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RATINGS
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H Poors films rated and reviewed
FRI19 July
Lethal Weapon
ITV 11.10pm - 1.00am HHHH
ACTION THRILLER⊲ Mel
Gibson cemented his place as a
superstar with this film, playing a
crackshot, loner cop still broodingly
suicidal after the death of his wife in
a road accident. Although its edge has
been blunted by time and three
lacklustre sequels, this is still an
invigorating slice of 1980s thriller
hokum. The film succeeds less as a
result of its elaborate action sequences
than the good cop-loopy cop double
act of co-star Danny Glover and
Gibson. Dir: Richard Donner 1987, 18, 110min
SEX! VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE @Man Up
BBC1 (not Wales) 12m’t - 1.20am
(N Ireland 11.40pm - 1.00am) HHHH
See Saturday for review.Paranormal Activity:
The Marked Ones
C4 12.10am - 1.40am HH
HORROR⊲ A pair of Latino
teenagers break into a dead woman’s
apartment in California. Bad move.
She was a witch and one of the teens
ends up getting possessed. With its
Hispanic characters, the fifth entry in
the home-movie horror series has a
different feel to earlier instalments,
despite the continuing first-person
camera gimmick, but the
supernatural shocks remain the
same. Incidentally, writer-director
Christopher Landon is the son of
actor Michael Landon, of Little
House on the Prairie fame.
Dir: Christopher Landon 2014, 15, 90min
SEX @ VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE (BEST OF THE REST
Overlord
Sky Cinema Premiere
10.20pm - 12.20am HHHH
● See Our Picks of the Week, p28THUR18 July
The Narcissist
Channel 5 2.15pm - 4.00pm HH
PREMIERE THRILLER⊲Single
mum Amber Goldfarb starts to date
the perfect Damon Runyan. Her son,
Sam Ashe Arnold, has his suspicions
about Runyan, but that doesn’t
matter because he dies as the result
of a hit-and-run. Yes, this descends
into a laughably surprise-free
experience. Dir: Max McGuire 2019, 12, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )The Quiet Ones
C4 1.00am - 2.40am HH
HORROR⊲ The reborn Hammer
company’s venture into the world of
Victorian Gothic for The Woman in
Black was a huge success, but this
1970s-set chiller is disappointingly
formulaic. Jared Harris’s professor,
students Erin Richards and Rory
Fleck-Byrne, along with callow local
cameraman Sam Claflin set off for an
isolated country house to continue
their experiments on Olivia Cooke’s
disturbed mental patient. Is there a
rational explanation for her woes or is
she demonically possessed? We all
know the drill. Dir: John Pogue 2014, 15, 100min
SEX! VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE!BEST OF THE REST
3 Days to Kill
5Spike 11.00pm - 1.20am HHH
THRILLER⊲A grizzled but very
game Kevin Costner plays a veteran,
semi-retired CIA agent who must
juggle the tasks of eliminating an
international arms dealer for Amber
Heard’s sultry spook while winning
back his estranged wife (Connie
Nieslen) and stroppy teenage
daughter (Hailee Steinfeld). Director
McG employs the Taken formula of
ultra-violence mixed with family
sentiment, but doesn’t quite deliver
the same guilty-pleasure thrills.
Dir: McG 2014, 12, 140min
SEX! VIOLENCE! LANGUAGE @WED17 July
My Evil Stepdad
Channel 5 2.15pm - 4.00pm HH
PREMIERE THRILLER⊲
Widow Jennifer Lafleur is thrilled
to hook up with slick charmer Chris
Johnson, whom she quickly ties the
knot with. Trouble is, her daughter
Addy Stafford is convinced Johnson
is a wrong ’un. But surely there
would be a clue in the film’s title if
she was right in her assumptions...
Dir: Stacia Crawford 2019, PG, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )BEST OF THE REST
The Stepfather
Horror Channel
9.00pm - 11.00pm HHH
THRILLER⊲Dylan Walsh
implodes with pent-up rage as a
psycho killer who sets up home with
fatherless families, then slaughters
them when his authority is
challenged. Penn Badgley plays a
rebellious teenager who returns home
to find his mother Sela Ward is living
with the creepy Walsh and soon
senses all is not well. This remake of
the 1987 original is contrived, but well
done. Dir: Nelson McCormick 2009, 15, 120min
SEX @ VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE @Elysium
Syfy 9.00pm - 11.10pm HHHH
SatelliteSCI-FI⊲This sci-fi
adventure is both a gripping action
thriller and a striking tale of social
inequality. The film is set in the
squalid shanty towns of 2154 Earth,
where Matt Damon’s shaven-headed
factory worker receives a lethal dose
of radiation in an industrial accident.
His only chance of survival is to get to
Elysium, a vast orbiting space station
where the ultra-wealthy minority live
lives of luxury in grand mansions and
have access to the best high-tech
medicine. Dir: Neill Blomkamp 2013, 15, 130min
SEX ) VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE @TUES16 July
PICKS OF THE DAY
Stalag 17
Film4 11.00am - 1.25pm HHHHH
WAR COMEDY⊲William
Holden delivers a gritty, forceful
portrait of a World War Two PoW
camp scrounger and racketeer,
who’s the chief suspect when deaths
of would-be escapers make it plain
that an informer is at work. Billy
Wilder’s film is comic, dramatic,
suspenseful and touching in turn.
Dir: Billy Wilder 1953, PG, 145min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )Hero
AMC 7.00pm - 9.00pm HHHH
SatelliteMARTIAL ARTS⊲
Director Zhang Yimou’s visually
stunning adventure epic, set in
feudal China in the 3rd Century
BC, is a classic of the period martial
arts genre. Hong Kong superstars
Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung
and Zhang Ziyi bound over water
and spring over trees in balletic
duels as Li’s swordsman kills the
Chinese Emperor’s most feared
enemies. Jaw-dropping action and
majestic landscapes boggle the eye.
Dir: Zhang Yimou 2002, 12, 120min
SEX ) VIOLENCE! LANGUAGE )Get Carter
ITV4 9.00pm - 11.20pm HHHHH
GANGSTER THRILLER⊲
Who would have guessed this gritty
gangster movie would prove so
durable and influential? If one
overlooks the fashions, the film
scarcely seems to have dated and
puts the later crop of hip British
gangster movies to shame. Michael
Caine has never been better than as
vengeful anti-hero Jack Carter, and
the film’s stark Newcastle settings
add immeasurably to its impact.
Dir: Mike Hodges 1971, 18, 140min
SEX @ VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE!● See listings pages for full details of regional films
Michael Caine
in Get CarterMatt Damon
in ElysiumOlivia Cooke in
The Quiet OnesMel Gibson in
Lethal WeaponTV TIMES 31