I think Ruislip has a decent High Street, and compares really favourably to those in the local area. There are a good number of cafes and restaurants, pubs, Waitrose supermarket, small M&S Food, Tesco Express, so you can get all your food easily. There is John Sanders, a small department store which sells home things (beddings, kitchen stuff etc), toys, clothes (a bit old ladyish though!), and there are a whole host of independent shops so you can get everything you need, pharmacies, banks, dry cleaners, bakeries, sports shop, photo shop, health shop, to name but a few.
Ruislip Manor has a High Street, but is has lost a lot of shops and has loads of empty units and is a bit rubbish now, there isn't even a bank left in Ruislip Manor. South Ruislip has all the big retail park type stores, a big Sainsburys, Homebase, DIY and garden places, Argos, furniture stores etc.
Eastcote has a decent High Street too but doesn't have a supermarket only a Bugdens (expensive).
Of course, for big shopping centres there are Uxbridge and Harrow easily accessed by public transport or car, and Watford a bit further away.
No cinema in Ruislip, but good library, there's a swimming pool, and loads of nice places to walk - woods, playing fields, Ruislip Lido, there's a decent park with playground.
I don't use the buses that much but there are a good number of lines running to different places, plus various tube stations - Met and Piccadilly lines, Central line and mainline trains too at West and South Ruislip. To the City you're looking at minimum 45 mins Ruislip to Liverpool Street on the Met line (my Mum used to do that commute) and I reckon about 1.5hrs to Canary Wharf (that may be pessimistic but it did take about that last time I went there years ago).