We few, we happy few…

Another week, another favourite film, another bloodthirsty alien rampaging through an Antarctic research site. Wait, what? Alex Mullane is armed with a flamethrower, a bit of wire and a bloody great beard, and he’s here to defend the both impeccable taste of the BFF crew and his favourite film – John Carpenter’s The Thing. Obviously, spoilers will abound.

Boaz Yakin attempts to shrug off the conventions of the usual smash-everyone-audience-included-into-submission action film with his new Statham vehicle Safe. Initially thoughtful and controlled, but never quite committing to the restrained tone of its opening half hour, all of Safe‘s positive traits fall a little by the wayside in favour of, well, smashing everyone into submission.

Bale in talks over appearing as the lead villain in Spike Lee’s remake of the South Korean thriller.

The world of film is awash with Marmite topics – actors, genres or even cinematic styles which make some movie-goers dampen their plush seats and others tear the stuffing from the punter in front. In our J’accuse series, two of Best For Film’s writers go head-to-head and debate a controversial aspect of cinema. This time round it’s the worst nightmare of every indie Japanese director – the Hollywood remake.

Following in the footsteps of Simons Callow and Pegg, Hollywood star Brian Cox is rumoured to have signed up for a guest spot in the upcoming Christmas episodes of Doctor Who. The actor, probably best known for his portrayal of a pre-Hopkins Hannibal Lecter in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, is to provide the voice for an as-yet unidentified alien in the specials.

Michael Mann’s expertly crafted tale of Depression-era gangster John Dillinger’s final exploits looks good on paper, with standout performances from Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. But it fails to get to the heart of one of America’s craftiest criminals.