It will be hard to top New Year’s Day for wide-ranging film choice in 2017. All four foreign films bolded in the Also Ran section, e.g., could have taken today’s top slot. The DirecTV Channel establishes its musical dominance on day one of the new year with Linkin Park (11.30am), Joan Jett (1pm), James Blunt (3.30pm), Alanis Morissette (4.30pm), Cyndi Lauper (8.30pm), Snoop Dogg (9.30pm) and Sam Smith (11pm) all ONSTAGE for an hour apiece, plus 90-minute sets of the Isle of Wight Festival (10am), Muse Live at the Mayan (2pm) and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators (5.30pm). In response, cable can only muster Bon Jovi Live in London (2.01pm TCM).

Today’s number one film:

Star Wars Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards/ 2016/ USA/ Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi-Fantasy/ 134 mins/ PG for extended sequences of sci-fi violence and action) 4pm & 8pm Digicel Imax and Gemstone (double-check screening times). Watch this if you liked the Indiana Jones or the Lord of the Rings trilogies or the Avengers. The latest Star Wars blockbuster fits in, chronologically, somewhere around III-and-a-half and, technologically, way on top of all its predecssors – including even perhaps The Force Awakens. It is as though the film were designed for Imax screens and no others – though it is sure to be thrilling on any silver screen. With Imax impact, though, Rogue One flings the viewer into hyperspace entertainment. For its substantial runtime, there is not a dip in excitement levels. Yes, it is pure escapist cinema – but who doesn’t want to get away nowadays? And, on the Imax screen, this is seriously big-time escape! If you don’t cheer at the last frame, you’ve a heart of stone – or, at least, were totally unmoved by the original George Lucas epics. Given what happened last week, it’s made all the more poignant. A perfect way to start the year.

Also watch:

Let Me In (Matt Reeves/ 2010/Horror-Mystery-Drama/ UK-USA/ 116 mins/ Rated R for stron bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation) 9pm Fox Cinema. Watch this if you liked A Nightmare on Elm Street, Sinister or the original Swedish version Let the Right One In. One of the best “horror” movies ever made, anywhere, the original Swedish version would be expected to trounce and shame what would be expected to be the American version/travesty; the very pleasant surprise is that the English-language version is very nearly as good – and, for those bothered by subtitles, probably even better. Certainly this is an exceptional film about, not just the supernatural horrors fans of that genre love, but about the pragmatic, day-to-day horror of being a lonely adolescent anywhere. Gripping from the first frame as both mystery and drama, it explodes into its own as horror. An exceptional film, though distressingly gory, even by today’s very lax “standards”.

Back to the Future Part I (Robert Zemeckis/ 1985/ USA/ Sci-fi-Comedy-Family/ 108 mins/PG), 10am Fox Classics. Watch this if you liked Peggy Sue Got Married, Pleasantville or Idiocracy. When you have a time machine made out of a De Lorean, you can’t deny the sci-fi classification of the film, but the real attraction is the retro-vision of the rock ‘n’ rollin’ USA of the 50s and 60s, when life was simple and good (if you happened to be a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male). All three instalments are strong and can be watched independently and in any order, but I remains BC on TV’s favourite, for the freshness that persists 30 years on. A film so good, you almost wish you were American and had a prom to go to. A nearly perfect film for a New Year’s Day afternoon.

JUST NOSED OUT:

**The Dark Knight (Superhero), 2.20pm MaxP; **Paddington, 2.04pm HBOF; **The Brothers Grimsby (Stoner comedy), 5.08pm HBOP; Inglorious Basterds (War-Thriller), 10.50am MaxP; Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (Fantasy-Horror), 3.45pm HBOF; District 9 (Crime-Sci-fi-Fantasy-Thriller), 1.20pm Prmt; Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Sci-fi-Fantasy-Thriller), 6.45am & 9pm HBO; The Illusionist (Mystery-Thriller), 5.40pm Prmt; A Most Violent Year (Crime-Drama), 8.55am FoxAct;

ALSO RAN:

Action/Adventure: Guardians of the Galaxy (Superhero), 3.30pm MaxU

Art House/Independent: Lars and the Real Girl, 10.10am CnCl; Inherent Vice, 5.30pm Max

Biography: *The Theory of Everything, 10am HBO2

Children/Family: The Princess & the Frog, 8.27am Max; Minions, 10.37am HBOF; The Peanuts Movie, 2.50pm FoxFam

Classic: Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Comedy), 9.19pm TCM

Comedy: The Invention of Lying, 10.20am FoxCom; 27 Dresses (Rom-Com), 1.35pm FoxCom & 9pm FoxFam

Documentary: Rich Hill, 1.50pm Sund

Drama: Secondhand Lions, 5.29pm TCM

Foreign: **Winter Sleep BEST FILM OF THE DAY (Turkish drama), 8.50am Max; The Artist (French silent drama), 9.50pm Two Days One Night, 3.50pm Max; Mustang (Turkish coming of age drama), 1.50pm FoxCin

Horror: Rosemary’s Baby, 10.50pm FoxCin; Twilight (Young adult romance), 9.20am F+1

Sci-fi-Fantasy: The Hunger Games Uncut, 12.52 midday Max

Thriller: Mission Impossible, 4.30pm CnCl; Source Code, 1.45pm HBOP

War: The Hunt for Red October (Cold War thriller), 3.25pm FoxClas

Western: Stagecoach, 9pm FoxClas, Major Dundee, 10.55pm FoxClas

*Starred films have been chosen in the last year. ** Double-starred films have been chosen in the last two months. Particularly strong Also Ran choices are bolded.

Scheduled Internet times often vary on the day, particularly around month-end.