FRIDAY’S BEST PICKS
7:59 PM (STRZ) MOVIE Bad
Boys for Life Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return to their familiar roles as Detective Lts. Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, respectively, in this 2020 action comedy from the directing team of Adil & Bilall. This third installment in the “Bad Boys” trilogy follows the police duo as they pursue — and are pursued by — Armando Armas (Jacob Scipio), the vengeful son of a dead cartel kingpin. Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig also star.
8 PM ( MAX) MOVIE Long Shot Jonathan Levine’s 2019 romantic comedy requires a hefty suspension of disbelief, but once you get there, it mostly works, thanks to — we’re not making this up — some first-rate chemistry between stars Charlize Theron and
Seth Rogen. Many years ago, she was his character’s babysitter, but now she’s the current U.S. Secretary of
State about to launch a presidential bid. She hires him as her speechwriter, and things develop from there. Andy Serkis, June Diane Raphael (“Grace and Frankie”), Bob Odenkirk and Alexander Skarsgard also star.
8 PM ( TCM) MOVIE You and Me To a generation of moviegoers, Sylvia Sidney always will be the gravel-voiced caseworker in the afterlife in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice,” but the actress had a long and very diversified career — including this 1938 film noir directed by German filmmaker Fritz Lang after he came to America. Sidney stars with screen veteran George Raft as a pair of paroled criminals working in a department store. The movie’s score is by
Kurt Weill, best known for composing
“The Threepenny Opera.” The film airs as part of an all-day salute to Sidney’s films.
9 PM ^ Great Performances As “Hamilton” smashes viewership records on the Disney Plus streaming service, this 2009 episode called “In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams” features composer and lyricist LinManuel Miranda — who started work on this musical while in college, well before “Hamilton” came along — as one of the artists (with director Thomas Kail) who conceive an ultimately Tony Award-winning show infused with Latin and hip-hop elements. It focuses on one New York neighborhood and the first-generation Americans who help populate it.
9 PM G Being Reuben This engaging new docuseries revolves around 14-year-old Welsh social-media celebrity Reuben de Maid as he tries to juggle that fame with the daily reality of sharing life with fractious siblings Coco and Sonny, who love taking their brother down a peg or two. It adds up to a handful for their mother, Vicky, to cope with as well. Ultimately, though, it’s these same family dynamics that have given Reuben the strength to be himself. The
series premiere finds Reuben joining an all-male ad campaign. Another episode follows.
9 PM ( TNT) NBA Basketball A clash of the top two teams in the Atlantic Division is in the offing, as Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics hope to make progress in grabbing the No. 2 playoff seed in the East with a victory over Pascale Siakam and the Toronto Raptors. The Celts have won two of three games with the Dinos this season, but Toronto took the most recent meeting, a 113-97 victory behind Kyle Lowry’s 30 points back on Dec. 28.
9 PM ( TRAV) The Dead Files In the new episode “Preying on the Weak,,” former homicide detective Steve DiSchiavi and medium Amy Allan travel to a family home in North Beach, Md., where Amy confronts a malevolent entity that seems to focus on torturing children. Later, they hit the road to Canton, Ill., where a young boy’s paranormal encounters reveal a dangerous power that seems to be building.
9 PM ( SHO) MOVIE Jexi The virtual assistant (voice of Rose Byrne) on a self-aware smartphone becomes emotionally attached to her socially awkward owner, Phil (Adam DeVine), in this quirky 2019 romantic comedy cowritten and -directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Addicted to cellphones from an early age, Phil spends so much time staring at screens that he fails to connect with those around him. Things get really complicated when Jexi, his new phone’s “voice,” actively starts trying to break Phil of his bad habits. Alexandra Shipp, Wanda Sykes, Justin Hartley and Charlyne Yi co-star.