Cloverfield [Blu-ray]

While this film has a lot to recommend it, it is a disappointment overall. I liked the idea of a video record of an attack by a monster from the viewpoint of one person's camcorder. The performances in the film are good and the special effects are very well done. However, the overall effect never really gets you involved with the story. The monster is only seen in quick glimpses untill the very end of the film. There is no clear resolution to the film's story, other than you know that there is a military attack on the monster and that the camcorder was found later on. (Spoiler alert) You only know that most of the characters that you are watching die, one in a very gruesome way.
The films concept was a good one, I thought, but if you're going to see NYC trashed by a monster, get the remake of Godzilla. It's not a great film, but at least it doesn't take itself too seriously and has some fun to it. This film is a major downer and doesn't really hold together.

The elevator pitch for this movie is Godzilla in Manhattan, with a different monster. And that's what you get in Cloverfield, a well-done low-budget movie that shows you don't need $100 million to make a decent movie. A group of friends at a going-away party, with a video camera, are in Manhattan when a monster shows up. Part of the genius of Cloverfield is that we don't know where the monster came from, what it's doing or what it wants. Every other movie of this genre is from the POV of the science guy who figures out how to fight the monster, whether with "plain ol' sodium!" ("Horror of Party Beach"), some kind of radio waves, ("Beginning of the End," as I recall), or by nuking the site to make sure. In "Cloverfield," the POV instead is that of the schmucks like us who would be running around wondering what the heck is going on after we find the head of the Statue of Liberty out in the street in front of the house.

On the downside, there's a little too much pre-monster time in the movie. And the video camera is magical - it has enough battery life to run through an entire party and a monster attack, with some left over to run the external light and Night Shot. Where do I get one of those? What's funny as well is that Cloverfield is supposed to look like it's shot on home video - so Blu-Ray is a little bit of overkill here.

But at 90 minutes, Cloverfield keeps moving fast enough so you don't think about the holes, and the movie doesn't outstay its welcome. It's at least worth a rent.

"What if a monster attacked a city?" This is the shockingly novel concept behind the viral marketing triumph of the year! Filled with "fresh"* performances and "authentic"** cinematography, Cloverfield masterfully takes a page from The Blair Witch Project, reworking the snotty-20-somethings-endure-trauma-while-repeatedly-saying-dude genre into something unique while still being very much the same. Look for star turns by That Girl Who Was in Mean Girls and That One Dude Who Played Eric in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Mike, Kevin and Bill's RiffTrax was found by the Department of Defense (and then thrown away, but we dug it out of a garbage can.)

*Not very good.

**Not good at all.

Brilliant and eerie, exactly the way a monster movie should be. Those blasting this movie just don't "get it". The Instant Gratification Generation needs everything explained to them and on top of that they want ALL the facts spoon fed to them. If that's what you're looking for, Cloverfield is not your movie. This film is deeper than most dramas, more suspenseful than most thrillers, and better than any recent monster type film. I have to admit, while stylistically perfect for the film, I grew tired of the shaky camera work. That is probably the only reason I won't watch this film twice...at least not for a while. This film is creepy the way all good horror/monster films should be. It harkens back to a day when simple elements of light (a la Creature From The Black Lagoon) create suspense. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Cloverfield is more than a mediocre monster film. It is actually pretty darn good. Not great, but entertaining enough at 84 minutes to keep you interested from beginning to unconventional end, which is not something we usually see. I will not spoil anything, but this film is unlike most monster films. Besides the fact that there is a huge monster and it is attacking NYC and its people, the similarities stop there.

There is no scientific mumbo jumbo, no real type of help, per se. There is just a small group of people and a video camera. We see what they see. Nothing more. It's pretty neat, and unlike the boring Blair Witch Project, actually effective, though I can imagine some people getting physically sick while watching this.

The other thing I was surprised about was that we actually got to learn quite a bit about the few characters. You actually care what happens to them.

The effects are pretty cool and the monster itself is quite interesting, especially the way it moves. Clearly alot of thought was put into the design.

There is no musical score in the film, which actually makes it seem more believable and real.

The film does have its flaws however. First, and most probably the biggest; it is not very scary, nor terribly suspenseful until about the last 10 minutes. Almost nothing is explained nor really resolved, but then again, we are only seeing what the characters see, nothing more, so I can't really fault that.

I found it exciting and enjoyable and would love to see some kind of a sequel, which I think would benefit this film even more.

The special features on the dvd are minute but kind of cool. Green Screen stuff, commentary. The alternate endings are almost undistinguishable from the original one, and not anything special. Even the bloopers were just eh.

All in all, a pretty fun ride, nothing more, nothing less.