The following are capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television during the week of Aug. 11, as well as notes on TV programming for the same week. Televised films may or may not be edited for language, nudity, violence and sexual situations while the programs listed have not been reviewed and therefore are not necessarily recommended by OSV News.
Streaming Now
“Bob Marley: One Love” (2024; Amazon Prime)
Competent profile of the king of reggae (Kingsley Ben-Adir) focuses on the aftermath of a 1976 attempt on the singer-songwriter’s life in which his wife (Lashana Lynch) was seriously wounded. Fleeing the political turmoil in his homeland of Jamaica that had given rise to the attack, he temporarily takes refuge in London where, in collaboration with his producer (James Norton), he works on his classic album “Exodus.” But his burgeoning professional success is eventually overshadowed by a medical problem that poses a grave threat to his future. Director and co-writer Reinaldo Marcus Green successfully captures his subject’s appealingly modest personality and anti-materialism as well as his outsized influence as, on a global level, a voice for the impoverished and, more locally, a peacemaker. Brief gunplay and physical violence, frequent drug use, extra-scriptural religious ideas, references to adultery, a single instance each of profanity, milder swearing and rough language, a couple of vulgar patois terms. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
“Cry Macho” (2021; Hulu)
Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this gentle, though naive, road movie, set in 1980. He plays a burned-out rodeo star who, at the behest of his ex-boss (Dwight Yoakam), a Texas rancher, travels to Mexico to find the cattleman’s preteen son (Eduardo Minett) and bring him to the States to live with his dad. The journey that ensues, which finds the pair eventually bonding with a warmhearted cafe owner (Natalia Traven), is more an amble than a scramble. But there’s a kindly tone to Nick Schenk and N. Richard Nash’s sometimes off-key script, adapted from a novel by Nash, that goes a long way toward redeeming the slow pace and predictable story arc. While believers will appreciate the occasional religious detail in the film, salty language and a briefly touched-on backstory about the lad’s experience of sexual exploitation and physical abuse make it unsuitable for kids. Mature themes, including child prostitution, brief, mild scatological humor, several profanities, a couple of milder oaths, sporadic crude and crass language. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” (2015; Netflix)
Droll humor punctuates this breezy espionage yarn, set at the height of the Cold War in 1963. Forced to work together to retrieve revolutionary nuclear know-how that may have fallen into the hands of the shady heir (Luca Calvani) to a fascism-tainted Italian industrial fortune and his scheming but elegant wife (Elizabeth Debicki), an art thief-turned-CIA operative (Henry Cavill) and a rage-prone KGB agent (Armie Hammer) team with the daughter (Alicia Vikander) of the missing scientist who developed the breakthrough to track the couple. In adapting the mid-1960s television series, director and co-writer Guy Ritchie diverts his audience with James Bond-style glamour while keeping the violence vague. But the substantial, if slightly strange, relationship that increasingly tethers Hammer and Vikander is offset by Cavill’s carefree philandering. And the script’s anti-war, pro-friendship sentiments rest, to some extent, on an implied moral equivalence between the forces of East and West wholly at variance with history. Much violence, including torture, but with little gore, brief gruesome images, off-screen casual encounters, glimpses of partial nudity, some sexual banter, a couple of crude terms. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Looking Ahead
Tuesday, Aug. 13, 6-8 p.m. EDT (TCM) “That Man from Rio” (1964). French production with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Francois Dorleac in a hilarious spoof of stereotype characters and stock situations that typify mystery adventure movies. Directed by Philippe de Broca with real Gallic flair, the comedy is first-class entertainment. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was A-II — adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association. (Part of a 24-hour marathon of films featuring Belmondo, beginning with the short “Charlotte et son Jules” (1958), 6-6:15 a.m. EDT, and ending with “Love Is A Funny Thing” (1970), 4-6 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 14.)
Tuesday, Aug. 13, 10-11:30 p.m. EDT (PBS) “A Boston (R)Evolution.” Filmmaker Daphne McWilliams’ documentary examines the Massachusetts capital’s complex racial situation — past, present and future.
Thursday, Aug. 15, noon-1:30 p.m. EDT (EWTN) “Solemn Mass of the Assumption.” Live broadcast from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington of the Eucharistic liturgy for the Feast of the Assumption (TV-G – general audience).
Thursday, Aug. 15, 6:15-8 p.m. EDT (TCM) “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942). Sturdy saga of American life circa 1900 from the Booth Tarkington novel about the arrogant son (Tim Holt) of a wealthy Midwestern family who keeps his widowed mother (Dolores Costello) from marrying a rising automaker (Joseph Cotten), then gets his comeuppance by failing to adapt to changing circumstances. Director Orson Welles succeeds in a vivid period re-creation with convincing performances from a strong cast, though flawed by the narrative’s uneven pace resulting from a studio re-edit of Welles’ original version. Serious treatment of a selfish individual’s foolish pride and its tragic consequences. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was A-II — adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association. (Part of an all-day marathon of movies featuring Cotten, starting with “Jack of Diamonds” (1967), 6-8 a.m. EDT and concluding with “Petulia” (1968), 4-6 a.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 16.)
Saturday, Aug. 17, 3-5:30 p.m. EDT (AMC) “RED” (2010). Witty but mayhem-packed spy caper in which a retired CIA agent (Bruce Willis) and his newfound girlfriend (Mary-Louise Parker) take to the road after being targeted for death by a high-level government and business cabal. Their efforts to unravel the conspiracy — and to evade the hit man (Karl Urban) tasked with eliminating them — are aided by a trio of the operative’s old associates (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren). Director Robert Schwentke’s amusingly executed adaptation of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner’s graphic novel features a refreshingly chaste central romance. But its succession of gunfights and explosions, though mostly stylized, restrict its appropriate audience. Frequent, largely bloodless violence, brief gruesome imagery, a couple of uses of profanity, at least one instance of the F-word, some crude language. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating was PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (Followed by the sequel “RED 2” (2013) 5:30-8 p.m. EDT)
Saturday, Aug. 17, 8-9:56 p.m. EDT (Cinemax) “The Box” (2009). In 1976 Richmond, Virginia, a cash-strapped suburban couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) find themselves in a moral dilemma when a mysterious, disfigured stranger (a haunting Frank Langella) presents them with a device that, if they choose to activate it, will kill someone unknown to them but will also gain them a $1 million payment. Spiritually well-grounded adult viewers willing to overlook some improbabilities in writer-director Richard Kelly’s intelligently challenging, if over-elaborate, screen version of Richard Matheson’s 1970 short story “Button, Button” may be intrigued by this reflection on ethical choices and consequences, though the evolving parable includes actions that would be blatantly unacceptable in a more realistic context. Mature themes, complex moral issues, a few uses of profanity, a couple of sexual references. The OSV News classification of the theatrical version was L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating was PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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