Cloverfield
January 17, 2008
Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 90 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Warning: This movie is not for anyone that has the slightest hint of motion sickness. The entire film is shot 100% from the perspective of a hand held camcorder in documentary style… you know what I’m talking about - Blair Witch but much better.
Initially when this movie was made it was very hush, hush and had multiple cover names while it went from editing to post to marketing so it would remain a secret. The first anyone outside of a very small circle of people inside Paramount, saw anything, was the trailer attached to Transformers in July of ‘07. The trailer gave no indication as to the theme or plot and ended in nothing but a cryptic date of 011808. The fanboys went wild trying to get to the bottom of what this meant, and I was no different. Later it was discovered the film’s title was Cloverfield or Project Cloverfield and it was a secret project from JJ Abrams that involved a monster attacking New York city ala Godzilla and King Kong. Now you’re probably wondering why I’m wasting time telling you the stuff you already know about it, and I’m avoiding telling you anything you don’t. Well that’s because any information I offer will spoil the movie for you and we don’t do that around here.
The movie follows the story of a group of people trying to get out of the city in the minutes/hours after the initial attack. The creature sinks tanker in the Hudson river and rips the head off of Lady Liberty before their very eyes. This is enough of a wake up call for these folks to say it’s time to get out of Dodge. The group consisting of Caplan, Miller, Yustman, Stahl-David an Lucas try to escape a city over run by the Military, explosions and a giant monster… That you do get to see, and oddly enough you see it pretty often.
The production value is high, the sound is excellent and the effects were outstanding… and had it not been for a weak plot device that made half the audience start saying WTF are they doing… this movie would’ve been 5 stars.
In the traditional style of the monster movies of the 60’s, Cloverfield delivers exactly what you’re looking for if that’s your cup of tea.
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?




[...] as expected Cloverfield received a 4 star review from JC. His review is online, so go check it [...]
[...] Cloverfield is the obvious choice, and JC gave it a strong 4 star rating. He did have a few warnings for potiential viewers though, so be sure to read his review. [...]
Awesome .. I’ve been looking up reviews and info for this film, and it seems to be getting pretty solid ratings. And it’s really interesting that they’re promoting the film with the fallen Statue of Liberty..it definitely sets an undertone of the America being attacked..Maxim actually did a little bit on it.
http://www.maxim.com/Entertainment/MoviesThatMangletheStatueofLiberty/slideshow/673.aspx?src=dx18:mtd
I don’t know about America being attacked… more like New York is being attacked. Though a certain leaning apartment building did bear a little resemblance to the towers…
Regardless, ignoring any Al Quada (sp?) type conspiracy BS this is a kick-ass movie. The teeny-boppers filling the seats around me seemed less than impressed, in particular some of the girls constantly whined about not knowing what was going on, but if you have an IQ over 85 and pay even the smallest amount of attention to dialog and developments this show abso-freakin-lutely rocks. Actually, minor correction, once you get over the WTF moment that drives the movie forward at the middle point it rocks. Totally rocks.
I only regretted the handi-cam theme a few times, because it allowed them to get away with some blurry shots that I wish could’ve been more defined, but otherwise it really made the movie more immersive.