We are now entering what used to be called the dead days: that is, the days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. It’s traditionally a time for witchery, magic, and mystery- and so, here at BFF we’ve compiled a list of films for each of the dead days, specially designed to bring you all the adventure, magic, mystery and witchery you could possibly want while sitting on the sofa in your Christmas PJs.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Ben Stiller’s latest film as both an actor and director, hits cinemas on Boxing Day. We loved it, and we suspect you will too, so we’re giving five lucky readers a chance to get into the Mitty mood with a grab bag of official goodies!

Look. Bear with me here. I know, I know, you’ve put up with a lot. You’ve put up with two two-thousand word essays on everything Gone with the Wind. You let me declare Chicken Run the greatest film of all time. You read the nonsense I talk about books – on a film blog. But this is probably the worst thing I’ve done yet.

We’re basically horrified by Joe Wright’s plan to make a Peter Pan origin movie in which Peter is FRIENDS WITH CAPTAIN HOOK. Even if Hugh Jackman’s in it. And since all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, we thought we’d give him some other ideas for Pan-themed films which (tragically) don’t yet exist. NEVERLAND FOREVER!

Right, here’s this year’s maddest news: if we can trust him, it appears Colin Farrell spent the couple of years before her death having a discreet little affair thing with Elizabeth Taylor. And if that’s true, then all bets are off. We’ve done a little digging and found a few more actors whose relationships stretched the limits of plausibility…

American Hustle, the shiny retro mafia romp from The Silver Linings Playbook’s David O Russell, starring The Silver Linings Playbook’s Bradley Cooper, and The Silver Linings Playbook’s Jennifer Lawrence (and some other people) comes out next week. The title seems to suggest that there’s something particularly American about being a con artist in the seventies. As a full-on tea-drinking foul-mouthed middle class Brit, who am I to disagree with this? Here are five more titles which have taught me something about what it’s like to be from THE LAND OF THE FREE.

Short Film of the Week is back with a Christmas special! Filmed over the course of one evening, this charming short is a reminder to anyone who employs short-term staff – no matter how awful your work do is going to be, they’d still quite like to come.

Love it or loathe it – Blockbuster Video will soon close its last 91 stores. Before Netflix, Lovefilm and illegal downloading a Blockbuster video store was our favourite way to exploit spotty teenage boys with a Nazi complex (“You WILL return that film in two days – or you’re banned for life!”) Not a visit went by without us accidentally buying nine tubs of over-priced German-sounding ice cream, some tooth-rotting popcorn and an old MasterSystem game we didn’t need for £3.99.

Christmas is coming, and (as usual) all we really want is a shoephone. But until someone actually invents one (or a lightsaber, or any of the other stuff we really want), our pals at Online Spy Shop have put together a nifty infographic featuring some of the spy gear you can actually buy.

Of the many wonderful things about Netflix – like being able to watch five seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race without getting up, and never being in danger of accidentally watching a film you’ve heard of – my favourite is rummaging through the weird careers of major Hollywood stars. For example, just by clicking on his name, I can look at Val Kilmer’s catalogue, watch all the horror movies that pop up, and then sort-of review them with gently derisive affection. Right, let’s do that then.