FRIDAY.
MOVIES.
ON.
TV.
You know how this goes.
Here’s the most eye-catching options on your television on Friday, 8 April…
Den of Thieves – Virgin Media One – 9pm
I’ve seen this film four times and I still don’t know how good it is.
McLintock! – TG4 – 9pm
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara do the ‘comedy western’ thing.
Fast and Furious 8 – ITV2 – 9pm
That’ll be the eighth one.
Jason Bourne – E4 – 9pm
Matt Damon returns to the spy franchise, bringing varying degrees of success with him.
Stuber – Film4 – 9pm
Tough cop Dave ‘Batista’ Bautista and mild-mannered Uber driver Kumail Nanjiani team up, rather reluctantly, to take down a ruthless killer.
Miami Vice – Turner Classic Movies – 9pm
Our main pick this evening is a film that deserves more love.
Released in 2006, Michael Mann’s ultra-serious, wildly convoluted and frustratingly restrained at times update on Miami Vice rather polarised cinema-goers and critics alike.
Indeed, the film currently ‘boasts’ a rating of just 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Here’s the rub – it’s absolutely brilliant and gets a little bit better with each revisit.
Colin Farrell (brooding, excellent, says he can’t remember making most of the film) and Jamie Foxx (visibly pissed off because his role was clearly underwritten and cut down) play two undercover cops posing as drug dealers in order to bring down a dangerous crime empire.
Certainly more patient than pulsating, but I’m all in from the opening needle drop of ‘Numb/Encore’ to the closing hammering drums of Mogwai.
Schindler’s List – RTÉ 2 – 10pm
Steven Spielberg’s powerful Holocaust drama remains highly affecting all these years on not just because of the harrowing subject matter, but the excellent performances from Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and a never-more-terrifying Ralph Fiennes.
Iron Man 3 – BBC One – 10.40pm
The third one. Maybe the best one.
Overboard – RTÉ One – 11.15pm
Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn get up to all kinds of shenanigans in this raucous yacht-based comedy.
Pacific Rim – Turner Classic Movies – 11.45pm
Guillermo Del Toro crafts a gloriously silly Saturday morning cartoon with giant robots and colossal monsters.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – Channel 4 – 1.05am
Andy Samberg delivers a riotous send-up of the pop music industry.
Brewster’s Millions – RTÉ 2 – 1.55am
There are worse people to hang out with at 2am than Richard Pryor and John Candy.
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