Top Films: w/c Saturday, January 31

Saturday 31/01/26A Matter of Life and Death (1946) ***** (BBC2, 12.40pm)Dashing Second World War pilot Peter (David Niven) flirts with radio operator June (Kim Hunter) during a return journey from a bombing run. It looks like any romance will be very short-lived though, as his plane has been hit and he’s about to bail out without a parachute. So, when Peter then wakes up on a beach, it seems like a miracle – but all is not well. It turns out his survival is down to a clerical error in heaven and, if he wants to stay on Earth with June, he must argue their case in a celestial court. Written, produced and directed by the visionary Powell and Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death is one of the greatest romances of all time. And with the lush, brightly coloured Earth, and austere black-and-white heaven, it’s also one of the most visually striking.

The Naked Gun (2025) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 2.50pm & 8.00pm)Police Squad detective Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr (Liam Neeson) is proud to follow in the footsteps of his father and protect the people of Los Angeles from the many rubbery faces of crime. Bank thieves escape with the contents of a safety deposit box belonging to Simon Davenport, who is subsequently found dead behind the wheel of an electric car manufactured by charismatic magnate Richard Cane (Danny Huston). The deceased’s vampy sister, Beth (Pamela Anderson), implores Frank to unmask her brother’s killers and the smitten detective meets bullets with buffoonery to incur the wrath of Cane’s trusted lieutenant, Sig Gustafson (Kevin Durand). The Naked Gun is a delightfully dippy comedy of deliberate errors that exceeds expectations even if it falls short of the delirious, gut-busting original.

Cocaine Bear (2023) **** (Channel 4, 9.30pm) PremiereCocaine smuggled by Syd Dentwood (Ray Liotta) is ditched on Blood Mountain in the verdant heart of Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia before the plane goes down. Drug dealer Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr) and Dentwood’s son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) join the ham-fisted salvage operation. Meanwhile, concerned mother Sari (Keri Russell) enters the forest to track down her 13-year-old daughter (Brooklynn Prince) and a classmate (Christian Convery). Strangers converge in the wilderness and come face-to-snout with a 500-pound apex predator, which has consumed bricks of the jettisoned cocaine and is attacking anyone in its path. Cocaine Bear is an unapologetically violent action comedy inspired by a September 1985 incident in Georgia, but gleefully embellished truth is stranger and gorier than fiction.

Afire (2023) **** (BBC4, 11.00pm) PremiereThis award-winning German comedy drama from writer-director Christian Petzold stars Thomas Schubert and Langston Uibel as writer Leon and photographer Felix, who are supposed to be spending the summer together at a holiday home belonging to Felix’s family so they can work on their artistic endeavours. When they arrive, the pair discover they won’t be alone – free-spirited lodger Nadja (Paula Beer) is already there. Felix is happy to change his plans and spend time hanging out with her and her lover Devid (Enno Trebs), but Leon resents the distraction and locks himself away. Meanwhile, forest fires are raging just over the horizon.

Sunday 01/02/26The Cut (2024) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 11.40am & 9.40pm) PremiereOrlando Blooms dons his boxing gloves as a fighter on the brink of self-destruction in director Sean Ellis’s thriller. A nameless retired boxer (Bloom) living in Ireland is offered a chance at a major title in Las Vegas when one competitor drops out of a high-profile bout and the promoter, Donny (Gary Beadle), accepts a last-minute replacement. Unfortunately, Bloom’s bruiser is 30lbs heavier than the weigh-in will allow so he works tirelessly with unscrupulous trainer Boz (John Turturro) to drop the pounds in record time. The boxer’s wife and business partner, Caitlin (Caitriona Balfe), lends support but worries about the medical implications of intensive weight loss. As fight night approaches, Boz abandons his moral compass to ensure his fighter is trim and raring to go.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) ***** (Film4, 2.50pm)This 1963 movie is one of the best-loved fantasy adventures of all time – and it’s nearly all down to Ray Harryhausen’s animated special effects, which include a seven-headed monster and a horde of sword-wielding skeletons. The story is pretty great too, drawing on Greek mythology to tell the tale of Jason, the son of an overthrown king who must embark on an epic sea voyage in a bid to find a golden fleece and regain his kingdom. Leads Todd Armstrong and Nancy Kovack are a bit on the bland side – both had their voices dubbed – but Patrick Troughton and Honor Blackman manage to hold their own against the stop-motion villains.

Saltburn (2023) **** (BBC2, 10.00pm)Working-class Liverpudlian student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is a socially awkward square peg in the polished round hole of Oxford University, where wealth and privilege are flaunted. A random act of kindness lavished on dashing aristocrat Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) grants Oliver access to rarefied circles, much to the chagrin of Felix’s spiteful cousin Farleigh Start (Archie Madekwe). Tensions come to a head when Oliver is invited to spend the summer at the Catton family’s sprawling country estate. Saltburn is a scabrous study of obsession, which takes narrative cues from Evelyn Waugh and Patricia Highsmith. Oscar-winning writer-director Emerald Fennell’s mastery of pithy one-liners is undiminished, and Keoghan fully embraces the script’s wild, macabre excesses.

Cyrano (2022) **** (BBC2, 12.00am)Soldier and poet Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) pines for Roxanne (Haley Bennett) but cannot disclose his true feelings by virtue of his lowly social status and physical demeanour. Cyrano watches as the object of his affection entertains falls hopelessly in love with a dashing young recruit, Christian de Neuvillette (Kelvin Harrison Jr), under his command. So, Cyrano strikes a bargain with Christian to secretly write lyrical love letters to Roxanne so the young suitor may woo her. Cyrano is a lushly orchestrated film version of the off-Broadway stage musical adapted by Erica Schmidt from Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Galvanised by Dinklage’s compelling performance, Joe Wright’s picture swoons handsomely to the theme of unrequited love.

Monday 02/02/26Under Siege (1992) **** (ITV4, 9.00pm)Steven Seagal’s best movie by quite some distance is a slick action blockbuster in the Die Hard mould. Set aboard a battleship, the fun begins when a terrorist climbs on board, determined to steal its arsenal of nuclear weapons. But of course, they didn’t count on the cook (an all-fighting, bacon-grilling Seagal) who attempts to thwart their plans with help from a semi-naked stripper (Erika Eleniak). It’s ridiculous but wildly entertaining thanks to Andrew Davis’s direction and a cracking pace. Tommy Lee Jones is excellent as the villain and would reunite with Davis (and a host of other actors from this movie) to Oscar-winning effect in The Fugitive.

Chevalier (2022) *** (Film4, 10.55pm) Premiere.A musical prodigy faces racial discrimination across the class divide in director Stephen Williams’ handsome period drama, based on the untold true story of composer Joseph Bologne, whose artistic achievements were almost erased from history during the upheaval of the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Kelvin Harrison Jr adopts a cocksure swagger in the lead role, beginning with an eye-catching opening sequence in which Bologne brazenly shares the stage with Mozart (Joseph Prowen) and humiliates the Austrian composer by performing one of his works with more verve and passion than its dumbfounded creator. A fiery expletive from Mozart provides the perfect punctuation to this thrilling battle of the violin bows.

Tuesday 03/02/26The Notebook (2004) **** (BBC1, 11.40pm)An elderly man (James Garner) spends his days trying to get through to an ailing care home resident (Gena Rowlands, the real-life mother of the film’s director Nick Cassavetes) by telling her a story from his notebook. It’s the tale of Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Ryan Gosling) who fall for each other despite their class differences. However, disapproving parents, rival suitors and even the Second World War conspire to keep the star-crossed lovers apart. If you want a good, old-fashioned sweeping romance, then The Notebook is the film for you. Only the most hardened cynics won’t be touched by this tale, especially given the chemistry between the leads.

Bones and All (2022) *** (BBC3, 12.45am)Introverted 18-year-old Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell, excellent) first displayed cannibalistic tendencies at the age of three, fatally injuring a babysitter. Every night, with her consent, father Frank (Andre Holland) locks Maren in her bedroom, but she sneaks out to attend a sleepover. The mood of giggling sisterly solidarity sours when Maren chews off a friend’s finger. Faced with life on the run, Frank reluctantly abandons his daughter, and Maren decides to track down her biological mother (Chloe Sevigny) to better understand her compulsion. On the road, she encounters similarly afflicted souls including Sully (Mark Rylance) and drifter Lee (Timothee Chalamet). Bones and All is a curiously poetic and moving (if grisly) romance adapted from Camille DeAngelis’s award-winning novel.

Wednesday 04/02/26Beau Is Afraid (2023) **** (Film4, 9.00pm) PremiereMiddle-aged and riddled with anxiety, Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) nervously anticipates a trip home to see his mother (Patti Lupone), who presides over a pharmaceutical empire. Alas, Beau oversleeps and in the frantic dash to the airport, he is the victim of a bizarre crime, and best-laid plans spiral out of control. Evicted from his rundown apartment onto streets filled with violence, Beau collides with respected surgeon Roger (Nathan Lane) and his wife Grace (Amy Ryan). Writer-director Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid is a hallucinogenic horror comedy that defies categorisation or succinct explanation. A running time close to three hours will be a justifiable fear for some viewers, but this madcap odyssey into the mind of a damaged everyman is never dull.

Till (2022) **** (BBC2, 11.30pm)In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi during a visit to his cousins. He was accused of making inappropriate advances to a white female store owner. Two men stood trial for killing Emmett and were found not guilty by an all-white jury. Director Chinonye Chukwu’s harrowing drama relives this shocking chapter in modern US history and the subsequent quest for justice spearheaded by Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Danielle Deadwyler electrifies every frame of Till as the grief-stricken yet defiant matriarch, whether it’s in the early scenes, urging her boy (Jalyn Hall) to be on his best behaviour in Mississippi, or passionately advocating solidarity at a Harlem rally to effect change. No wonder there was shock when she failed to get an Oscar nomination.

Thursday 05/02/26The Man Who Would Be King (1975) ***** (BBC4, 8.00pm)John Huston’s lavish period adventure, based on the Rudyard Kipling story, chronicles the dubious dealings of two former British soldiers (Sean Connery and Michael Caine) in 19th-century India. They travel to an unexplored land where one of them fools the natives into believing he is a god. However, his growing delusions of grandeur put him at loggerheads with his conscience-stricken comrade-in-arms, leading them down a path that can only end in tragedy. This cautionary tale is as gripping now as it was on its release, and the on-screen pairing of cinema legends Connery and Caine is truly sublime.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) ***** (ITV4, 10.55pm)A group of criminals are brought together for a bank heist, but the plan goes awry when the cops show up, and one of their number starts murdering hostages. Holed up in a warehouse, the gang must decide whether there is a rat in the ranks, and if so, which of the robbers isn’t all he seems. The movie that made a household name of writer and director Quentin Tarantino is every bit as good today as it was on its release in 1992. Vicious, violent and thoroughly cool, it’s one of the defining films of the 1990s, ushering in a whole new school of movie-making. Reservoir Dogs also boasts a great cast, including Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Steve Buscemi, as well as some very quotable dialogue. A true modern classic.

Friday 06/02/26Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) **** (ITV, 10.50pm)This second big-screen outing for the demon antihero is bigger and bolder than the original, and takes the opportunity to expand upon the universe he lives in. Still working for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence, Hellboy leads the fight against the elf Prince Nuada, who is intent on reawakening an unstoppable robot army and bringing about the destruction of mankind. If that wasn’t enough, Hellboy must cope with a prophecy that he will one day destroy the world, and face the fact that he himself is considered a monster by the very people he tries to save. Director Guillermo del Toro ups the ante with this ambitious sequel, while Ron Perlman’s charisma shines through beneath the heavy makeup. Also starring Selma Blair, Doug Jones and Luke Goss.

Silver Haze (2023) *** (BBC2, 11.00pm) Premiere.As a child, actress Vicky Knight was injured in a fire at a pub, and this thoughtful drama from director Sacha Polak (who previously worked with Knight on the film Dirty God) draws inspiration from some of the leading lady’s experiences. She plays Franky, a nurse who lives with her troubled working-class family and bears the emotional and physical scars of a traumatic fire from her childhood. She finds herself falling for one of her patients, Florence (Esmé Creed-Miles), who has troubles of her own. As Franky spends time with Florence and her family in Southend, will she discover the confidence to move on with her life?