Chinatown (1974)

Film4, 9pm

Set in 1930s Los Angeles, Roman Polanski's celebrated retro-noir mystery stars Jack Nicholson as a laconic private detective gradually drawn into a web of squalid sexual and political intrigue. Robert Towne's dense, novelistic screenplay was inspired by the water and power scandals that helped to ruin the tycoon William Mulholland, who gave his name to Hollywood's famous Mulholland Drive, where Nicholson still lives to this day. John Huston and Faye Dunaway co-star. (131min)

Die Hard: with a Vengeance (1995)

BBC One, 10.35pm

A mad terrorist bomber threatens New York City in this third Die Hard instalment. Bruce Willis again plays the torn-vest everyman hero-cop John McClane, who is singled out for revenge by a Germanic megalomaniac played by Jeremy Irons. Co-starring Samuel L. Jackson, John McTiernan's breakneck-paced thriller delivers enough grandstanding action to excuse its preposterous, illogical plot. (131min)

Damage (1992)

ITV3, 10.35pm

The French director's Louis Malle's chilly political melodrama stars Jeremy Irons as a suave British MP who risks everything for an affair with his son's girlfriend (Juliette Binoche). David Hare crisply adapts Josephine Hart's bestseller, but Malle's overly serious tone grates in places. (111min)

The Thing (1982)

ITV1, 11.10pm

Based on a 1951 B-movie, The Thing from Another World, John Carpenter's remake is a classic of modern sci-fi horror. Kurt Russell plays the boss of a Antarctic research team who discover an extraterrestrial creature with the power to absorb and mimic other beings. The ensuing battle for survival contains some of the most original special effects seen on screen. (109min)

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