Best films to watch on TV today, tonight and this week

We’re heading into springtime, and the weather is showing signs of improving, but with us well into another lockdown – there’s still nothing better to do than to cuddle up on the sofa in front of a film.

And while many automatically head to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, they aren’t the other ways to watch movies in the comfort of your own home.

And as we head into 2021, there are just as many great films on terrestrial TV as ever – including old favourites from yesteryear, an array of modern classics and everything else in between.

From NOW TV and Disney+, to terrestrial TV offerings – there’s so much to choose from across all different genres so no matter what mood you’re in, you can find something to watch.

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With so many amazing films airing on TV this week, we’ve compiled a list of the best flicks for you to choose from.

Friday 26th February

The Man Who Would Be King – 2:15pm, Film4

Two British soldiers in 19th-century India 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 comrade-in-arms. Read our full review

The African Queen – 6:50pm, Sony Movies Classic

A prim missionary is forced to flee her home in German East Africa at the outbreak of the First World War. The only transport available comes courtesy of a gin-sodden riverboat captain, and as the bickering and unlikely travelling companions make their perilous journey, she persuades him to aid the British war effort. Read our full review

Upgrade – 9pm, Film4

Technophobe Grey Trace is left confined to a wheelchair after being mugged. His only hope for revenge is Stem, an experimental computer chip implant that allows him to control his body. However, once implanted, Stem starts talking to Trace and takes over his body. Read our full review

Tropic Thunder – 12:35pm, BBC One

A director’s epic Vietnam movie is behind schedule and over budget. Taking the advice of the grizzled war veteran on whose life the film is based, he drops the actors into a jungle with the intention of filming them fighting guerrilla-style – but the cast is unaware the surrounding warfare is genuine. Read our full review

Saturday 27th February

Marie Antoinette – 12:50pm, Sony Movies

Account of the life of the extravagant and controversial former queen of France, following her marriage to Louis XVI at the age of 15 and her ascension to the throne at just 19. The couple seek refuge from the intrigue at court in a life of decadent excess, which ultimately serves to seal their fate. Read our full review

Fort Apache – 4:45pm, Sony Movies Action

An arrogant cavalry colonel is sent to a remote Arizona desert outpost, which he considers an insult after his service in the Civil War. However, he is determined to show his heroism and plots to lure the local Apaches into waging war, despite the warnings of his lieutenants that such a battle cannot be won. Read our full review

Star Trek Into Darkness – 6:30pm, Channel 4

Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise are sent on a clandestine mission into enemy territory to track down the rogue Starfleet agent behind a terrorist attack on Earth. However, the assignment brings to light a hidden threat from within their own organisation. Read our full review

Inception – 9pm, TCM

A talented thief uses hi-tech devices to enter other people’s dreams so he can steal their secrets. An industrialist hires him to perform a far more challenging job – to implant an idea into a corporate heir’s mind, so he will think it is his own. However, the mission is compromised by the thief’s own troubled psyche. Read our full review

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut – 11pm, BBC Two

An army captain is sent on a top-secret mission into Cambodia, where his goal is to find and assassinate a renegade colonel who has gone insane and is worshipped by his followers as a god. However, as his patrol boat journeys further upriver, the conflict and disarray surrounding him becomes increasingly disturbing and nightmarish. Extended version of Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed Vietnam War drama – re-edited in 2019 by the director himself to mark the film’s 40th anniversary. Read our full review

Sunday 28th February

The Book of Life – 1:05pm, Film4

A man who longs to be a musician instead of a bullfighter like his father has to compete with a childhood friend when they fall for the same woman. Their love triangle catches the eye of the spirits of the dead, leading him on a journey through their bizarre world. Read our full review

King Kong – 5:25pm, ITV2

Maverick film-maker Carl Denham and his cast and crew board a ship bound for a mysterious island – but when they arrive, a giant gorilla carries off their leading lady, Ann Darrow. As the crew makes its way through the teeming jungle to find her, the director concocts a dangerous scheme to capture the great ape and take it back to New York. Read our full review 

Eddie the Eagle – 6:55pm, E4

Biopic of British sporting underdog Eddie Edwards. Determined to fulfil his dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete, Edwards trains as a ski jumper – a field in which Britain had no other competitors. He secures a place in the 1988 Winter Olympics, where his can-do attitude makes him a media sensation in the face of a losing streak. Read our full review

Desperado – 9pm, Sony Movies

A mysterious musician carrying a guitar case full of firearms turns up in a small backwoods town to exact revenge on the drugs baron who killed his girlfriend and permanently injured his hand. Read our full review  

Farewell My Lovely– 10:05pm, Talking Pictures TV

Private eye Philip Marlowe is involved in a case of double-cross and murder in this thriller. He attempts to find Velma, girlfriend of an ex-con. Marlowe winds up unconscious and, looking for answers, visits a seductive woman. He comes to the conclusion she and Velma are the same – and she wants him dead! Read our full review

Monday 1st March

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – 6:55pm, Film4

An awkward teenager shuns all kinds of social interaction, apart from making films with his best friend. His well-meaning mother urges him to spend time with a girl who has been diagnosed with leukaemia, and they unexpectedly develop a firm friendship. However, his life is changed forever as her condition gets worse. Read our full review

No One Lives – 10:45pm, Horror Channel

A gang of criminals kidnaps a couple and holds them hostage at an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. As the crooks’ plans start to unravel and they end up killing one of their captives, they come under attack from a mysterious psychopath who intends to make sure no one gets out of the building alive. Read our full review

Gangster Squad – 11:45pm, ITV4

New York gangster brings his criminal organisation to Los Angeles in 1949, rapidly seizing control of the city’s criminal activity and corrupting the authorities to ensure no one stands up to him. The chief of police discreetly sets up a secret task force with the intention of bringing the mobster to justice. Read our full review

Tuesday 2nd March

Bridge of Spies– 6:15pm, Film4

A lawyer in 1950s New York is hired to represent a Soviet spy in a showcase trial designed to demonstrate the fairness of the US justice system. In the face of public condemnation, he argues against the death penalty, a stance that years later leads to his involvement in an exchange of prisoners in East Germany. Read our full review

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – 8:15pm, Talking Pictures TV

A burnt-out British spy is ordered to venture undercover in East Germany. He begins by faking his resignation and subsequent alcoholic depression to dupe the enemy into trusting him, but, as he becomes further embroiled in his mission, he comes to realise that he is merely a pawn. Read our full review

Move Over, Darling – 9pm, Sony Movies Classic

A woman returns home to America after five years marooned on a desert island, wanting to surprise her husband. However, she finds he has not only given her up for dead, but has also remarried and is enjoying a romantic honeymoon. Read our full review

Wednesday 3rd March

The Hound of the Baskervilles – 7:10pm, Sony Movies Classic 

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are asked to protect the last remaining member of the aristocratic Baskerville family, who is believed to be the target of a monstrous spectral hound roaming the remote Devon moors. Read our full review

Breaking In – 9pm, Film4

After her father’s murder, a woman travels to the home she grew up in with her two children, intending to settle her father’s estate and sell the remote property. However, unbeknownst to the family, four criminals are already in the house, believing there is $4million inside a safe. Read our full review

A Most Violent Year – 9pm, Sony Movies

New York City during the winter of 1981 is a dangerous place to be, but one immigrant is determined to expand his business and support his family. Unfortunately, the unrelenting rise in violent crime threatens to ruin his livelihood and destroy everything he has worked tirelessly for. Read our full review

Thursday 4th March

Stargate – 6:40pm, Film4

An Egyptologist and a soldier head an expedition through a mysterious portal to an alien planet. The world they find resembles ancient Egypt and is under the rule of a tyrant who has convinced the downtrodden inhabitants that he is a god – until the humans incite the enslaved populace to fight back. Read our full review

Fury – 9pm, Sony Movies

A veteran American sergeant leads a tank crew on one final dangerous mission in the last months of the Second World War. The assignment takes the soldiers behind enemy lines and into battle with overwhelming enemy forces, while the presence of an inexperienced new recruit in the team raises tension. Read our full review

A United Kingdom – 9pm, BBC Four

King Seretse Khama of Botswana put his kingdom into political and diplomatic turmoil after falling for Ruth Williams, a London office worker. Read our full review

Friday 5th March

Run Silent Run Deep – 5pm, Film4

A commander aboard a US Navy submarine has a titanic clash of egos with his second in command as the senior officer’s obsession with sinking as many enemy vessels as possible, whatever the risk, spirals out of control. Read our full review

Alien Nation – 9pm, E4

A race of aliens fleeing slavery seeks shelter on Earth. One of their number becomes a cop, and is paired with a bigoted human partner to investigate a murder. However, they soon find the case leads to a secret that has devastating repercussions for the extraterrestrial community. Read our full review

Arrival – 9pm, Film4

The world is thrown into uproar when 12 alien spaceships arrive at locations around the globe. As tensions rise between nations and fear of the arrivals grows, a recently bereaved linguist is recruited by the US army to find a way to communicate with the aliens and discover why they have come. Read our full review

Source Code – 11:55pm, BBC One

A military pilot is the subject of a top-secret experiment that transfers his mind into the body of a man killed in a terrorist bombing on a train, but only for the last eight minutes of the dead man’s life. His mission is to use that time to find out who is responsible and if they intend to strike again. Read our full review

What’s on NOW TV this week?

If you’ve not found anything on the regular TV schedules that tickles your fancy, NOW TV is regularly adding some new films to their collection – which you can access with a Sky Cinema pass.

Here are this week’s highlights:

The Secret Garden – now available

The film tells the well-loved story of a young girl who is sent to live with her uncle, where she discovers a beautiful garden and a local boy who helps her understand the garden’s hidden secrets

A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood – now available

In 1998, magazine journalist Lloyd Vogel is sent to interview beloved TV entertainer Fred Rogers, an assignment he feels is beneath him. However, a friendship soon forms between the two men. Starring Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys and Chris Cooper. Read our full review.

Le Mans ’66 – now available

Matt Damon stars as Carroll Shelby, the visionary American driver and car designer who was enlisted by Ford to assemble a car – the Ford GT40 – to beat out Enzo Ferrari’s vehicles and their dominance over the race. Shelby recruits rogue driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), and together they battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car.

Abominable – now available

After discovering a magical creature they believe to be a Yeti, teenager Yi and her two friends embark on an epic adventure. They try to reunite the creature with his family, whilst evading a wealthy financier and a determined zoologist who want to capture the creature for their own needs. Read our full review.

Looking for more? Take a look at our best movies on NOW TV guide – Get 12 months of Sky Cinema for just £11.99 £9.99 / month.

If you have Netflix we have rounded up the best movies on Netflix, the best series on Netflix to watch now and Disney+ viewers check out our best movies on Disney Plus guide. Amazon? We have the best movies on Amazon Prime. Wondering what to watch on TV? Visit our TV Guide.