Top films on TV this week

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) (Channel 4, 9pm)

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), a former Major in the Military Police Corps, is living off the grid, embracing a nomadic lifestyle. En route to a face-to-face meeting with his successor, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), Reacher discovers she has been accused of espionage. When associates of Turner are slain before they can testify, Reacher realises he has stumbled upon a wider conspiracy involving overseas shipments of weaponry. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is a solid, polished and compact thriller that simmers pleasantly thanks to the on-screen chemistry between Cruise and Smulders. The latter rolls up her sleeves to inflict bruises in the accomplished action set pieces while Cruise turns back the years to perform his own death-defying stunts.

The Lady in the Van (2015) (BBC1, 10.20pm)

Playwright Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) moves into a house in Camden - and soon after, a cantankerous woman called Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith) settles in the same street in her ramshackle vehicle. Alan foolishly agrees to let her take up temporary residence on his driveway. Months turn into years and the playwright despairs as he becomes Miss Shepherd's guardian and suffers regular visits from interfering social worker Miss Briscoe (Cecilia Noble). Teasingly billed as 'a mostly true story', The Lady in the Van is an entertaining screen adaptation of Bennett's award-winning 1999 stage work. Smith reprises her theatre role as the eponymous tramp, unleashing an array of withering putdowns that would surely have her imperious dowager in Downton Abbey clucking with approval.

Memento (2000) (BBC1, midnight)

Former insurance investigator Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss, which prevents him remembering what happened 15 minutes ago. The condition has plagued Leonard ever since he discovered a masked assailant brutally assaulting his beautiful young wife (Jorja Fox) and he was knocked unconscious in the ensuing struggle. Ever since, Leonard has spent every waking minute in the pursuit of vengeance. For Leonard, the past is a vast blank canvas. The time has come to fill in the missing details. Christopher Nolan's Memento is a fiendishly clever and ambitious thriller, recounting Leonard's story in alternating parallel time-frames.

Sunday 07/07/19

Juliet, Naked (2018) (Sky Cinema Premiere, 9.45am & 6.15pm)

Based on a novel by Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked is a sweet, reserved romantic comedy, which revels in the power of music to anchor our emotions to a specific person or time. Annie Platt (Rose Byrne) becomes curator of Sandcliff Seaside Museum following her father's death. Her lecturer boyfriend Duncan (Chris O'Dowd) runs a website devoted to American singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who walked out of a gig 30 years ago and hasn't been seen since. His obsession creates fractures in the relationship, which deepen after Duncan acts on his primal attraction to fellow lecturer Gina (Denise Gough). In the midst of this emotional upheaval, Annie initiates an animated email conversation with the real Tucker Crowe, who fate conspires to bring to London.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) (STV, 1.00pm)

As conflict erupts across countless planets and the forces of evil prepare to seize control of the galaxy, troubled Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) finds himself seduced by the dark side of the Force and tempted into betraying his fellow Jedi knights. It's certainly the darkest of the prequels and the best of the bunch by a few-hundred light years. As ever, it's the fights and battles that boggle the mind, while the inter-personal relationships seem a little forced - Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan Kenobi probably comes out on top in the acting stakes - but as a conclusion to a trilogy that was always heading to a bleak ending, it does the job rather well.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) (STV, 3.45pm)

It's Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) sixth year at Hogwarts, and the evil Voldemort is growing ever more powerful. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) believes the secret to defeating him may lie in the wicked wizard's past, and recruits Harry to find out what new potions teacher Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) knows about Voldemort's journey to the dark side. But for once, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) might not be much help as they're caught up in a drama of their own. Newcomers to the Potter saga may feel a bit lost, but fans will love it. Any murmurs about there being too much teen romance and not enough magic are silenced by the scene-stealing Jessie Cave, who is hilarious as Ron's new love interest. And when the action does kick in, it's genuinely creepy and even moving.

The Water Diviner (2014) (BBC2, 10.45pm)

Rugged farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe, who also directs) possesses a rare gift for divining water, which he uses to irrigate the sprawling property he shares with his wife Eliza (Jacqueline McKenzie) and three sons (Ryan Corr, James Fraser, Ben O'Toole). The boys head off to war and perish in the ill-fated clash with Turkish forces on the Gallipoli peninsula. Joshua sets out to honour a promise to his wife to bring the remains of their sons back home, but the military isn't always sympathetic to his quest. The Water Diviner is a heartfelt tale of broken men and redemption based on the book of the same name, although it does occasionally fall victim to heavy-handed sentiment.

Monday 08/07/19

The Lost Boys (1987) (Paramount Network, 9pm)

A cash-strapped single mum (Dianne Wiest) takes her two sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), to live with their grandfather (Barnard Hughes) in Santa Carla, which has the unenviable distinction of being America's murder capital. Sam is sceptical when two comic-book-obsessed brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) tell him the high death rate is down to vampires, but he's forced to think again when Michael falls in with a gang who party all night, sleep all day and appear to have mysterious powers. The very 1980s music and clothes mean some of the laughs are unintentional, but this is an enjoyable horror comedy with a lot of quotable lines. Hughes steals the film from the youngsters as the cantankerous granddad.

Gladiator (2000) (Film4, 10.50pm)

Director Ridley Scott collected five Oscars, including Best Picture, for this muscular and gore-laden sword-and-sandals epic. The hero of the day is Maximus (Russell Crowe), a general in the army of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), who is adored as much by his men as he is by the ruler. Conniving heir to the throne Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) murders the Emperor in a fit of jealousy and orders the immediate execution of gallant Maximus, the sole threat to his rule. The hulking hero escapes with his life and is forced into slavery, training as a gladiator under the debonair Proximo (Oliver Reed). Crowe shoulders his leading man duties with relish, lending Maximus an unexpected emotional depth and complexity opposite Reed in his final performance.

Tuesday 09/07/19

Sicario (2015) (Film4, 9pm)

Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is part of the FBI's Special Weapons and Tactics team, who are at the forefront of the war against drugs. A government agent named Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) asks Kate to join his top-secret task force, which intends to cripple a drugs cartel from the top down. Kate willingly signs up and learns that she will be venturing onto Mexican soil, but as the bullets fly, her conscience is left spattered in blood. Sicario gradually tightens the screws on our frayed nerves until we're begging for mercy. At the blackened heart of the film is a tour-de-force performance from Blunt, whose steely-nerved heroine might have to sacrifice more than her idealism.

Loveless (2017) (Film4, 11.25pm)

Parenthood and shattered childhood dreams are key motifs in Russian film-maker Andrey Zvyagintsev's drama, which was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Shot on location in Moscow, the film centres on Boris (Aleksey Rozin) and his wife Zhenya (Maryana Spivak), who are in the throes of an acrimonious break-up. They are oblivious to the damage wrought on their 12-year-old son Alexey (Matvey Novikov). One day, Alexey fails to return home from school and the parents are momentarily united in concern for their missing son. They contact the police, who fully expect Alexey to materialise a few hours later. Unfortunately, the boy doesn't return and the desperate search spreads out across the Russian capital.

Wednesday 10/07/19

Bullitt (1968) (ITV4, 9pm)

Hard-bitten San Francisco cop Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is given the task of babysitting an informer who stole $2million from the Mob and is going to testify against a powerful Mafia syndicate once the weekend is over. All Bullitt and his team have to do is keep him alive until he makes it to the court room. However, when the witness is assassinated, Bullitt decides to conceal the death from his superiors and track down the killers himself. This is King of Cool McQueen at his coolest - and the film isn't half bad either. From great dialogue to gripping action scenes - and possibly the most iconic car chase in cinema history - this really is must-see viewing.

Bad Neighbours 2 (2016) (Film4, 10.45pm)

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) agree a sale on their current house and buy a new place. The couple are placed in escrow by the estate agent, allowing the new buyers a 30-day period to survey the property before signing a legally binding contract. In the interim, a newly formed sorority led by wild child Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) moves into the house next door and prepares to party with a vengeance. The Radners resolve to drive them out, but the girls of Kappa Nu have a secret weapon - Mac and Kelly's old adversary Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron, sending himself up nicely). It's not quite as much fun as the first film, but the cast throw themselves into it with gusto and there are some timely jabs about modern parenting and gender equality thrown into the scatological mix.

Thursday 11/07/19

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) (Film4, 6.35pm)

Evelyn (Judi Dench) is coming to terms with the recent loss of her husband in this charming comedy drama, which proved to be a surprise box-office smash. She abandons Britain for the balmier climes of Jaipur and a retirement home called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. En route, Evelyn meets other retirees all bound for this "luxury development for residents in their golden years": cantankerous wheelchair user Muriel (Maggie Smith), waspish snob Jean (Penelope Wilton) and her long-suffering husband Douglas (Bill Nighy); retired judge Graham (Tom Wilkinson); ladies' man Norman (Ronald Pickup); and spinster Madge (Celia Imrie). When the travellers arrive at their destination, they discover a building in disrepair and an inexperienced manager, Sonny (Dev Patel), struggling to keep the creditors off his back.

National Treasure (2004) (5STAR, 8pm)

Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) belongs to a long line of treasure hunters. Like his grandfather John Adams (Christopher Plummer) and father Patrick (Jon Voight) before him, Ben has devoted his life to searching for the treasure of the Knights Templar. The only clues to the treasure's whereabouts are a series of cryptic riddles and codes. Aided by techno-wizard pal Riley (Justin Bartha) and National Archives conservator Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), Ben realises that the key clue is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence and plots to steal the document to continue his globetrotting quest. National Treasure is an entertaining romp, sacrificing plausibility for the sake of romance and thrills, but not so much that the plot descends into farce

Friday 12/07/19

Les Miserables (2012) (Paramount Network, 9pm)

In 19th-century France, convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is granted parole and leaves behind his tormentor, Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), to reinvent himself as a revered factory owner. One of Valjean's workers, Fantine (Anna Hathaway), is cruelly cast out when the foreman learns she has an illegitimate daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen). Valjean discovers Fantine close to death and agrees to raise Cosette. Nine years later, revolutionary fervour sloshes through the grimy streets of Paris, inflamed by student Marius (Eddie Redmayne), who falls under the spell of Cosette (now played by Amanda Seyfried)... Director Tom Hooper realises his dream of immortalising Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil's powerhouse musical by having the actors sing live in every scene, bringing out the emotion of the tale.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) (Dave, 10pm)

A group of criminals are brought together for a bank heist, but the plan goes badly 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 most important films of the 1990s, ushering in a whole new school of movie-making. That aside, it 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.