A very ambitious crime comedy is among the movies on TV tonight

Stephen Porzio

It was made by an Oscar-winning filmmaker, features an all-star cast and has 82% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Staying in this Saturday night? Well, there are plenty of movie options on TV tonight, starting with:

Knives Out – Film4 – 9pm

Daniel Craig’s first outing as gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc.

Absolute Power – Turner Classic Movies – 9pm

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this political action thriller about a master jewel thief who witnesses the killing of a woman by Secret Service agents.

Bel Ami – AMC – 9pm

Robert Pattinson plays a young man who rises to power in 19th-century Paris via his manipulation of the city’s wealthiest and most influential women in this novel adaptation.

Good Boys – Channel 4 – 9.20pm

Produced by Seth Rogen, this raunchy comedy revolves around three pre-teen boys who ditch school and wind up getting into all sorts of shenanigans.

Men in Black – Showcase – 9.20pm

The first and by far best entry in the sci-fi action comedy franchise.

Before Sunrise – TG4 – 9.35pm

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy star in this first film in the beloved Before trilogy as strangers who meet while travelling on a train and disembark in Vienna to spend a night together.

Grown Ups 2 – MTV – 10pm

Adam Sandler and some of his friends are among the cast of this critically panned comedy that was a box-office hit nonetheless.

American Pie: The Wedding – Comedy Central – 10pm

The third movie in the American Pie franchise.

First Blood – ITV4 – 10.20pm

Sylvester Stallone’s first outing as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo remains the best in the action franchise thanks to its greater focus on realism and emotional story.

Let Us Prey – Horror Xtra – 10.55pm

This creepy and violent Irish horror is set in a remote police station and follows a mysterious stranger (Liam Cunningham) who begins to take over the minds and souls of everyone inside.

Chi-Raq – AMC – 11pm

Our pick for tonight is this 2015 crime comedy from Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman, Da 5 Bloods, Do the Right Thing) which adapts the classical Greek play Lysistrata, in which women withhold sex from their husbands to put an end to the Peloponnesian War.

However, Lee and his co-writer Kevin Wilmot update the setting to modern-day Chicago, with women abstaining from sex in an effort to prevent gang violence.

Hugely ambitious in terms of presentation – most of the dialogue is written in rhyming couplets – and in its scope – with Lee tackling issues surrounding race, sex and violence in the US – Chi-Raq earned an impressive 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes upon release thanks to the raw power of its themes, its fluid direction and the terrific performances.

In terms of the latter, the cast of the movie includes Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, John Cusack, Nick Cannon, Samuel L. Jackson, Teyonah Parris and Wesley Snipes. You can check out the trailer for Chi-Raq below.

The Goldfinch – RTÉ2 – 11pm

Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel gets the big screen treatment courtesy of director John Crowley (Brooklyn) and an ensemble cast including Ansel Elgort, Finn Wolfhard, Jeffrey Wright, Nicole Kidman and Sarah Paulson.