Tonight in HD: March 31

March 30, 2012 0 Comments

Movie Highlight: The Last King of Scotland (TV3, 12.10, R) “King McIdi” is dead but his lethal legacy lives on in this powerhouse dramatisation of Ugandan president Idi Amin’s reign from 1971-79. As well as being a supremely suspenseful and chilling thriller about his Scottish physician (James McAvoy), it shows another side to the tabloid press’ caricature of an “ogrish, people-eating monster of a dictator”. Forest Whitaker portrays him as not only a brutal, paranoid schizophrenic but also a humorous, charismatic man of the people with mischievous wit. Kevin Macdonald (State of Play, Touching the Void) directs. (2006) ✮✮✮✮

Movie: Public Enemies (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Michael Mann’s gangster thriller simmers with promise but doesn’t pack enough heat. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are too modern to respectively convince as ‘30s bank robber John Dillinger or his FBI nemesis, Melvin Purvis, while the shallow storytelling overshadows even the sensational shootouts. Because of how it was filmed, the HD quality veers from extraordinarily sharp to being as murky as Mann’s motivations. (2009) ✮✮✮

The Secret Lives of Dancers (TV3, 4.30, R, F) It’s the North Island leg of the tour, and as the curtain comes down on a sellout season there’s an emotional farewell to one of the company’s most popular dancers. ✮✮

TradeZone Gone Fishin’ (TV3, 5.00) A slice of outdoor New Zealand. ✮✮

Rheem Outdoors With Geoff (TV3, 5.30, R) Geoff Thomas showcases the spectacular outdoors. ✮✮

Hyundai Country Calendar (TV One, 7.00) A fisherman brings young people into an industry he believes has a great future. ✮✮✮✮

Terra Nova (TV3, 7.30, 5.1) A crashing meteor wipes out all technology, and wreaks havoc on the colony; Maddy and Reynolds are stuck out in the wilderness. ✮✮

Winners & Losers (TV One, 10.30, R) Bec makes a sacrifice for Matt; Sophie tries to get the timing right; Mrs Gross gets her results – will Jenny follow through on her promise to give her lotto winnings away? ✮✮

Touch (TV3, 11.10, 5.1, R) Encore screening of the premiere, in which solo dad Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) discovers his emotionally challenged 11-year-old son can predict events before they happen. ✮✮

Sky Movies Greats Premiere: The Hunted (Sky 22, 8.30, 5.1) Tommy Lee Jones plays an FBI tracker on the trail of a trained assassin (Benecio Del Toro) who has made a sport of hunting humans. “Essentially a reheating of 1982’s First Blood — a psychologically wounded warrior-vet pits himself against civilized America — but the fallout this time is simultaneously more ruthless, less emotional, and duller,” Village Voice said. William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) directs. (2003) ✮✮