Your review sounds bettert han the grade, heh.

A


I think I shall start off my review by stating that I actually hated The Blair Witch Project. That was just a bore with uninteresting characters, lacking suspense and teasing a lot without ever showing anything. Cloverfield is an entirely different beast! (no pun intended).

I must say that my only complaint would be the overly long introduction of the characters which I mostly spent just thinking that I want the action to start at last. It did, however, contribute to establishing the characters well enough for me to at least somewhat root for them. I didn't like all of them (like Hud or Marlena), but in the end I found myself rooting for Rob and Beth (though knowing that they'll likely die anyway).

Once the whole shit starts going down about twenty minutes into the flick, it becomes a tremendous experience of the kind I haven't experienced in a long time. From that point on till the very end of the movie, there's just unending tension and suspense, never knowing what's going to happen next. I loved the perspective of the whole movie in that the main characters know nothing about what's going on and never will know anything more, so we, the viewers, are just stuck with what we see. That just was so authentic and at the same time very terrifying. Speaking of terifying, to my surprise, the whole movie wasn't a big cock tease, but they actually showed the monster several times and gave us some good and clear views of it. And the monster was quite terrifying too, just like the small crab-like parasites. I would have liked to find out what happens to the people that are bitten and why they explode, but maybe it's just good not to reveal everything as that, once again, adds to the autheticity. The acting ranges from okay-ish to pretty good, but this movie just really lives off its great atmosphere of fear, destruction and death. There are so many great moments in the movie that I just don't know which one to pick for the best. The subway tunnel attack, the first main encounter with the monster, the bridge sequence or the attempted helicopther escape. All these scenes are masterfully crafted, filled with suepense and never let down. I just wish the movie had ended with the helicopter crashing and everyone dying. Such an abrupt ending would fit the rest of the film, but I wasn't bothered by the actual ending anyway.

To put it in a nutshell: this movie is a crazy, original, creative and scary thrill ride!

Stardust last year reminded me what it takes for a film really to hit home with me. Cloverfield was great and i have a feeling its going to grow on me, but i dont know, i just have issue with the grade A for it. I'll buy the dvd and rewatch this movie, but i think its one you have to resee and thinkabout.

Well, I loved Stardust and Cloverfield. Both are excellent cinematic experiences and can hardly be compared with each other. They both simply excel in their fields.

I think your right.
I think the issue is films i give As have to have some deeply romantic undertone for it to get there most of the time. Whilst Cloverfield was an excellent example of an exciting new genre, I think it's attempts at giving its characters humanity was a little transparent and thats where it slipped up for me.

Swearing would have added nothing to the film. Just like it adds nothing to The Departed and the 365 "Fucks" in Casino dont make Joe Pesci any more badass. Excessive swearing in films gets tiresome and seem try-hard (which is one of my gripes anout The Departed). Glady the best films of this year (No Country, Zodiac, Ratatouille, Stardust, Juno, Lives of Others, Into the Wild) have all been relatively free of excessive profanity).

And I do swear alot more than i'd like

The swearing doesn't have anything to do with realism or lack thereof. It's absent because the studio didn't want to get an R-rating for this.

But they have a point in that there is no need to get an R rating just so they can add in a few F words. Different if they toned down violence or nudity.

A movie like Cloverfield doesn't need swearing, though. I know they avoided it because of the rating and I think that in a normal situation like in Cloverfield, there would have been a couple of Fuck's, but that wasn't really necessary. I'd take Cloverfield without swearing anyday over the boring Blair Witch Project with tons of swearing.

is that bad for a movie that's only grossing like $80m?

3/10 -> D-

An awful movie. It started pretty well, but once the characters started acting like chickens without a brain everything fell apart. Who in their right mind would come back for the love of their life when a giant monster is on a rampage and there are explosions everywhere???

I mean, it's not the greatest love action/adventure ever told. This was supposed to be an action movie. And when it plays like an action movie, the scenes are just absurd. The most absurd one is with Beth's building. Also that bitch should've died a long time before they got there. And barely minutes after they pulled her from that iron bar she's running like she's on the goddamn Olympics.

While I can believe JJs explanation why Sydney managed to get away from the chair while she was tied and shot in one arm, if I apply the same explanation to Beth it really makes no sense. The adrenaline would've wear off and she'd fall unconscious at least. And all three of them conveniently survive a fucking helicopter crash?!?!?! I mean WTF????

Also when you know that everyone on the tape died from the very beginning of the movie it's not interesting to watch how they fight to stay alive for an hour, especially when, as I said, the action is probably the most ridiculous I've ever seen.

The best thing the movie has going for it is the style and I liked those intervals of Rob and Beth. If they make a sequel I hope it's about their trip to Cooney Island. It would be a better movie than this crap.

How did you know they all died from the beginning??

It seemed very obvious to me too, knowing that the footage was just found in Central Park...yet it never took anything away from the suspense.

Seriously, I love this film and it's the first 2008 movie I have seen so far. Probably the first time ever for me that I love the first movie of the year that I see so much!

It was obvious to me too but i didnt know the footage was found in Central Park - so there was an element of doubt. However it took nothing away from the film for me either.

And agreed - first film of the year that ive seen and thought was an "A" or "A+" film. LOVED IT!

I also thought the film was clever in the ways the old footage of happier times appeared from time to time. It was exactly how it is when you rewatch some footage you just filmed and then try and put it back to the right spot so you can continue recording and then the old footage you taped over appears. Small detail but it was handled well.

Two years in a row for me, after Zodiac last year.

yeah, I think it's a first for me, too. Unless...well, The Lives of Others might've been the first "2007 film" that I saw, but I consider it a "2006 film."

I saw Lives of Others first of the 2007 batch followed by Smokin Aces (which while not great was solid) - so a good start to the year last year too.

I don't now what your prints of the movie were like, but at the beginning there is a black screen with a watermark "PROPERTY OF U.S. ARMY DO NOT MULTIPLY." (or something like that) and it also says something like "The evidence: SD Card with multiple sightings of a case called Cloverfield retrieved from a place formerly known as Central Park." That pretty much said it all. I had hopes that maybe they dropped the camera in Central Park, but they showed the helicopter crash in the trailer so I figured it out.

The movie just wasn't suspensful. It is pointless and basically the whole idea is that you're just seeig the movie because of the monster which looks really fake and even the scenes with it have a cliched feeling.

You are right. We had the same print - except there was a commotion with some idiot teens and I missed what it said.

****

I have a couple minor quibbles with the movie.

1. The thing jumping out of the dust and striking the helicopter for some reason
2. Taking refuge under a bridge. Not smart. Missiles being launched, a giant monster that can crush the bridge if it steps on it. It's just a crushing waiting to happen.

But those two don't take away what was an incredibly tense experience. When the first "earthquake" happened at the party, I was scared along with them. It didn't really let up either. Also extra points for being quite funny at times and even surprisingly emotional. (Rob's phone call to his mother...)

I was glad at least one of them survived....

I just saw this and let me say WOW. I was very impressed by Cloverfield. This is easily one of the scariest and most intense films I've ever seen. I do not believe this only cost 25M, the effects looked better than Spider-Man 3 and I Am Legend. You actually cared about the characters, especially the cameraman, and the first 20 minutes established all of them quite well. The ending was slightly WTF as everyone in the audience I was with just sat there, and I was a bit dissapointed by it, but the black chick lived (the character I most cared about) so I'm happy. The monster is absolutely terrifying, and the destruction scenes are just stunning. This looks like a 150M movie. There is so much tension in this movie, the subway attack, Beth's rescue in the destroyed skyscraper, the helicopter escape. All in all, one of the most unique and thrilling movie experience I've ever sat through.

A

that's what's so brilliant about this film's style. While the SM3 and IAL visual effects were probably much more difficult to pull off, more complex, and better overall, the fact that Cloverfield kept its effects epic but vague/shaky gave off an extremely realistic feel, despite them never revealing much of the monster until the end, and even then, only for a short amount of time.

If anything, this film has to go down as financial genius.

I liked it a lot. Theres just one thing i didnt enjoy, and it was the damn camara movement. I know the movie is made like that but i just got so frustated that i couldnt see. No complaints on the ending. It was just perfect.

A