HD Highlights: August 23

Sky Movies Greats: We Own the Night (Sky 22, 8.30, 5.1)  The film noir promise of its title and opening credits isn’t fulfilled but this is still an intense and atmospheric police thriller. Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play estranged brothers on opposite sides of the law: one’s a New York cop on his way to the top, the other’s a nightclub manager who’s unwittingly working for Russian mobsters that have his brother and father (NYPD big-wig Robert Duvall) in their sights. What happens next isn’t surprising but is gripping and suspenseful, although the ending falls flat after the genre’s most heart-stopping car chase since The French Connection. Eva Mendes co-stars. (2007) ✭✭✭✩

Fringe (TV2, 10.35, 5.1) The team investigates a case involving a bizarre mutation that Peter solved in his original timeline four years ago. “Friends, the ship has come in,” said Entertainment Weekly. “’A Short Story About Love’ — one of the best episodes of Fringe’s fourth season, well directed by co-showrunner, JH Wyman — gave us answers that were long in coming.” But Paste magazine wasn’t as convinced: “There’s a strange part of me that has started hoping that these last eight episodes of the fourth season of Fringe turn out to be the end of the series. This week’s episode, while clunky in parts (and a little heavy-handed in others), still managed to have enough highs to recommend it, and the picture being painted is one we’ve waited four years to see.” ✭✭✭✭

❑ Rescue 1 (TV2, 8.00) A hang glider pilot may have broken his back after a heavy crash-landing; a Manaia man comes off a sea biscuit at high speed; a crashed driver needs an urgent air-lift. ✭✭✭

❑ Inside NZ: Practising Medecine (TV3, 9.30, F) Sequel to last week’s Donated to Science, which continues to track the medical students until they become doctors. ✭✭✭

❑ Auckland Daze (TV One, 10.05) Series premiere: Four hapless wannabes – a model, a stuntman, a dwarf entertainer and a stand-up comedian – chase fame in Auckland’s ridiculously small entertainment industry. ✭✭✭

❑ The Unit (TV3, 11.45, 5.1) Under pressure from a Washington bureaucrat, the team must infiltrate a suspected anthrax lab without a viable exit strategy. ✭✭✭✭

❑ Rizolli & Isles (TV2, 12.05, 5.1)  The latest investigation finds Jane and Maura looking into the death of a baseball coach while Tommy finally arrives home. ✭✭✭