The best on the box
James Croot’s
trips to the outside world – where Alex, the phone’s owner, is desperate to impress a classmate – that suggest the film-makers had another, far better, script in them. They just couldn’t see it.
For all that, The Emoji Movie is not quite the rancid pile the reviews might have you believe.
Reviewers are notorious for ganging up and not wanting to be the lone voice the trolls seek out. Sometimes the best thing to do is ignore us and just go and see for yourself.
Especially with kids’ films. The Emoji Movie certainly ain’t getting a positive review from me. But it never made me actually angry in the way CHIPS and Baywatch have recently.
Emoji is at least a misogyny and bigotry free-zone, with a couple of smart girl-power moments present if you keep your eyes and ears open for them.
It’s no Wreck-It Ralph or Lego Movie, but it’s also not the crime against humanity it’s been labelled. – Graeme Tuckett
Bones, 8.35pm, Friday, Prime
In the final ever episode of this popular US crime drama, the Jeffersonian lab is in ruins following an explosion. Brennan (Emily Deschanel) has been very badly injured, sustaining enough of a head injury that she cannot decipher her own notes. ‘‘The finale is fascinating in how it avoids feeling like a finale; The End in the End could be the end of any other season – or any other episode for that matter. If the Bones finale tells audiences anything, long-running procedurals like this are from a different era of television. They’re built to last, but having a sense of an ending isn’t necessarily part of their composition,’’ wrote Screen Rant‘ s Kevin Yeoman.
7 Days, 9pm, Friday, Three
Likely to provide far more intentional laughs than the election night programming across the free-to-air channels tomorrow, this special edition of the long-running panel show sees Jeremy Corbett trying to control Paul Ego, Dai Henwood, Ben Hurley, Jeremy Elwood, Justine Smith and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer.
What better way to spend our own election day than watching British political satire at its best. Winner of the Bafta for best comedy three years in a row, this early 1980s political comedy’s debut was delayed because it was feared it would influence the 1979 UK general election. It follows the ministerial career of The Rt Hon Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) and his battles with civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne).
The Artist, 8.30pm, Sunday, Maori TV
It’s easy to see why this near-silent French/Belgian co-production was the toast of Hollywood in 2012. Shot in the US, it is essentially a love letter to old school American filmmaking and the European directors who headed to La La Land to make their mark in those days. An artistic triumph, this film is cinematic gold.
Pride and Prejudice, Monday, 7.30pm, Vibe
Twenty-two years after it first gripped audiences around the world, this Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth-starring six-part version of Jane Austen’s classic tale is back. ‘‘A splendid adaptation, with a remarkably faithful and sensitively nuanced script,’’ wrote The New York
Times‘ John O’Connor.
Halt and Catch Fire, 9.30pm, Wednesday, SoHo
The fourth and final season of this 1980s-set period drama will see the cast of characters navigating the early days of the internet and web browsers, pondering their destinies both personally and professionally, while the competitive nature of the tech world continues to complicate their relationships. ‘‘An urgent story of rehumanisation for a cold, wired culture. Plug in now,’’ wrote Entertainment Weekly‘ s Jeff Jensen.