It’s a film from the days when superhero movies could be a breezy 96 minutes long.
Staying in this Friday evening? Well, you have plenty of viewing options, including the brilliant comedy show recently added to Netflix and JOE’s Must-Watch at Home for this week which you can learn about right here:
This Week's Must-Watch at Home… is reportedly the second most expensive TV show ever made! And it comes from the minds behind Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame! pic.twitter.com/gWCu14O3v4
— JOE.ie (@JOEdotie) April 26, 2023
Yet, if none of these are for you, here are the movies airing on TV tonight.
Darkman – Film4 – 9pm
Our pick for tonight is this movie starring Liam Neeson as Peyton Westlake, a brilliant scientist burned alive and left for dead by a ruthless mobster. After a treatment to cure him of his injuries fails, Westlake develops super-human abilities which he uses, along with his scientific knowledge, to seek revenge.
The first Hollywood studio film from director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead and Spider-Man trilogies), Darkman came about after he could not secure the rights to a movie version of The Shadow. As such, he decided to create his own superhero – writing a story also inspired by Universal’s horror films of the ’30s and ’40s like The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man.
Released in 1990, the end project stands up as one of the best and coolest superhero movies of all time thanks to Neeson’s brilliantly tragic performance, the incredible special effects, Raimi’s stylishly zippy direction and a breezy 96-minute runtime.
The movie is also quite fun to rewatch knowing that Raimi will go on to change superhero movies forever with 2002’s Spider-Man, for which Darkman feels like an early dry run for the filmmaker.
Independence Day: Resurgence – E4 – 9pm
A completely forgettable sequel to a classic.
Escape from Alcatraz – Turner Classic Movies – 9pm
Clint Eastwood stars in one of the best prison movies of all time.
The Mule – RTÉ2 – 9.30pm
Eastwood again, this time directing and starring in this pretty good crime drama about a 90-year-old who becomes a drug mule. Somehow it is based on true events.
Peppermint – Virgin Media One – 10pm
Jennifer Garner is out for vengeance in this vigilante action thriller from the director of Taken.
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.
Liam Neeson in Darkman, our pick for tonight
American Pie: The Wedding – Comedy Central – 10pm
The third movie in the American Pie franchise.
Bronco Billy – TG4 – 10.35pm
Clint Eastwood yet again, this time in a 1980 Western comedy-drama.
The Martian – BBC One – 10.40pm
Matt Damon plays an astronaut who struggles to survive after being left stranded on Mars while his NASA colleagues back on Earth try to save him in this very fun Ridley Scott sci-fi.
Logan – Film4 – 10.50pm
Another all-time great superhero movie that we happened to recommend recently.
The Thomas Crown Affair – RTÉ One – 11.40pm
Not the ’90s heist movie remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo but the 1968 original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.
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LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
