FeaturesFilm and TVStreamingFilmsSkyNow TV
Features
Sky's streaming service is packed with wonderful movies - here are the ones you should watch first, whether you have full Sky or Now TV
Sam KieldsenFollow @samkieldsen
If you’re seeking a streaming service focused primarily on movies, it may not be Prime Video, Netflix or Disney+ that deserves your attention. Instead, consider a subscription to Sky Cinema – available via Now (previously Now TV), Sky Stream and regular satellite-derived Sky. Here’s our guide to the best movies on Sky Cinema and Now.
Now tends to be better served with newer, bigger-name films than any of its main rivals, with at least one new movie being added every day to an already bulging collection. The sheer size of that librarymeans it’s not always easy to immediately find something to watch though (you know:the paralysis of choiceand so on). Which is where we come in.
The Stuff team has picked out a selection of must-see cinematic masterpieces both old and new, so the next time you’re settling down for an evening on the sofa, you can conserve your brainpower for picking the right snacks rather than the right movie.
- Read: The best home theatre kit you can buy
Oppenheimer
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.
Barbie
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.
Blackberry
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.
No Country for Old Men
With its cinematic descriptions, sharp dialogue and fast-moving crime thriller plot, No Country for Old Men always felt like the most screen-friendly of Cormac McCarthy’s novels. With the Coen brothers at the helm, only a catastrophe could have stopped this movie from achieving instant classic status.
No catastrophe here. In fact, it’s among the Coens’ best. The story of a Texas everyman who takes two fateful decisions and ends up on the run from a gaggle of bad guys, it moves like an elevated film noir. The cinematography is stunning. So are the performances from Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald, Tommy Lee Jones and, most memorably, Javier Bardem as a philosophising, seemingly unstoppable mass murderer. If you like your thrillers as contemplative and lyrical as they are nail-biting, look no further.
RoboCop (1987)
We’re begging you: disregard the shiny and totally unnecessary 2014 reboot. If it’s a RoboCop movie you’re after, it needs to be the Paul Verhoeven-directed 1987 original – which for our money is one of the most enduring 1980s sci-fi actioners around (and there were a lot of them).
On one level, it’s a gripping, ultra-violent futuristic thriller about Peter Weller’s cybernetic policeman battling to take down the murderous criminal gang terrorising Detroit. But it’s also a brilliant satire on the corporatisation and militarisation of law enforcement – something that resonates even more loudly today than it did back 30-odd years ago. OTT in the best possible way.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Following a successful career as a theatre director, Sam Mendes made his Hollywood debut helming this unconventional, intelligent movie. It went on to obtain no fewer than six Oscars, make Kevin Spacey as one of the leading actors of his generation and ensure none of us ever looked at a windblown old Sainsburys bag in the same way again.
A black comedy-drama looking at contemporary American life through the eyes of Spacey’s jaded salaryman Lester Burnham, American Beauty shines a spotlight on the crushing conformity, banality and superficiality of the suburbs. Despite the manicured lawns and tree-lined streets, it’s portrayed as a bleak place. But one that, on rare occasions, exhibits moments of untarnished beauty, peeking out from just below the surface.
American Beauty
Following a successful career as a theatre director, Sam Mendes made his Hollywood debut helming this unconventional, intelligent movie. It went on to obtain no fewer than six Oscars, make Kevin Spacey as one of the leading actors of his generation and ensure none of us ever looked at a windblown old Sainsburys bag in the same way again.
A black comedy-drama looking at contemporary American life through the eyes of Spacey’s jaded salaryman Lester Burnham, American Beauty shines a spotlight on the crushing conformity, banality and superficiality of the suburbs. Despite the manicured lawns and tree-lined streets, it’s portrayed as a bleak place. But one that, on rare occasions, exhibits moments of untarnished beauty, peeking out from just below the surface.
The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski is a louche, lackadaisical and outwardly lightweight follow-up to the multiple award-winning thrillerFargo. 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 p*rnographers, 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 Lebowskiis a rare cinematic gift – one that keeps on giving with subsequent viewings.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
The latest (and seventh) action blockbuster in the Mission Impossible franchise sees Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt face off against a malevolent rogue A.I., but don’t worry: despite this “topical” subject matter this movie is pure Hollywood escapism of the most potent type.
With its glamourous international locations, star-studded ensemble cast and impeccably filmed stunt sequences (for which Cruise happily puts his own body on the line time and time again), this is top tier stuff in terms of production values – and unsurprisingly one of the most expensive films ever made. Despite “disappointing” at the box office by only making several hundred million dollars for Paramount Pictures, there’s also an enjoyable and involving film inside this shiny wrapper.
Watch Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One on Now Cinema
No Hard Feelings
Amazingly, this is Jennifer Lawrence’s first comedy movie – and she absolutely nails it as a louche, party animal Uber driver forced to take on an unusual job in an effort to save her house. Hired by the wealthy parents of a shy, socially awkward and virginal teenage boy to “date” him in order to prepare him for life at college, she anticipates an easy task – but finds herself faced with an uphill battle even as she starts to realise the pair have more in common than she realised. It’s a raucous, racy movie of the type you don’t see too often these days, and Lawrence’s performance – including an eye-popping beach fist fight in the buff – makes it an engaging watch to boot.
Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day (the day) existed before Groundhog Day (the movie), but it was really Groundhog Day that turned Groundhog Day into… y’know, Groundhog Day. That is to say, it used to be a quaint United States tradition involving a plump mammal; now it’s a cliché used to describe pretty much anything that repeats more than once.
And it’s all Bill Murray’s fault. He’s at his lugubrious best in this laidback comedy from Ghostbusters and Caddyshack director Harold Ramis, which builds on a simple but clever premise (man keeps living the same day over and over again) and is just funny enough not to squander it to sentimentality. (Warning: may contain romance and/or moments of Scrooge-like self-discovery.)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
While we’ll always hold a special place in our hearts for the outright strangeness of the live action Super Mario Bros. film (yes, the one with Dennis Hopper as a dinosaur), it’s fair to say that this recent animated adaptation cleaves a little closer to the source material.
Mario and Luigi are plucky New York plumbers who find themselves sucked into a magical land via a Warp Pipe, where they end up taking part in a war against the tyranny of Bowser, the evil king of the Koopas. It’s not particularly imaginative stuff, it’s true, but the glorious animation and some game voice acting from the likes of Seth Rogen and Jack Black will keep kids (and older Nintendo fanboys and girls) more than entertained.
Mad Max: Fury Road
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.
Chinatown
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.
They Live
What if you were living under an abusive regime that kept you preoccupied via consumerism, sex and mass media – and then suddenly became aware of it all? John Carpenter’s cult 1988 sci-fi action-thriller asks that question as Roddy Piper (yes, the wrestler) finds a pair of sunglasses that show him the dark reality of modern Los Angeles. Turns out it’s being controlled by hideous skull-faced aliens who use TV signals to disguise their true nature, and humanity’s greed to keep it in line.
Carpenter has reportedly described They Live as a “documentary”, and you’d have to be braindead to miss the satire. The fact that its targets are still very much in place and pulling the same tricks today keeps the film enjoyably relevant on that level, but it’s also got some great dialogue and action sequences. Not least the legendary alleyway fist fight between Piper and Keith David.
Spotlight
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.
Interstellar
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.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The venerable tabletop RPG has been adapted for the screen before, but this jaunty big budget movie finally seems to nail the tone and tenor correctly. It might be stuffed with references for fans of D&D to pick up on, but you don’t need to know the difference between a troll and a gnoll to enjoy the proceedings as a motley band of rogues led by Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez attempt to track down a McGuffin and save the Sword Coast from disaster.
Inception
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.
M3GAN
A robotic best pal for your child, capable of keeping your little one entertained, educated and empathised with? That would be the toy of the century, surely – not to mention a far better babysitter than the stoner kid from next door. But what if this robot – let’s call her M3GAN – was protective to the point of psychosis, and capable of subverting its programming in order to deceive and ultimately kill anything it perceived as a threat to its charge?
This jaunty sci-fi horror is exactly what you expect it to be, but no less entertaining for that. If you want to see a creepy, sassy android dealing out death, you’ll find it here in spades. Camp, fun and slightly satirical stuff.
Goodfellas
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.
Superbad
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.
Smile
One of the surprise horror hits of the past few years, Smile is a relentless psychological thriller that, despite having a slightly silly central ‘gimmick’ (the film’s evil presence manifests itself as a creepy smile on the face of an otherwise normal person), quickly establishes an atmosphere full of dread, paranoia and discomfort that doesn’t let up until the end. It’s might not be the smartest or most stylish film of its genre, but anyone who wants a popcorn horror with extra bite will end up sporting an odd grin of their own by the time the credits roll.
Oldboy (2003)
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.
John Wick
Keanu Reeves is in full Keanu Reeves mode (if you know, you know) as besuited gunman John Wick. Wick was once a very bad man: a preternaturally efficient assassin working for the very the nastiest gangsters in the underworld. Nicknamed the Baba Yaga and dubbed ‘the guy you send to kill the boogeyman’, he made his living through death. Until he found love and retired his shooting fingers for good.
Inevitably, Wick’s attempts at a normal life go horribly awry, culminating in a gang of criminals murdering the cute puppy left to him by his late wife. Cue vengeful retaliation in the form of some of the finest gunplay committed to screen since, well, Keanu wowed us way back in The Matrix. They don’t make many action movies like this anymore (except they do, kind of, in the form of the several John Wick sequels – none of which are as ace as the original).
Ex Machina
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.
Battle Royale
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.
Jaws
The film that discouraged an entire generation from skinny dipping, Jaws remains one of the most influential, most copied and most beloved films of all time.
The premise is beautifully simple: when a New Jersey seaside resort is terrorised by a killer Great White shark, the local police chief decides to hunt it down. But it’s the film’s presentation, script, direction and its iconic score that make it so special. Director Steven Spielberg cranks up the tension through his use of perspective and sound, leaving the audience constantly on edge, but Jaws isn’t afraid to contrast its scarier moments (and make no mistake: this is essentially a horror movie) with fantastic beats of levity and comedy.
The end result is that it’s still an incredibly rewarding and riveting watch more than 40 years after its release. Just do yourself a favour and avoid the sequels.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
James Cameron is renowned for pushing special effects technology with an almost religious fervour (we have him to ‘thank’ for the brief 3D movie ‘craze’) and in Terminator 2 he conjured up the most advanced computer-generated character yet seen on the big screen. The liquid-metal T-1000, a cyborg assassin sent back in time to murder tearaway teenager John Connor, used every CGI trick in the book to sell the reality of the character. And it doesn’t look half bad over 30 years later.
Audiences in 1991 were floored by this digital creation as it morphed from one character to another, oozed through the bars of a steel door and turned its hands into blades, but ultimately this movie succeeds for other reasons, namely Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic performance as the ‘good guy’ T-800 sent to protect Connor, the equally impressive practical SFX and fast-moving, riveting plot.
Looper
Rian Johnson’s Looper is a brilliantly mind-bending time travel action-thriller with Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing an assassin whose job consists of putting a bullet in the head of people teleported to his time by a future mob organisation (we know, we know – but stick with it). When the poor sap that appears before him turns out to be his future self (played by Bruce Willis) things get understandably complicated.
The intricate plot is strongly complimented by plenty of action and strong performances from all, although Gordon-Levitt’s Bruce Willis-like prosthetic nose is initially a little distracting.
Hot Fuzz
The second entry in the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ that also includes Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End,Hot Fuzztakes the 90s action movie template and lands it in sleepy rural England. As Shaun riffed on old zombie movies, this turns action flick tropes and traits into a source of comedy – and it does so in such a warm, technically adept way that the filmmakers’ respect for their inspirational source material shines through.
Not only isHot Fuzz – in which Pegg’s hero supercop is shipped off to a sleepy West Country village for making the rest of the Metropolitan Police look bad – hilarious, it’s also a fantastic homage to the likes ofPoint Break,Lethal WeaponandBad Boys.
Gladiator
Russell Crowe rose to superstardom off the back of this Roman Empire epic, in which he plays a celebrated and honourable general who, when betrayed by Joaquin Phoenix’s power-mad new emperor, is forced to fight his way to vengeance via the blood-stained pits of gladiatorial combat.
Directed with typical visual panache by Ridley Scott, Gladiator is a stirring, old-fashioned Hollywood blockbuster of the highest order, replete with all the classic tropes: sweeping vistas, rousing emotion, romance, scintillating fight scenes and a truly hateful villain in Phoenix. Movies of this type don’t generally age well – astonishingly, this is now over 20 years old – but thanks to Scott’s mastery behind the camera and Crowe’s Oscar-winning performance in front of it, Gladiator feels as fresh as the day it hit cinemas.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island cohorts Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer bring their brand of humour – previously confined to YouTube, the occasional Saturday Night Live sketch and their records – to the big screen in this unjustly overlooked mockumentary about egomaniacal pop star Conner4Real.
With old friends sidelined or cut out of his life altogether, Conner’s life and career spiral into disaster as his second album flops – which of course, makes for an entertaining ride. The cameos from dozens of real-life celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Seal and Paul McCartney add plenty of spice to the mix.
Scream (1996)
In self-referential teen horror Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven riffs on the genre tropes he himself helped define: here, the masked killer sticks slavishly to the stalk-and-slash rules set by older scary movies.
What could easily have turned out as a schlocky parody actually works as both a creepy, tension-wracked slasher flick and an amusing po-mo meta-comment on the genre, helped in part by a strong cast (the most famous member of which is bumped off in the first ten minutes), some great twists and plenty of quotable lines. It was followed by a raft of lesser sequels, a TV series and a full-on nostalgia-fuelled reboot, but for our money the original remains by far the best.
The Matrix
The Matrix isn’t just an entertaining action movie. This film is packed with cultural touchstones and iconic moments, and it still looks amazing more than twenty years after it first emerged from the Wachowski’s febrile minds.
Keanu Reeves has never been better as Thomas Anderson, an office-bound drudge by day and hacker by night who finds himself drawn into a reality-shattering adventure full of flying bullets, mind-blowing martial arts sequences and some early CGI that doesn’t look like absolute rubbish today. Whoa!
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
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.
More like this: 25 best Prohibition movies
Sam KieldsenContributor
About
Tech journalism's answer toThe Littlest Hobo, I'vewritten for a host of titles and lived in three different countries in my 15 years-plus as a freelancer. But I've always comeback home toStuffeventually, where I specialisein writing about cameras, streaming services and being tragically addicted toDestiny.
Areas of expertise
Cameras, drones, video games, film and TV
