There’s never been a better time to be an armchair cinema fan, with more ways to watch movies across TV channels, streaming services and digital downloads than ever before. But sometimes there can be too much choice, and that’s why our experts have hand-picked the very best films to watch over the coming week.
We update this list weekly with the best films available free-to-air on terrestrial TV, along with notable releases on the streaming services and the biggest and best films available to rent and buy, many of which have only just left the cinema.
With a wide selection of films each week from blockbusters to indie hits, action and thrillers to rom-coms and sci-fi, there’s something for every film fan to enjoy.
The best films to watch this week
Friday
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Sky Cinema Premiere/Now, 8pm)
Tim Burton has recruited the Wednesday star Jenna Ortega to continue the exploits of Michael Keaton’s unruly spook. Ortega is cast as Astrid, daughter of Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder). When Lydia’s father dies, Astrid returns to the site of the first film for her grandfather’s funeral. A hole into the underworld opens up and the spectral services of Keaton’s Betelgeuse are once more required. (2024)
Around The World In 80 Days (ITV1, 10.45pm)
Based on Jules Verne’s 19th-century literary classic, this features the pairing of Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan as the eccentric inventor Phileas Fogg and his wily travelling companion Passepartout. It is packed with famous cameos, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Richard Branson. (2004)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (BBC1, 11.30pm)
The Dutch director Halina Reijn, working with the playwright Sarah DeLappe, has created what is arguably the first genuine Gen Z horror movie. There are grizzly murders and jump scares aplenty as five wealthy twentysomethings are trapped in a storm-battered mansion in upstate New York. The real horror comes from the mouths of our entitled protagonists. (2022)
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Saturday
The Boys in the Boat (BBC2, 8pm)
The Boys in the Boat is the latest film to mine the rich underdog seam of Olympic strata. It comes with a Hollywood sheen. George Clooney directs, Tom Hanks produces and Hitler is vanquished. It’s the tale of a poverty-stricken working class rowing team from the University of Washington who defied the odds to represent the USA at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The lead rower Joe Rantz is played by Callum Turner, the Londoner who was Theseus Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts films, with memorable hair dye, a pleasing hint of Sterling Hayden. Jesse Owens (Jyuddah Jaymes) is given a nugatory cameo. (2023)
The Untouchables (BBC2, 10pm)
Brian De Palma shows his customary flair with this stylish, fictionalised account of a feud between the mobster Al Capone (a scenery-chewing Robert De Niro) and the lawman Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner). Due to the corruption that eats away the very heart of the law enforcement agencies of the 1920s, Ness carefully hand-picks an elite team of clean cops to help bring the notorious gangster to justice. Sean Connery won an Oscar for playing the veteran Irish cop who forms an integral part of the Ness squad. (1987)
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Sunday
Everest (ITV4, 9.45pm)
“Be back for the birth, Rob Hall,” says Keira Knightley, playing the pregnant wife of the climber who is leading wealthy mountaineers up Everest. Good luck with that, says the score in plaintive strings. Once this film hits its stride, it is exciting stuff. A high-quality ensemble cast is headed by Jason Clarke as Hall, with Jake Gyllenhaal as the rival expedition leader. (2015)
Yesterday (BBC2, 10.45pm)
Himesh Patel is Jack Malik, a busker who, after a brief global power cut, emerges into a world where the Beatles never existed. But Jack can remember the tunes and records a smattering of them, becomes famous and is tempted over to LA. All along, the riddle of Malik’s new world deepens. What can it all mean? The answer arrives halfway in, and focuses on the ersatz romance between Malik and Ellie (Lily James). (2019)
Man Up (BBC1, 12.30am)
Lake Bell plays Nancy, a singleton who is coming home from a dire engagement party when someone gives her a self-help book. Nancy ends up standing under the clock at Waterloo station with the book, a signal for someone else’s blind date. With a what-the-hell glance, she goes off with a stranger, Jack (Simon Pegg), and the comedy and chemistry perk up. (2015)
Monday
Little Women (Film4, 6.20pm)
This adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic 19th-century novel of sisterhood is the eighth version to hit the big screen. The director Greta Gerwig is heading back to Massachusetts during the American Civil War to follow the lives of four poverty-stricken yet wildly loving sisters. They are played by Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan and Eliza Scanlen. (2019)
The Last Man on Earth (Talking Pictures TV, 9.05pm)
In this bleak adaptation of the 1954 postapocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend, Vincent Price stars as Dr Robert Morgan, seemingly the only survivor of a catastrophe that has turned most of the population into undead, vampiric entities. Morgan spends his days killing and burning these creatures, until he meets Ruth, part of a group who appear to have found a cure. (1964)
Top Gun — Maverick (Film4, 9pm)
A week of films featuring Tom Cruise kicks off with the sequel to the Eighties blockbuster. Cruise’s Peter “Maverick” Mitchell still feels the need for speed, but he’s an ageing test pilot. His chance to reclaim former glories comes while acting in a mentor capacity, guiding recruits on a convoluted mission to bomb an underground uranium enrichment plant in an “enemy” country. (2022)
Tuesday
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (ITV4, 9pm)
Mel Gibson is back as “Mad” Max Rockatansky, older and more grizzled, 15 years after the events of Mad Max 2. Australia is more dystopian than ever — so much so that Max has had to swap his beloved V8 Pursuit Special for a camel to get across the desert. Aunty Entity is played by Tina Turner in a fright wig. (1985)
Jack Reacher — Never Go Back (Film4, 9pm)
In the second Jack Reacher thriller, Jack (Tom Cruise) is on the road again, on his way to see the woman with whom he is covertly working: Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) of his old army unit. Turns out she has been accused of espionage and is in a military prison. Reacher smells a rat and soon they are on the run. (2016)
Birds of Passage (Film4, 1.20am)
This film charts the transformation of Rapayet (José Acosta), a member of the Wayuu tribe of Colombia, into a marijuana smuggler, trucking tonnes of weed to his US contacts. It becomes a big business, with predictable results. Spanning 1960-80, the film is divided into chapters whose titles — Wild Grass, The Graves, Prosperity, War, Limbo — give a fair idea of the narrative arc. Much of the drama comes from the clash between modern criminality and Wayuu tradition. (2019)
• Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews
Wednesday
Ride in the Whirlwind (Talking Pictures TV, 3pm)
Quentin Tarantino described this movie, directed by Monte Hellman from a story written by Jack Nicholson, as “one of the most authentic and brilliant westerns ever made”. Shot in the Utah desert, the film stars Nicholson as one of three cowhands who find themselves on the run after encountering a gang of outlaws wanted for murder. (1966)
Wild Rose (Film4, 11.25pm)
The gritty British counterpart to that twee Tinseltown fable A Star Is Born. The narrative beats are essentially the same: talented singer from the wrong side of the tracks escapes local restrictions to become a musical sensation. Wild Rose has council estates, prison-issue ankle tags and Jessie Buckley as a heroine who will knock your teeth out for a chance to sing in a Gorbals dive bar. (2019)
L’immensità (Sky Cinema Drama, 12.10am)
In this coming-of-age tale set in 1970s Rome, Penélope Cruz plays Clara, an eccentric Italian mother. Clara is cursed with beauty in a society that fetishises it. Her daughter, Adri (Luana Giuliani), identifies as male and claims to be descended from a space alien. There are buoyant musical numbers in here too, as well as a plot about marital betrayal. (2022)
Thursday
Ice Cold in Alex (BBC4, 8pm)
A stoic John Mills leads a small team of Brits on a desperate escape across the Libyan desert in J Lee Thompson’s stirring Second World War drama. The film won’t be claimed by the #MeToo movement but there’s a mythic quality to the way in which the obstacles stack up — mines, bombers, quicksand. There’s also the famous beer-drinking scene. (1958)
The Dead Pool (ITV4, 9pm)
By the time he made the fifth and final Dirty Harry film Clint Eastwood’s San Francisco cop had softened a little from the brutal law enforcer who made his debut 17 years previously. It takes its title from a lethal sweepstake on the order in which eight celebrities will die. It is worth watching for its tongue-in-cheek humour and starry support cast. (1988)
Jaws II (ITV1, 10.45pm)
Another gigantic man-eating shark turns up just off the coast of Amity. This killer-fish flick dates from an era when sequels were more of an opportunistic cash-in rather than precision-tooled products designed to build and strengthen a brand. This film blends the original formula with the teen horror model, with Roy Scheider reprising his role as the police chief Brody, trying to protect the citizens of Amity. (1978)
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