Cloverfield posterAfter a few weeks off list­ing new releas­es I’m return­ing to record a typ­i­cal­ly eccen­tric mix of block­buster and art-house for you to while away those long, balmy sum­mer evenings.

First up is Oscar-win­ner Ang Lee’s first film since Broke­back Moun­tain, an erot­ic espi­onage thriller set in wartime Shang­hai. Already nom­i­nat­ed in last week’s Gold­en Globes Lust, Cau­tion is a Para­mount exclu­sive.

New York gets yet anoth­er ter­ri­ble pound­ing in Clover­field, as a mon­ster of some descrip­tion rips the head off the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty among oth­er atroc­i­ties. The catch here is that the entire tale is told by “ordinary peo­ple” with their cam­corders, a lit­tle like Blair Witch a few years ago. It’s pro­duced by J. J. Abrams (“Lost”) and direct­ed by anoth­er t.v. alum­ni Matt Reeves (best known thus far as cre­ator of “Felicity”). At Read­ings Courte­nay Cen­tral and Sky City Queens­gate.

Patrick Melton and Mar­cus Dun­stan have been up nights devis­ing yet more sadis­tic tor­tures for deserv­ing and unde­serv­ing suck­ers and have come up with Saw IV. Jig­saw carked it at the end of Saw III but that doesn‘t appear to slow things down at all. You’ll find it at Read­ings, Sky City Queens­gate and Regent-on-Man­ners: look for the teenage boys try­ing to sneak in on bor­rowed ID’s.

Bond vil­lain Mads Mikkelsen cross­es over to the side of the angels in Susanne Bier’s acclaimed After the Wed­ding (Para­mount and Pent­house). He plays Jacob, an aid work­er who returns to Den­mark on a fund-rais­ing mis­sion but instead dis­cov­ers a life-chang­ing fam­i­ly secret. After the Wed­ding was nom­i­nat­ed for an Oscar last year in the Best For­eign Lan­guage Flick cat­e­go­ry. Final­ly, a geri­atric romance is on offer in Elsa and Fred, from Spain. Described by one crit­ic as “simultaneously heart­break­ing and heart­en­ing” this one seems tai­lor-made for the Pent­house.

Read­ings, in their wis­dom, have decid­ed not to offer the Cap­i­tal Times any reviewer’s pass­es in 2008 which makes writ­ing about their films very close to being more trou­ble than it’s worth. So, Clover­field and Saw IV may not be reviewed there (and thus also at Funer­als & Snakes) next Wednes­day but the oth­ers will.