Forget your Netflix or Disney+ accounts, some of the best films can be found on television…for free! We’ve rounded up the best films airing this week so you don’t miss out on some cinema magic from the comfort of your own home.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Tuesday – 16:10 – Film 4
IMDb: 5.8/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 61% – Metacritic: 57%
(1959) Fantasy adventure starring James Mason, Pat Boone and Diane Baker. A scientist sets out to search for his missing brother along with his nephew and their mountain guide. However, they stumble upon a mysterious lost world during their journey.
Billy Liar
Tuesday – 22:00 – Talking Pictures TV
IMDb: 7.4/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 100% – Metacritic: 82%
1963. Comedy. Director: John Schlesinger. Starring Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie & Wilfred Pickles.A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker’s assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Wednesday – 21:00 – Film4
IMDb: 6.7/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 70% – Amazon UK: 4.6/5
Comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. An average guy is out to save his gym by participating in a dodgeball championship. His debts along with his misfit friends prove to be quite a headache.
The Two Faces of January
Wednesday – 01:10 – Film4
IMDb: 6.2/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 80% – Roger Ebert: 3/4
(2014) Thriller with Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac. A con artist and his wife find themselves in deep trouble in Greece after the former murders a detective. To escape from Greece, they must trust a stranger who is inherently untrustworthy.
Charade
Thursday – 12:40 – Film4
IMDb: 7.9/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 94% – Metacritic: 83%
(1963) Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn star Stanley Donen’s stylish Hitchcockian comedy-thriller. Regina finds herself followed and harassed by three men who are linked to the death of her husband, Charles. She seeks help from a charming stranger named Peter but gets embroiled in a world of lies.
Midnight Special
Friday – 23:05 – BBC Two
IMDb: 6.6/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 83% – Empire: 4/5
The government and a group of religious extremists pursue a man (Michael Shannon) and his son (Jaeden Lieberher), a young boy who possesses special powers.
Changeling
Friday – 23:05 – ITV3
IMDb: 7.7/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 61% – Metacritic: 63%
Crime film starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, 2008. After Christine’s only son goes missing, she reaches out to the LAPD to help her find him. They find a boy fitting her son’s description five months later, but she insists that he is not her son.
This Sporting Life
Friday – 02:15 – Talking Pictures TV
IMDb: 7.7/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 95% – Empire: 4/5
1963. Drama. Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts & Alan Badel. Yorkshire coal miner Frank Machin (Richard Harris) picks a fight in a club and subsequently finds himself being recruited for a rugby team. He’s an unpolished player, but his aggressiveness, brutality and indifference to the rules of fair play impress the team owners. Suddenly a rising star, Frank despairs that his success on the playing field isn’t equaled in his personal life. He loves a widowed, emotionally challenged landlady (Rachel Roberts) who’s too damaged to return his feelings.
The Muppets
Saturday – 16:00 – BBC Two
IMDb: 7.1/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 95% – Metacritic: 75%
Three fans, Gary, Mary and Walter, set out to reunite the Muppets to save the Muppet Theater from annihilation. But first, they must find each one of them as they have disappeared into obscure jobs.
V for Vendetta
Saturday – 21:00 – Sony Movies
IMDb: 8.2/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 73% – Metacritic: 62%
In a futuristic, totalitarian Britain, a freedom fighter known simply as V, uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. Evey aids him in his mission to bring down the government. Stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving.
War for the Planet of the Apes
Saturday – 21:00 – Film 4
IMDb: 7.4/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 94% – Amazon.co.uk: 4.2/5
Andy Serkis reprises his pioneering motion-capture role as super-intelligent primate Caesar for the third part of the rebooted Apes saga and it’s all-out war between apes and humans.
Ghost Stories
Saturday – 22:45 – BBC Two
IMDb: 6.4/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 84% – Metacritic: 68%
Horror film. Professor Phillip Goodman devotes his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans. His skepticism soon gets put to the test when he receives news of three chilling and inexplicable cases — disturbing visions in an abandoned asylum, a car accident deep in the woods and the spirit of an unborn child. Even scarier — each of the macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to the professor’s own life.
Source Code
Saturday – 23:00 – BBC One
IMDb: 7.5/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 92% – Amazon UK: 4.4/5
Army pilot Stevens, recruited for a top-secret operation, finds himself in the body of an unknown man. Soon, he is on a mysterious trail to track down the bomber of the Chicago commuter train.
Kon-Tiki
Sunday – 23:30 – BBC Two
IMDb: 7.2/10 – Rotten Tomatoes: 81% – Metacritic: 62%
Drama. Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (PÃ¥l Sverre Hagen) suspects that the South Sea Islands were originally colonized by South Americans. In 1947 despite his fear of water and inability to swim, Heyerdahl decides to prove his theory. He and five companions set sail from Peru on a balsa-wood raft built from an ancient design. Their only modern equipment is a radio, and they must navigate using the stars and ocean currents. After three exhausting months at sea, they achieve their goal.