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Top Critics (35)
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DVD (17)
The mechanism is the message in Cloverfield, a movie so aluminum-sleek, ultra-portable, and itsy-bitsy sexy, it's amazing Steve Jobs didn't pull it out of an envelope at Macworld.
I had a lot of fun with this inside-out take on the monster movie.
Under the modern flummery, behind the faux amateurism and the handheld shudder, Cloverfield is a vastly old-fashioned piece of work, creaking with hilarious contrivance.
The fleeting, incomplete glimpses of the monster early on prove the old dictum of B-movie auteur Val Lewton that a momentary image can have greater impact than a prolonged one.
Maybe we now live in a world where we record the moment first and feel it later. If that's the case, Cloverfield leaves us waiting to feel.
Smartly reconjures the 1950s monster movie for the digital age.
Thanks primarily to its inventive shooting style, Cloverfield is a terrifically frightening film.
Cloverfield is a very good giant monster film, as good as we've had in America in quite a while and if a lot of its enjoyment rests on a gimmick, it's still a very good gimmick and the filmmakers make the most of it.
Paramount have given us a nice 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, 5.1 DD soundtrack and stacked this DVD with a number of extras.
Memorable neither for its special effects nor the gimmickry of the hand-held camera.
A stylish and satisfyingly intense update of one of Hollywood's most well-trodden film concepts: the attack of the 150-foot (give or take) monster.
Grabby 9/11 imagery, facile jolts, and smeared textures
Characters may struggle for interesting things to say on camera, but the film nonetheless reveals hidden depths.
For gasps and thrills and movie monster mayhem, the film is a success. It's not flawless, but if you shove that aside, I guarantee you that you will have a gas at the theater.
I think when they started filming Cloverfield, somebody accidentally dropped the camera. Someone else said, "Cool." So they kept dropping the camera. And they threw it, and jerked it, and kicked it. And it went into terminal spasms.
Still too many unanswered questions for my tastes.
A clunky blend of hand-held camera and faux realism. How can the creator of shows like Alias and Lost make such weak movies?
It's the closest a film has ever gotten to a roller-coaster ride. It will definitely nauseate, it feels claustrophobic, there are sudden scares, and it also peaks too early.
If you like kick butt monster movies, then this one will deliver for you! Go see it right away!
Despite the mostly convincing verisimilitude of the approach, the film does succumb, especially in its last act, to some cheap manipulation, one or two bad stereotypes, and some cornball Hollywood schmaltz.
Tense monster movie is loud, hectic -- and scary.
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