The best movies on Sky Cinema and Now TV 2025

Sky Cinema is a place where the big movies often appear first – and that’s the case here. Hauling an armful of 2024 Oscars, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s big-budget biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the American physicist who helped develop the first nuclear bomb.

Taking us on a captivating journey through Oppenheimer’s life, from his days as a gifted Harvard student to his contribution to the Manhattan Project and the creation of atomic weapons, the film digs into the complex ethical and moral challenges arising from his work. It’s a thought-provoking, emotional journey, offering a unique perspective on one of the most significant events of the 20th century.

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It can’t have been easy juggling artistic integrity with the demands of bringing one of Mattel’s most iconic toys to the screen. Greta Gerwig’s movie manages to pull off the balancing act – just about. Barbie is part musical, part fish-out-of-water comedy and part feminist screed, and even if none of its elements fully sticks its landing, it manages to be an entertaining and frequently funny popcorn movie with an admirable sentiment that’s about more than just ‘girl power’. Even if Ryan Gosling’s Ken provides the funniest and most memorable bits, it’s Margot Robbie’s all-in performance as Barbie that really holds this movie together.

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You probably have a pretty nifty smartphone. You may even be reading this article on it right now. But go back less than two decades and, well, these things just didn’t exist: mobile phones for chatting, texting and the odd game of Snake. Not web browsing, taking photos or listening to music. And certainly not for writing long emails. Despite what Apple fans would have you believe, it’s the Blackberry that changed all that.

The first smartphone’s origin story is told in wildly entertaining and often hilarious fashion in this tech ‘biopic’. Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton star as the leading lights behind the technology and business sides of this revolutionary device, which went from humble Canadian roots to worldwide ubiquity before vanishing into inconsequence. A great rise and fall story, with some gripping human drama thrown in.

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Paul Giamatti’s formidable acting chops are very much in evidence in this bittersweet comedy-drama from Alexander Payne (who previously directed Giamatti in Sideways, where he delivered another wonderful performance).

It’s Christmas 1970 at a snooty New England boarding school. A crabby, permanently aggrieved history teacher finds himself required to remain on campus over the holidays to keep an eye on the titular ‘holdovers’ – the handful of students who aren’t going home to their families. It’s a situation that pleases none of the participants, but by the end of the film (which apes the look and feel of 1970s movies almost perfectly) three strangers will have formed an unlikely bond. Funny, sad and heart-warming, it’s a throwback to classic American cinema and a truly life-affirming watch.

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One of the best ensemble casts of the 1990s? Check. A snappy, quotable screenplay penned by a young buck named Quentin Tarantino? Check. Assured direction from action-thriller maestro Tony Scott? Check.

True Romance is a rip-roarer of a film, packed with iconic dialogue (Dennis Hopper’s soliloquy about Sicilians being a particular highlight), cordite-singed action sequences and career-defining performances from stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette.

Scott’s approach might be a little more conventional than the treatment Tarantino would have given it had he directed himself (and QT would likely have insisted on a more memorable soundtrack), but this was comfortably one of the most iconic films of the 90s – a decade that has no shortage of them. It remains an absolute cinematic banger more than 25 years later.

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Sometimes sci-fi is all about spaceships, explosions and men in silver costumes waving giant glow-sticks at each other. But other times, it’s a vision of the near future, or even a parallel present, that’s close enough to our reality to properly sting. Michel Gondry’s movie, written by the perennially weird and visionary Charlie Kaufman, is very much in the latter category.

Eternal Sunshine is mostly a modern love story, the inspired twist being that in this world you can pay to have all memories of a specific person erased from your mind. But is removing the pain of a broken heart worth what you lose in the process? It’s complicated and clever but ultimately warm and honest, with fantastic performances from Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.

Watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Now Cinema

DreamWorks’ beloved series of CGI movies, now well over two decades old, began with this wonderful fairy tale adventure about a curmudgeonly green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) who, after the swamp in which he lives becomes filled with fantastical creatures banished by the wicked ruler Lord Farquaad, makes a pact with the villain: he’ll rescue a beautiful princess in order to regain control of his home.

Sending up various fantasy and fairy tale tropes along the way, Shrek is a children’s movie that gives adults plenty to enjoy too. Packed with clever references and in-jokes, it’s spawned a long-running series – but do yourself a favour and start at the beginning.

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The Big Lebowski is a louche, lackadaisical and outwardly lightweight follow-up to the multiple award-winning thriller Fargo. It’s a film nut’s dream, stacked with clever call-backs, references to other films and other crafty touches. An astute viewer will feel well-rewarded. It’s also an absolute riot, as Jeff Bridges’ middle-aged slacker sets out to right a wrong:  recompense for a “soiled” rug. He ends up drawn into a kidnapping case involving German nihilists, known pornographers, a wealthy paraplegic, a teenage car thief, the police chief of Malibu, possibly hallucinatory cowboys. And bowling.

With an outstanding script and supporting cast including Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro and John Goodman, The Big Lebowski is a rare cinematic gift – one that keeps on giving with subsequent viewings.

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When it was released in 2006, Children of Men’s vision of a dystopian near-future Britain seemed like a particularly pessimistic take on the direction in which the country was heading. Almost 20 years on, post-Brexit, Trump (twice!), migrant crisis, climate-related disasters, a pandemic et al, it’s instead frightening prescient in his presentation of a green and pleasant land turned grey and grim, robbed of hope by multiple crises. The worst being a complete absence of children. The human race has become infertile, with the last baby being born 18 years before the events of the film.

Children of Men does more than just build a depressingly plausible dystopia, though. It weaves together a thrilling neo-noir plot, as Clive Owen’s cynical ex-activist is drawn into a plot to smuggle a person out of the country. It also features some of the best one-shot takes in modern cinema, memorable characters and, at the very last, a whisper of a hope for the future.

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Paul Thomas Anderson’s American epic is stark and uncompromising; the first we see of protagonist Daniel Plainview is a masterful 20-minute dialogue-free sequence in which Daniel Day-Lewis scrabbles in the dirt for silver.

From there, Plainview graduates to drilling for oil. Consumed by a relentless pursuit for the black gold, he travels from town to town dispensing homespun charm to the locals as he tries to scam them out of their oil rights. His adopted son becomes little more than a prop to create an image of a family man.

The only person who sees through him is young evangelist Eli Sunday, probably because he’s equally corrupt. Plainview, in Sunday’s eyes, is a threat to the supremacy of his church. And so the stage is set for a grand clash between religion and capitalism, played out in operatic fashion against the towering oil derricks.

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The film that truly put Spike Lee on the list of great American film directors, 1989’s Do the Right Thing covers one sweltering summer’s day on a Brooklyn street where the rising mercury isn’t the only thing threatening to spill over. Dealing with simmering racial tensions between the Italian-American owners of a pizza shop and the mostly African-American neighbourhood residents, it’s at turns outrageously funny, unbearably tense, affectingly heart-breaking and righteously angry.

Lee, who also stars in the movie as pizza delivery worker Mookie, doesn’t offer easy platitudes or tie things up neatly at the end. His depiction of how racism and violence affect both the victims and perpetrators feels necessarily messy and challenging. The fact that these things are still going on, over 35 years later, suggests that there are no simple answers – and sometimes expressions of frustration and rage, such as we see in this wonderful movie, feel like the only acceptable responses.

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Martin Scorsese’s much-lauded exploration of isolation, obsession and mania is one of the best classic movies available on Now Cinema. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of cinema and hasn’t already watch it should drop everything, fire up their app of choice and settle down for 113 minutes of masterful moviemaking, as Scorsese’s camera follows Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) as he navigates the sleazy streets 1970s New York in his cab.

Bickle, lean and awkward, is one of cinema’s great antiheroes, and Scorsese’s depiction of the Big Apple at its most rotten and rank – all trash-strewn streets, grimy pimps and pornographic cinemas – lives long in the memory. As does the anxious beauty of Bernard Herrmann’s evocative score.

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Screeching steel, battered chrome, scorching flames, shattered glass, choking sand, blazing sun and broken bones. That’s basically the mood board for veteran director George Miller’s 2015 return to the character he first put on screen back in 1979.

Tom Hardy takes on the title role in what amounts to a two-hour car chase/fight scene interspersed by a few on-foot brawls and some post-apocalyptic musings. As a piece of filmmaking Fury Road is absolutely breath-taking, with the vast majority of its action scenes based on practical effects and stunts rather than CGI. There’s nothing quite like it out there, so buckle up and get on the road.

Watch Mad Max: Fury Road on Now Cinema

Private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) gets more than he bargained for when a wandering-husband case gets him tangled up in the shady business of the Los Angeles water grab. Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir is painted in dusty shades of brown rather than the crisp black and white of the original film noirs – and it’s similarly murky in its outlook.

Gittes finds himself quickly out of his depth as his efforts to pursue justice run up against the entrenched interests of the corrupt elite, personified with lip-smacking relish by John Huston. It all builds to a devastating conclusion, in which the darkness underpinning the city – and Huston’s tyrannical Noah Cross – is laid bare. One of the greats.

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Ridley Scott’s stunning sci-fi classic is among the 1980s’ most iconic and influential genre films. Set in a dystopian Los Angeles in which escaped replicants (synthetic humans, built to work in space colonies, that have since gone rogue) are hunted down by Harrison Ford’s world-weary cop, Blade Runner’s visuals and themes almost singlehandedly drew the template for every cinematic cyberpunk tale that followed (including Denis Villeneuve’s recent sequel, Blade Runner 2049).

The film’s look and cynical vibe – all rain-soaked, neon-lit skylines, and teeming streets below, in which uncaring corporations run rampant and individual human life means little – are perhaps its greatest gifts to cinema (and books, and video games), but it’s also got an involving and suspense-filled plot that blends film noir with science fiction.

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It takes a lot of tact to make a film about a delicate subject like Boston’s Catholic priest child sex abuse scandal, but the host of nominations and wins Spotlight earned over the 2016 award season should clue you in: director Tom McCarthy absolutely nailed it.

The star-studded cast helps, getting you invested in the hard-working team of Boston Globe investigative journalists right from the off. Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber and Mark Ruffalo might steal the show, but there are great performances from Stanley Tucci and Rachel McAdams too.

It’s tough to watch in places, but entirely engrossing and totally worth sticking through to the end – and a powerful reminder of why a free press is an essential part of any democracy.

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Christopher Nolan’s films have never wanted for scope, but Interstellar goes to places the others can’t reach: the depths of outer space.

Matthew McConaughey plays Coop, a widowed astronaut-turned-farmer who blasts off in search of a new planet for humanity to settle on after blight causes a global famine and Earth starts to die. Of course, it’s not as simple as heading to the nearest wet rock and setting up camp; prepare yourself for wormholes, gravity equations, and extra dimensional communication, all held together around a surprisingly human core.

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Considered by many to be the best horror film ever made (and according to critic Mark Kermode, the best film ever made, full stop), The Exorcist’s lurid depiction of a young girl’s demonic possession made it an instant cult classic upon its 1974 release. In fact, when it came to UK home video in the 1980s, the BBFC considered it too graphic and controversial for even an 18 certificate. It’s a decision that’ll seem baffling to modern audiences; today, its content comes across as tame compared even to some 15-rated films.

That’s not to say The Exorcist lacks anything in the way of creepiness – it’s a deliciously disturbing movie with a fantastic cast, brilliantly directed by William Friedkin and laden with occult atmosphere. If you’ve yet to experience the events surrounding Regan McNeil’s possession, we suggest you add this to your watchlist post-haste. And save it for a still, dark night, of course.

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Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) specialises in a very unusual type of security: subconscious security. At least that’s what he tells his clients, shortly before he and his crack team of architects, conmen and chemists break into their dreams to steal information or plant false memories.

Christopher Nolan’s reality-bending dream caper strays into James Bond territory towards the end, but the world he creates is intriguing enough to forgive the plot holes – and trust us, Inception improves on repeat viewing.

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Is Goodfellas one of the best movies ever made? Fuggedaboudit.

If you haven’t already seen Martin Scorsese’s stupendously well-directed gangster movie, what are you waiting for? Close this page now, fire up Now Cinema and get settled in for two hours and twenty-five minutes of filmmaking at its very finest.

Scorsese may have bagged his first Best Director Oscar for the decent Departed, but it’s Goodfellas – an epic, intoxicating plunge into the life of a New York mobster in the 50s, 60s and 70s – that’s the true masterpiece. But hey, at least Joe Pesci picked up the Best Supporting Actor gong for his turn as pint-sized psychopath Tommy DeVito, who must rank among the most memorable characters of 90s cinema.

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Why can’t all teen comedies could be as funny, warm and ultimately life-affirming as Superbad, which manages to juggle all the tropes of the genre (partying, sex, friendship) without feeling hackneyed or bloated?

It’s ninety minutes of proof that parties are sources of never-ending angst. You need someone to buy the booze – your high school friend with an ID that reads “McLovin” will do. You’ve got to impress the girls – Seth works out that headbutting them in the face works a charm. And in American movies, there’s always the chance the cops will show up – we just wish all of them were as warped as Bill Hader and Seth Rogen.

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To describe Oldboy as intense would be like saying Piers Morgan is unpalatable – i.e. an enormous understatement. To watch it is to be visually assaulted for 120 mins, your emotions squeezed and stamped on and flung around the room until you’re left thinking that maybe you ought to go for a bit of a lie down.

A South Korean thriller about a man who’s locked in a room for 15 years with no idea why – before being released to seek vengeance on his captors – it’s never exactly fun viewing, but it is absolutely riveting. Story-wise it’s sharp and packed with action, the acting is outstanding and at the end you’ll be left battered and bruised but still wanting more. Brilliant.

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The subject matter of Alex Garland’s 2014 movie feels more relevant than ever. Tech worker Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a stay at his CEO’s high-security bunker home in an office contest. This ‘prize’ turns out to be a convenient excuse for said CEO (Oscar Isaac) to ask Caleb to assess the company’s latest invention Eva (Alicia Vikander), a humanoid robot running on highly advanced AI software. Can she pass the Turing Test even if her examiner knows full well she’s a robot?

The interactions between Eva and Caleb are infused with flirtatious humanity. Despite being aware of her artificial nature, Caleb finds plenty to admire in his artificial companion (some incredible make-up and special effects make her equally appealing to the audience). That’s what makes the denouement of this brilliant sci-fi movie all the more jaw-dropping.

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In this cult classic’s dystopian Japan, teenage delinquency has driven the government to concoct a drastic solution: once a year, a randomly selected high school class is dropped off on a deserted island, handed an arsenal of weaponry and forced to fight until only one child is left alive. Whatever happened to ‘hug a hoodie’?

If being forcibly inducted into an orgy of violence sounds like a pretty harsh punishment for chatting during double maths, it’s best not to overthink things: just enjoy the carnage as petty grudges turn bloody, bullies get their comeuppance and best pals become deadly enemies. Having provided inspiration for everything from The Hunger Games to Fortnite, Battle Royale is simply a must-watch piece of exploitation cinema.

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Easy viewing, this isn’t. At over three hours, Schindler’s List demands an investment of time, but Steven Spielberg’s tale of a German industrialist who transforms from war profiteer into humanitarian also demands your full attention from the outset. Impeccably acted, shot and directed, it’s a beautiful piece of filmmaking about humanity’s ugliest episode, the Holocaust.

Even if it ends on a note of positivity, it’s an incredibly bleak film by the standards of the usually upbeat Spielberg, presenting an unflinching view of Poland under Nazi occupation, of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto and life and death in Auschwitz, all rendered in timeless monochrome.

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Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of the even more epic fantasy novel is not without its issues (I mean, how many endings does a film need?), but the director’s achievement in wrangling such an uneven, weighty and wide-ranging tome into three enjoyable blockbuster movies should not be overlooked.

You likely know the story already: a young hobbit must travel from his peaceful, bucolic corner of the world to the hellish realm of Mordor to destroy a powerful ring. Along the way he’ll encounter dangers, make new friends, take part in an apocalyptic war and much, much more. This trilogy is action-packed, well-acted and visually arresting – and capable of generating plenty of emotion at times, too.

Watch The Fellowship of the Ring on Now TV