1am (Sunday)

Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger. Similar to but not quite as good as Taken, this popcorn thriller stars Liam Neeson as a prominent biochemist who awakens after a car crash puts him in a coma to discover his identity has been stolen. While hampered by more than a few sloppy plotholes, slick action sequences and a determined performance by the ever-reliable

Neeson keep things moving nicely. ★★★

who dreams of being a musician while growing up in a household where music is banned. His quest to remain true to himself as he unravels his family history takes him to the Land of the Dead, drawing heavily on Mexican folklore along the way while paying tribute to some of Hollywood’s most memorable moments. Fast-paced and vibrant, this exploration of life, death and family is also a real tear-jerker and different from most of animation studio Pixar’s other offerings. ★★★★★

Patch Adams Bravo, 7pm Starring Robin Williams. Slightly saccharine but still affecting fact-based story about Hunter ’Patch’ Adams, a doctor in the 1970s whose (at the time) unorthodox methods included treating illness with humour. Robin Williams is a natural in the role. ★★★

Survive The Night Sky Premiere, 8.30pm Starring Bruce Willis, Chad Michael Murray. Willis picks up another pay cheque but squanders a bit more superstar capital in this predictable, by-the-numbers action/revenge thriller about a doctor forced to treat a wounded criminal after a robbery in which his wife was killed. ★★

Aga M ori TV, 8.30pm Starring Feodosia Ivanova, Mikhail Aprosimov. A reindeer hunter’s wife who is dying longs to talk about their daughter who left home to work in a faraway Siberian diamond mine, but her husband refuses to talk about her in this movie which reinforces the fragility of life. ★★★★

Passengers Three, 8.35pm Starring Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence. Even the undisputed talents of its two leads cannot steer this flaw-riddled story to safety. It centres on two passengers on a 120-year journey to another planet when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early. What follows is basically a tale of love and obsession in space as the two struggle to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction that threatens the lives of all on board. ★★

Wrath Of The Titans

TVNZ 2, 9.05pm

Starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson. As father and son Zeus and Perseus, Liam Neeson and Sam Worthington appear to be merely acting by numbers in this plastic-feeling action blockbuster sequel to Clash Of The Titans. ★★

True Lies

TVNZ Duke, 9.30pm

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis. An unabashed actionfest matched with a good, humorous premise about a top-secret agent whose wife thinks he is a harmless salesman. Good chemistry between the leads helps this big-budget action comedy. ★★★★

The Conjuring 2

TVNZ 2, 11.05pm

Starring Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga. Wilson and Farmiga continue on from the original as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. This time they help a family troubled by a poltergeist in a London council house. It is based on an actual case, which has been widely documented. ★★★ it’s easy to forget that the first film was really anti-war, more concerned with the mental aftermath suffered by veterans. That horse quickly bolted and, like the numerous sequels, Last Blood pushes all the ‘outrage’ buttons – this time sex trafficking, racial stereotypes, hard drug cartels. Stallone again reprises the part of John J Rambo, 38 years after 1982’s First Blood (it wasn’t called Rambo until the first sequel). A series of flashbacks at the end of this latest movie signals that Last Blood is just that and, on this showing, that’s no bad thing. ★★

Yellow Is Forbidden M ori TV, 8.30pm New Zealand festival documentary about Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei as she prepares to make her Paris debut. ★★★

Soldier Prime, 8.30pm Starring Kurt Russell. A merciless, futuristic soldier rendered obsolete by a new generation of specially-bred warriors is overpowered and dumped on a scrap-heap planet. Nursed back to health by spaceship-crash survivors, he regains his humanity just in time to defend the community from target practice by government troops. This is a connect-the-dots actioner with good, if gory, special effects. ★★★

A Quiet Place Three, 8.40pm Starring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt. Krasinski directed, co-wrote and stars in this excellent post-apocalyptic thriller about alien beings who hunt human prey using hypersensitive hearing. Young Millicent Evans, who is deaf in real life, has a standout role as the deaf daughter of Krasinski and Blunt’s characters, who use sign language to communicate with all of their children. This film is not to be missed. ★★★★★

intriguing Australian drama. Melissa George plays the enigmatic Eve, beautiful, ethereal and not really totally in sync with reality. But it’s Ed Oxenbould who really shines, as the smitten teen. ★★★

Planet Of The Apes

TVNZ Duke, 8.30pm

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter. A not-quite-satisfying 2001 remake of the 1968 classic with Mark Wahlberg taking the place of Charlton Heston as the astronaut who lands on what he thinks is an alien planet controlled by talking apes which hunt humans as pests. Although no improvement is made on the original’s theme, there are some standout performances by the ‘apes’ (Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter and Michael Clarke Duncan). The reboot of the series some 10 years later is a much better tribute to the originals. ★★

The Lake House Three, 8.35pm Starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock. Reuniting Speed stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, this romantic drama is a sweet and nostalgic film based on Il Mare, a South Korean film about two lovers and their communication across time. ★★★

The Light Between Oceans

TVNZ 2, 8.40pm

Starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander. A World War I veteran and his wife who run a lighthouse on the West Australian coast illegally take in a baby who washes ashore in a dinghy with a dead man. It’s beautifully shot (much of it in Otago) and is a real weepie, possibly to the detriment of the narrative. ★★★

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Three, 8.40pm Starring Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx. Despite a decent effort from Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, something is lacking in this Spider-Man sequel. Jamie Foxx makes for an enjoyable villain, but his is largely a wasted effort, with the film trying to cram too many enemies into one space. The effects are spectacular, but because of an underwritten script they are nothing more than screen filler really. ★★★

We’re The Millers

TVNZ 2, 9pm

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis. While a tad uneven, this slightly titillating lightweight comedy is exactly the kind of thing Jennifer Aniston excels at. Here she plays a stripper posing as the wife of a small-time pot dealer who has created a fake family to help him smuggle a load of marijuana from Mexico into the US. And with a set-up like that, you can bet your bottom dollar that reasonably hilarious chaos will undoubtedly ensue. ★★★

to question if she is marrying the right man when she returns to Tennessee hoping to borrow her late mother’s wedding dress. Not reviewed.

ChiPs

TVNZ 2, 8.50pm

Starring Dax Shepard, Michael Pena. Cop buddy comedy like so many others, with its crudity and crassness an obvious point of difference. Pena plays a sex-addicted highway patrolman while Shephard, an intellectually challenged former motocross rider, is his rookie partner. Plenty of demerit points here. ★★ the more cheesy Mission: Impossible 2. ★★★

Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

TVNZ 2, 7.30pm

Starring Jessica Alba, Chris Evans. While it’s pretty much compulsory viewing for fans, this sequel to the slightly more successful Fantastic Four doesn’t really offer anything more than its predecessor did, although the special effects are impressive as always. ★★★

The Breakfast Club Bravo, 7.30pm Starring Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald. Equal parts poignant, humorous and sincere, this movie delves a little deeper into the teenage psyche than others of its ilk and comes back with something a bit more challenging than nerds wanting sex. A now-classic serving of 80s teen angst. ★★★★

The Last Full Measure Sky Premiere, 8.30pm Starring Sebastian Stan, Christopher Plummer. It’s a true story about a previously forgotten hero of the Vietnam War – William Pitsenbarger, a 21-year-old medic. He refused to be evacuated by helicopter during a bloody battle and saved many lives before being killed himself. This recounts the efforts 32 years later by Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman to get a posthumous Medal Of Honour for Pitsenbarger before his elderly parents die. ★★★

Roman J Israel Esq M ori TV, 8.30pm Starring Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell. Washington stands out as a complex, idealistic lawyer who gives in after suffering a series of humiliations. It is far from an assembly-line legal drama, with their sharp suits and Botox. Instead, the title character is a $500-a-week civil rights specialist who reluctantly takes a better paid job at a big corporate firm where his face and ideals don’t fit. ★★★

Jackass 3.5: The Unrated Movie

TVNZ Duke, 10pm

Starring Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O. Johnny Knoxville and the gang return for more madcap antics in this eye-popping, gut-churning stuntfest in which no cast member is safe. The gags range from the ridiculous to the disgusting, but on the whole it’s an entertaining way to watch silly people do stupid things. It’s pretty much the same as Jackass 3, but with added footage and out-takes. ★★★