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Movies & TV

23rd Jul 2021

One of the best thrillers of the last ten years is among the movies on TV tonight

Stephen Porzio

It saw the director of Fight Club and Seven adapt a best-selling novel.

Finally, the weekend is here. As such, why not shake off the stresses of the past few days by checking out one of the great movies on the box tonight.

Below are JOE’s recommendations for this evening.

Crawl – Film Four – 9pm

While attempting to save her father (Barry Pepper) during a category 5 hurricane, a young woman (Kaya Scodelario, Skins) finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators.

From French horror maestro Alexandre Aja (this year’s Oxygen), this 2019 survival thriller was a hit with both audiences and critics.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! – Comedy Central – 9pm

Airplane’s Leslie Nielsen stars in another hilarious spoof, which essentially does for police procedurals what Airplane did for disaster films.

Daddy’s Home – E4 – 9pm

A mild-mannered stepfather (Will Ferrell) vies for the attention of his wife’s children when their biological father (Mark Wahlberg) returns.

Reuniting Ferrell and Wahlberg after The Other Guys, this comedy is the former’s highest-grossing live-action movie.

License to Kill – ITV 4 – 9pm

The second and last Bond movie to star Timothy Dalton as 007, its story sees Bond being suspended from MI6 as he pursues drug lord Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi).

Gone Girl – RTÉ One – 9.35pm

After his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), disappears and becomes the focus of an intense media circus, Nick (Ben Affleck) sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.

Our pick for this evening is a thriller that has everything you want from the genre – thrills, twists, a ton of style and some dark comedy.

Gillian Flynn penned the script, adapting her own excellent novel of the same name. In doing so, she trimmed all the fat out of the source material, leaving the movie feeling tight as a drum despite a two-and-a-half-hour running time.

For fans of the book, Affleck and Pike are perfectly cast as Amy and Nick. At the same time, director David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, Zodiac) doesn’t skimp on the novel’s complex characters and more lurid elements.

The Lost Boys – BBC One – 10.35pm

After moving to a new town, two brothers (Jason Patric and Corey Haim) discover that the area is a haven for vampires.

Directed by the great Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever, Falling Down), this comedy-horror is one of the most stylish and iconic vampire flicks ever made and features an ensemble cast of young 80’s stars.

A Quiet Place – Film Four – 10.45pm

In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing.

Blending horror thrills with a more sombre drama about trying to protect one’s family in a world where danger is around every corner, John Krasinski’s directorial breakthrough deservedly launched a franchise.

The Brood – Horror Channel – 11.10pm

A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist’s therapy techniques on his institutionalised wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.

Directed by horror legend David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome), this 1979 film has gone on to become a cult favourite thanks to its nightmarish imagery and its deeper themes regarding marriage and parenthood.