Pick of the week
The Rip<\/p>\n
A propulsive cop thriller whose selling point is Ben Affleck<\/a> and Matt Damon<\/a> starring together for the first time since 2023\u2019s Air. They play best friends and officers in a Miami tactical narcotics team \u2013 one maverick, the other more sensible but jaded. At the end of a shift, they get a tip-off about drug cash in a stash house. But the operation is thrown off track by what they find there \u2013 and the suspicion that there\u2019s a corrupt cop in their unit, which includes Teyana Taylor and Steven Yeun. Director Joe Carnahan keeps the plot bustling along, while the single location stokes up the tension. The Ballad of Wallis IslandFriends reunited \u2026 Tom Basden as Herb McGwyer and Carey Mulligan as Nell Mortimer in The Ballad of Wallis Island. Photograph: Focus Features\/PA<\/p>\n A Britcom full of the excruciating puns and awkward situations that are the trademark of its writer and star, Tim Key, James Griffiths\u2019 film<\/a> is a Marmite proposition. But its cosy charms will win you over, just as folk singer Herb (co-writer Tom Basden) is won over by his time on the titular island owned by wealthy uberfan Charles (Key). Herb was once in a romantic and musical partnership with Carey Mulligan\u2019s Nell, who unexpectedly turns up too as Charles gets the band back together for a private gig. But their reunion unearths Herb\u2019s lingering pain, which vies with widower Charles\u2019s loneliness for the drama\u2019s biggest emotional impact. A heart-warming balancing act of funny and forlorn. The GunfighterGreek tragedy \u2026 Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter. Photograph: Album\/Alamy<\/p>\n Jimmy Ringo is the fastest gun in the American south-west of the 1880s. But with notoriety comes peril because \u2013 as Gregory Peck\u2019s ageing sharpshooter has found \u2013 there\u2019s a \u201csquirt\u201d in every town angling to challenge him. Henry King\u2019s tense 1950 western is about how the weight of a legend can drag a man down \u2013 but weary Ringo hopes to avoid that when he rides into Cayenne seeking to revive his relationship with teacher Peggy (Helen Westcott) and their young son. However, like all good Greek tragedies, the more he tries to flee his fate the closer it gets. Cool Hand LukeOozes star quality \u2026 Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. Photograph: PictureLux\/The Hollywood Archive\/Alamy<\/p>\n There are definite Christ-like overtones to the titular chain-gang convict in Stuart Rosenberg\u2019s gloriously sweat-soaked, dirt-engrained drama. An individual in a system that will not tolerate difference, Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman<\/a>) is the charismatic newcomer who wins over his fellow inmates with an aptitude for taking a beating, trying to escape and eating boiled eggs (a scene that is worth watching the film for alone). Newman oozes star quality as we witness a prison myth in the act of being created. A Few Good MenLegends \u2026 Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Kevin Pollak in A Few Good Men. Photograph: Columbia\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar<\/p>\n If you fancy paying tribute to the late Rob Reiner<\/a>, you could do worse than his 1992 legal thriller. Aside from the sharp tacks and jibes of Aaron Sorkin\u2019s script, there is the pleasure of watching Hollywood\u2019s new and old guard in close combat. Tom Cruise plays a cocky young navy lawyer who teams up with Demi Moore\u2019s fellow litigator to defend two Guant\u00e1namo Bay marines accused of murder. Unspoken military codes and delusions of honour impede their case, with Jack Nicholson\u2019s imperious base commander the big beast they must defeat. The Integrity of Joseph ChambersDeer hunter \u2026 Clayne Crawford in The Integrity of Joseph Chambers. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n Their previous collaboration, The Killing of Two Lovers<\/a>, was suffused with barely suppressed menace. Director Robert Machoian and actor Clayne Crawford\u2019s latest<\/a> is equally unsettling, as Crawford\u2019s inexperienced deer hunter heads into the woods solo for the first time \u2013 and bad things happen. Like a Raymond Carver story or the films of Kelly Reichardt, it\u2019s a painfully perceptive tale of an ordinary man placed in an extraordinary position he just can\u2019t handle, and a takedown of trite masculinity. LollipopElectric \u2026 Posy Sterling as Molly Brown in Lollipop. Photograph: MetFilm\/PA<\/p>\n
Friday 16 January, Netflix<\/p>\n
Friday 16 January, 10.25am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere<\/p>\n
Saturday 10 January, 2.50pm, Great! Action<\/p>\n
Saturday 10 January, 5.50pm, Sky Cinema Greats<\/p>\n
Saturday 10 January, 10.35pm, Channel 4<\/p>\n
Sunday 11 January, 11.20pm, Film4<\/p>\n