The Cold Cut

Update- Empire, Joblo and a few other sites have cottoned on to the 'new terminator model'. In the time it took me to write this, it appears loads of people have freeze-framed! View a trailer analysis.

Films, Films, Films.zip (Link 2)

Well- here we are. As requested, welcome to The Cold Cut summer movie extravaganza. It's actually a lot more exciting than it sounds. I'm going to take you on a chronological journey through what will be remembered as one of the biggest summer movie seasons ever. And as this is inherently a music blog, you can take breaks and download some of the great tracks people are feeling at the moment. Enjoy, comment, relax. I may be updating as I go along.

Common ft. Pharrell- Announcement (Dirty)

Before I get started on my summer movie round-up, I would first like to point something out. I'm sure many of you will have seen the Terminator: Salvation trailer by now, and it looks promising. The teaser is hard to take in because of the way it was put together- a gritty live news shooting style-, but if you take a frame by frame of the 1080p trailer (download here) you come across some interesting details. First of all, we get a clear shot of what appears to be a new Terminator... a prototype we haven't seen before (click through for a huge version). Yes, that does appear to be a rather large chaingun. Scary.

The same robot (or a similar one) can be seen again a few seconds later, as a victim climbs upwards, presumably to escape. I guessed from the glowing red eyes.

Anyway, I'm not aware of anyone else pointing this out, and there's a lot riding on this film if a new trilogy is to be spawned from it. The teaser trailer is intriguing, showing off some daylight shots (which have been mostly left out of the franchise, until now) and Christian Bale, who brings guaranteed excellence to a film- he seems to have this innate ability to make any movie completely watchable- Equilibrium anyone? McG might not be the obvious choice for director, but perhaps this is the kind of big-budget vehicle that a failing director needs? He seems to be going for the right vibe, and it looks as if the events of T3 have been wiped from the world's history (now if only we could do the same), perhaps tying in the time-travelling concept of the recent TV series? If anyone with some knowledge could shed some light on this idea I would be appreciative.

Discuss: Terminator: Salvation... Will it be any good?

The Hold Steady- Constructive Summer

As summer movie season's go, 2008 will go down as one of the most intense. The quality of films hasn't been considerably superior (and in some cases- cough*The Love Guru*cough- so painfully sub-par) but the pure volume of films that warrant an 'I want to see that' reaction is greater than ever before.

Perhaps it's down to the industries perfection of cutting a trailer? Hancock came across as a completely different film in the previews, and even films like Meet The Spartans managed to float at the box office by placing all their 'funny' jokes in the trailers. Maybe we are too impressionable? I know the feeling I had when the Iron Man trailer opened: 'No gang signs... just joking, throw it up!'. We were sold!

Immuzikation- Whoa, Yerr A Joke!

The season kicked off much earlier than usual, with Marvel's heavily tipped Iron Man opening on May 2. As origin stories go, Iron Man was uncharacteristically fun, largely due to Robert Downey Jr's complete domination of the film and part of Tony Stark. There are some moments -the pole slowly rising up in the plane, the closing line 'You know what... I am Iron Man'- that you simply won't see anywhere else in any other superhero film.

In a recent interview, he explained his unusual commercial choice of a superhero film because he 'wanted more than five people to see his film'. He really got his wish. I was one of the millions of satisfied people who forked out for admission, and Iron Man was the first summer movie to take over $300 million domestically. Those kind of figures were a huge boost for the newly independent Marvel Studio's, and they followed it up a month later with The Incredible Hulk. Whilst not quite as enjoyable, the casting was still incredibly inspired, and the film went on to $225 million worldwide, the final figures no doubt pulled down by memories of Ang Lee's 2003 version of the Hulk. Regardless, a strong commercial one-two, no?

Coldplay vs Nas- If I Viva La Vida (Starters Remix)

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Enjoyable, and well... that's about it for me. I wasn't really expecting the second coming or anything along those lines, and Indy fulfilled my expectations. So, basically, if you went in with high hopes, you might have been disappointed. The one thing I took from it is that Shia LaBeouf is one of the shining stars of our generation: he will be as big, if not bigger, than Hanks and the Cruiser were in their prime. And that homage at the end, with the hat flying by... he may just have another franchise at his feet. Whilst we're on Shia, watch the trailer for Eagle Eye if you haven't already.

Discuss: Shia LaBeouf... soon to be a real household name?

Then came Wanted. Thus far it's my favourite film of the summer, and this is mostly down to good old Timur Bekambetov. I've watched both Night Watch and Day Watch, and whilst they're a little kooky you cannot deny that the guy has an eye for a perfect shot. Wanted proved that Timur arguably works better in English than Russian, bound by the acceptable laws of Western films, and the box office complied- Wanted 2 and Kick Ass (another Mark Millar series) are already in the works. Even bound by the rules, Timur completely reinterpreted many institutions of modern action- half of the action sequences in Wanted featured stuff that I had never seen before, from bending bullets and guns to catching weapons out of mid-air. It reminded many of watching The Matrix for the first time.

Coldplay- Death Will Never Conquer (more on this one soon)

And finally, Hancock. It was always going to be amazing, or... rubbish. It was the latter, and yet something saved this film. Although it was a convoluted mess, one thing shone through. Will Smith. Or giving credit where it's due, Will Smith and Jason Bateman. Their relationship and character's were just too strong for the script and other character's to match. I get the feeling that Peter Berg was aware of that and adjusted the script around that core premise, as an original screenplay of 'Tonight, He Comes' wouldn't have worked around that genuine joe/alcoholic superhero dynamic. It worked... Berg toned down the violence and sexual aspects of the original storyline to retain a PG-13 rating, and the film has already made over $300 million worldwide.

Fortunately, the future is bright. My two most anticipated releases are still to come- Wall-E and, of course, The Dark Knight. Two 10/10 films, without a shadow of a doubt. First things first, Wall-E. This film is a testament to the ability of the talented guys at Pixar. More so than any other studio, they produce consistently moving films, and Wall-E is no different. The buzz is huge, with statements like 'Stanton and co. can produce emotions from two animated robots than most directors can't coax out of their leading actors'. That sort of praise shouldn't be taken lightly!

And then, The Dark Knight. Everything I can say about this film has already been covered. Never before have I seen this kind of hype, and early reviews say it's justified. As well as being the best comic book film ever, we all hope The Dark Knight will never be forgotten. It deserves to break records, and it has- even before it has opened, The Dark Knight has set a record for the most screens playing... 4366 (see here). That figure lays a very strong foundation for some box-office records- we shall see what the 3 day figures hold after the weekend!

Lily Allen- Guess Who Batman (Fuck You Very Much)

I am so unbelievably excited about this film, and I really hope that it goes down as a classic. In some ways, The Dark Knight was almost destined to be huge- the viral marketing campaign is a work of genius, Christopher Nolan has produced a handful of brilliant films (but no masterpiece- until now) and the production of this film is an amazing story in itself. And Heath, well... it deeply saddens me that he cannot be here to witness the finished product, but I hope it is how he envisaged it. A posthumous Oscar would be a fitting reward for such a performance. R.I.P.

Discuss: Seen The Dark Knight? Is it the film of summer 2008? IMAX or standard cinema- is there a huge difference?

T.I.- No Matter What

So, that wraps up the movie season thus far. Before you leave, I really suggest you watch the new Watchmen trailer a couple of times. It's truly incredible. I haven't read the comics, but after this I'm really considering it; it appears that Zack Snyder has understood what's realistically required of him as the director of such a monument. He just gets the fans. After seeing this, I feel fairly confident predicting a masterpiece of sorts. The trailer is unlike anything I've ever seen- Snyder is able to show random footage and it still sends my jaw to the floor... it's that beautiful and wonderfully realised.



View a high definition version of the trailer over at Apple.com