A few days ago, Best For Film’s editor John Underwood said something very, very rash on Twitter: “Deckard was so a replicant.” Just the sort of blasé observation that would usually pass unnoticed amongst the LOLcats and nasty comments about Giles Coren… usually, yes, but not this time. Comedian, musician, musical comedian, comic musician and bard/jester extraordinaire Mitch Benn heroically decided to set the record straight and, over the course of the longest article we have ever published, now presents his defence of the much-maligned 1982 cut of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Blade Runner. Hold on to your synthetic snakes…

Back to the gritty, urban milieu of earlier films such as Get Carter, Michael Caine delivers an uncompromising and sympathetic performance in Harry Brown, a dark and violent revenge thriller. But where the performances stand out, some of the politics in the film fare less well. Read on to find out what we thought of Michael Caine blowing off more than just doors.