TV movies of the week - our best picks

There are some great picks this week for films on TV, here are some of our favourites for you to watch.

Saturday 05/08/17

Storks (2016) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 6.20pm) Premiere

For centuries, storks have delivered babies but financial pressures force the noble birds to diversify their business model and transform their hilltop home - Cornerstone - into a warehouse for online shopping consignments. Hunter (voiced by Kelsey Grammer), current CEO of this global empire, prepares to hand over the reins to his nervous protege, Junior (Andy Samberg). The only fly in the ointment is 18-year-old Tulip (Katie Crown), the last baby out of the machine, who couldn't be flown to her parents because of an accident with her tracking beacon. Storks is a lightweight computer-animated adventure, which contrives parallel journeys of self-discovery for a bird and teenager.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) **** (ITV, 8.00pm) Premiere

The company of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), including Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), watches in horror as the mighty dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) incinerates Laketown. As the flames rise, Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) prepares to launch the last remaining black arrow at the beast. His children seek cover with elf warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and badly injured dwarf Kili (Aidan 'Poldark' Turner). At Dol Guldur, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) escapes from the clutches of the Necromancer (Cumberbatch again) and beats a hasty path to the mountains, where various tribes will converge. The concluding part of the trilogy occasionally suffers from an uneven tone, but director Peter Jackson's mastery of action sequences is beyond doubt.

What We Did on Our Holiday (2014) **** (BBC2, 10.30pm)

Gordie McLeod (Billy Connolly) is poised to celebrate his 75th birthday in the Scottish Highlands. His self-obsessed son Gavin (Ben Miller) is hosting a lavish party to impress the neighbours and hopefully secure the captaincy of the local golf club. As the party beckons, Gavin's less successful brother Doug (David Tennant) and his wife Abi (Rosamund Pike) arrive with their three children. However, the birthday celebrations are unexpectedly thrown into disarray when a media scrum descends on the family's doorsteps along with an interfering Social Services officer called Agnes (Celia Imrie), who casts doubt on Doug and Abi's ability to nurture their dysfunctional brood. What We Did on Our Holiday is a rip-roaring family road trip laced with absurdity that touches the heart and tickles the funny bone.

In the House (2012) **** (BBC2, 1.00am)

Francois Ozon, the enfant terrible of French cinema, returned to glorious form with a teasing psychological drama which playfully blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Fabrice Luchini is perfectly cast as despairing teacher Germain, whose passion for the written word is reinvigorated by a talented student called Claude (Ernst Umhauer) and his detailed accounts of weekends spent with wealthy classmate Rapha (Bastien Ughetto), which course with homoeroticism and adolescent yearning. The lad's descriptions of spying on Rapha's unhappy mother, Esther (Emmanuelle Seigner), are especially tantalising, not to mention slightly creepy. Germain's sexually frustrated wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) becomes equally fixated when her husband reads aloud the lad's essays.

Sunday 06/08/17

Blood Father (2016) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 12.35pm) Premiere

Ex-convict John Link (Mel Gibson) is two years sober and piecing together his life with the help of parole sponsor Kirby (William H Macy). Out of the blue, John receives a reverse charge telephone call from his estranged daughter Lydia (Erin Moriarty), who has accidentally shot dead her gang leader boyfriend, Jonah (Diego Luna), during a visit to one of his safe houses. Now she is on the run from Jonah's gun-toting gang members. John agrees to shelter his daughter and he quickly realises he will have to break parole to keep her safe. Handheld camerawork gives the picture a rough and ready feel, and provides the perfect showcase for Gibson as a grizzled action hero.

Frozen (2013) ***** (BBC1, 1.40pm)

As children, Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) love to play together, taking full advantage of Elsa's ability to create ice and snow from her fingertips. When an accident almost ends in disaster, the King (Maurice LaMarche) agrees to wipe Anna's memory so she forgets about her sibling's hidden talents. At the same time, Elsa hides from the public gaze, fearful that she will hurt someone else with her powers. When the King and Queen are subsequently lost at sea, Elsa reluctantly emerges to claim the throne. Unfortunately, on her coronation day, her gloves come off and the locals witness her skills... Frozen is one of the best animated features to canter out of the Disney stable in years. Bell and Menzel add vim to their plucky heroines, the latter singing the film's stand-out song Let It Go.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) *** (ITV2, 7.15pm)

Andrew Garfield's second and final outing as the webslinger sees Peter Parker tormented by the ghost of Captain Stacy (Denis Leary), whose daughter Gwen (Emma Stone) is Peter's on-off girlfriend. While Peter hones his superpowers, childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns to the Big Apple to assume control of Oscorp in the wake of the death his father's death. Harry's ascension coincides with an industrial accident that transforms nerdy employee Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) into an electrically-charged monster. Consequently, Peter must risk his life to protect Gwen and his Aunt May (Sally Field) from harm. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an action-packed sequel that suffers from villain overload, but Garfield is engaging in the lead role (which he's now handed over to Tom Holland).

The King's Speech (2010) ***** (Channel 4, 9.50pm)

'Bertie' (Colin Firth), the younger son of King George V, suffers from a stammer that makes public speaking an ordeal. His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) enlists eccentric Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to help, but their sessions take on a new urgency as Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) abdicates and Bertie - now known as King George VI - faces the prospect of addressing a country on the brink of war. There's a reason this film picked up four Oscars - including a well-deserved Best Actor statuette for Firth's performance - and was nominated for eight more. It's a fascinating tale, expertly and movingly told, with a cast that's positively groaning with class, while the flashes of humour (and some unexpectedly colourful language) mean it never feels too staid.

Monday 07/08/17

The Heat (2013) *** (Film4, 9.00pm)

Ladies can be every bit as politically incorrect as the lads in Paul Feig's oestrogen-fuelled buddy movie, which pairs Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as a strait-laced FBI Special Agent and gung-ho Boston police detective who join forces to bring down a criminal mastermind. The lead actresses spark off each other brilliantly, milking belly laughs from Katie Dippold's script. Every time the pace flags, Bullock and McCarthy crank up the slapstick and verbal one-upwomanship including a brilliantly simple visual gag with a knife that draws as many winces as guffaws. Feig and McCarthy, who also worked together on Bridesmaids and Spy, went on to team up again for the Ghostbusters reboot.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) **** (Film4, 1.00am)

Turkish police search for the body of a dead man in this epic drama, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. In the dead of night, murder suspect Kenan (Firat Tanis) leads a small team of men around the countryside, supposedly to the location of the man he killed. The search is spearheaded by Commissar Naci (Yilmaz Erdogan) but progress is slow because the dark conceals many of the landscape's defining features. The search party includes a doctor (Muhammet Uzuner) and prosecutor (Taner Birsel), who have a professional interest in finding the body and securing a conviction. As night turns to day, chauffeur Arap Ali (Ahmet Mumtaz Taylan) continues to drive from one location to the next, until Kenan leads the police to the corpse where the shocking truth about the crime is unearthed.

Tuesday 08/08/17

Tootsie (1982) **** (Film4, 6.30pm)

Dustin Hoffman gives one of his finest performances in this terrific comedy. He stars as Michael Dorsey, a gifted actor who is so devoted to his craft that no one wants to hire him because he's impossible to work with. After losing out at an audition for a cheesy soap opera, Michael takes drastic action and returns to the casting call in a skirt and wig as Dorothy Michaels. 'She' wins over the show's bosses and lands a juicy part on the show, but keeping up the charade proves difficult when Michael finds himself falling for his female co-star. Jessica Lange won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but the entire cast is a delight, with great roles for Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Bill Murray and director Sydney Pollack, who has a very funny cameo as Michael's agent.

Unbroken (2014) *** (Film4, 9.00pm) Premiere

As a boy, Louis Zamperini (Jack O'Connell) narrowly avoids reform school, and his older brother Pete (Alex Russell) channels his sibling's energy and aggression into running. These efforts reap rewards and Louis is selected to represent America at the Berlin Olympics. War breaks out and Louis serves in the US Army Air Force alongside best friend Russell Phillips (Domhnall Gleeson). Their B-24 bomber crashes into Pacific, killing everyone except Louis, Russell and fellow recruit Francis McNamara (Finn Wittrock). A Japanese crew picks up the survivors and Louis is sent to a POW camp, where sadistic commander Watanabe aka The Bird (Miyavi) sets out to break his spirit. Director Angelina Jolie's admiration for her subject is evident in every gorgeously crafted frame of this life-affirming biopic.

Wednesday 09/08/17

Bridge to Terabithia (2007) **** (Film4, 1.10pm)

Sixth-grade student Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) is a talented artist, not that his family notice. Life in the classroom means running the gauntlet of bullies, and so Jess retreats into the private world of his art. When talented storyteller Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb) moves in next door, she gradually breaks down Jess's defences and they become friends, creating a secret fantasy kingdom called Terabithia. However, even in their shared imagination, Jess and Leslie are not safe from the dangers of the outside world. Adapted from Katherine Paterson's award-winning novel, Bridge to Terabithia is an utterly charming coming-of-age story conjuring a magical world of otherworldly creatures - but for all its visual flourishes, this is very much grounded in reality.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ***** (ITV4, 10.15pm)

Having destroyed a cyborg assassin sent to kill her, and had a child with the late soldier sent to protect her, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is now locked up in a psychiatric institute. Thankfully she is broken out by her young son John (Edward Furlong), and a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). The bad news is a liquid metal killer (Robert Patrick) is out to kill them all. Considering state-of-the-art effects date faster than disco, this ground-breaking movie still looks great after 26 years. Furlong grates as Connor, but the stunts, editing and score are great, Hamilton deserves full marks for such a committed performance and Schwarzenegger is as effective a good guy as he was an implacable villain.

Thursday 10/08/17

Millions (2004) **** (Film4, 1.05pm)

Danny Boyle's charming fairy-tale is set 12 days before Britain enters the Euro zone and pound sterling is replaced by a new currency (the film was made in 2004, before anyone had ever heard of Brexit). Ten-year-old Anthony Cunningham (Lewis McGibbon) and his eight-year-old brother Damian (Alexander Etel) have far greater worries than money: the boys' mother died recently and they are struggling to come to terms with their loss. When Damian stumbles upon £229,320 stashed in a sports bag, he immediately assumes the money has been sent by God to be used for good deeds. When it turns out that the money is, in fact, the ill-gotten spoils of a heist, the lads race against time to change the sterling into Euros, whilst evading the robbers who are on their trail.

Wild (2014) **** (Film4, 9.00pm) Premiere

In 1994, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) decides to come to terms with the death of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) by embarking on a gruelling 1,100-mile solo trek along the Pacific Crest Trail, passing through California, Oregon, and Washington. She is ill-prepared for her odyssey, weighed down by a cumbersome backpack overstuffed with useless items including the wrong gas canister for her cooking stove. Her exhausting journey is punctuated by nightmarish memories of Cheryl's descent into sex- and alcohol-fuelled oblivion - a futile effort to salve the pain of Bobbi's death. Anchored by a tour-de-force Oscar-nominated performance from Witherspoon, Wild is an emotionally uplifting drama that celebrates the endurance of the human spirit and the restorative power of a mother's love.

Friday 11/08/17

Big Game (2014) *** (Film4, 9.00pm) Premiere

Oskari (Onni Tommila) is poised to turn 13 and must follow in the footsteps of his proud father Tapio (Jorma Tommila) by venturing into the wilderness alone to bring down a deer with his trusty bow and arrow. Within hours of embarking on his solitary quest, Oskari witnesses the crash of Air Force One and stumbles upon the escape pod of the US President, William Allen Moore (Samuel L Jackson). It transpires that Hazar (Mehmet Kurtulus), the psychopathic illegitimate son of one of the richest sheikhs in the Gulf, has brought down the plane in order to hunt the most powerful western politician on the planet. Jalmari Helander's muscular romp doesn't take itself too seriously, as the writer-director subverts the usual unabashed American patriotism and isn't afraid to grant the bad guys their victories too.

Strictly Ballroom (1992) **** (BBC1, 11.05pm)

Rebellious dancer Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) falls foul of the traditional ballroom establishment because he insists on making up his own steps. When his partner walks out on him, he loses all hope of winning the upcoming championships, until his eye falls on awkward beginner Fran (Tara Morice). Under his tutelage, her footwork improves and romance begins to blossom, but can they really become a winning partnership? This Australian comedy is incredibly camp, fantastically cheesy and highly entertaining - a great feel-good watch from beginning to end. It also put director Baz Luhrmann on the map - he went on to make Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, and The Great Gatsby.