After seeing Cloverfield, I was so frustrated and disappointed that I felt like I needed a palate cleanser. I wanted to immediately go home and watch South Korea's The Host.
Cloverfield (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:193
Fresh:147
Rotten:46
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: A sort of Blair Witch Project crossed with Godzilla, Cloverfield is economically paced, stylistically clever, and filled with scares.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violence, terror and disturbing images.
Runtime: 85 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Theatrical Release:Jan 18, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $79,952,254
Synopsis: Director Matt Reeves (THE PALLBEARER) and producer J. J. Abrams (LOST, ALIAS) turn a mysterious monster loose in Manhattan in the disaster flick CLOVERFIELD. The movie begins at a party for Rob... Director Matt Reeves (THE PALLBEARER) and producer J. J. Abrams (LOST, ALIAS) turn a mysterious monster loose in Manhattan in the disaster flick CLOVERFIELD. The movie begins at a party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who has accepted a promotion that will send him to Japan. Hud (T. J. Miller) is entrusted with the responsibility of videotaping the party--and as the trouble grows, he holds on to the camera, recording everything that happens. In fact, the entire movie is seen through the lens of his camera, reminiscent of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. As terrified people in a post-9/11 New York City take to the streets, Rob decides to head uptown to try to save Beth (Odette Yustman), the woman he loves, though he's afraid to tell her so. Rob is joined by his brother Jason (Mike Vogel), Jason's girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas), Lily's friend Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), and Hud, who has a thing for Marlena. Rob is determined not to give up, even after almost being crushed by the Statue of Liberty's head and as the military shows up to force evacuation of the city. Reeves and first-time screenwriter Drew Goddard, who previously has written television episodes of such series as BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL, ALIAS, and LOST, focus in on the central aspect of the story: people trying to survive the monster attack. Very little else is explained, since the story is told completely through the video camera. And there is no additional score to heighten the drama; the only music is that which is picked up by Hud and the camera's microphone, including snippets of songs by Kings of Leon, Parliament Funkadelic, Of Montreal, and others. The anticipation of CLOVERFIELD's release was enhanced by a viral marketing campaign that included Web sites built around the main characters and even the fictional drink Slusho. [More]
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller
Director: Matt Reeves
Director: Matt Reeves
Screenwriter: Drew Goddard
Producer: J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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Reviews for Cloverfield
It's not the life-changing movie experience the intense viral marketing attention would lead you to think it is, but its decision to focus on ground-level humanism rather than epic disaster is what separates it from the pack.
This is a dark and somber movie that, in some ways, makes the recent apocalyptic blockbuster I Am Legend look like a rib-tickling comedy.
Characters may struggle for interesting things to say on camera, but the film nonetheless reveals hidden depths.
A relentless, I-thought-my-eyeballs-were-bleeding exercise in visual disorientation.
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.
Suggests the influence of YouTube and (inevitably) 9/11, but actually belongs to the old-fashioned exploitation tradition as it uses state-of-the-art effects and ballyhoo to update B-movie subject matter for a new audience.
At times Cloverfield seems less like a movie than a theme-park motion simulator, but that's not a complaint.
If you can stomach it, expect to leave the theater shaken yet entertained by every jolting, unexpected minute.
This film takes you into the heart of the maelstrom and leaves you there.
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.
once the film has fully run its course there is little left to take away with you beyond rattled nerves, a mild sense of nausea, and the uneasy suspicion that the true horror of 9/11 has just been reduced to a dumb-assed entertainment.
What sets the film apart, really, is that the monster is just a backdrop. The main focus centers on how a small group of people cope and react under such an extreme crisis.
Cloverfield is an intense and engaging monster movie that may very well breathe life back into a dead genre while demonstrating that there's fertile soil left to be tilled in this particular cinematic field.
The filmmakers wisely avoid showing you everything, instead showing only bits and hints of what's going on, a technique that really fuels fear in a viewer.
It might be a clever new-media commentary, but it's an awfully circumspect one.
A fascinatingly wrought experimental film that holds you in awe at what Reeves and his production crew was able to pull off, inspiring more appreciation than a gut level sense of being there.
The overall effect becomes terrifying at times for the viewer and for that the movie scores a lot of points.
Latest News for Cloverfield
April 27, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with J. J. Abrams
The blockbuster season is upon us and amongst the line-up is the highly anticipated reboot of Star Trek. RT spoke to the man in the captain's chair, J. J. Abrams, about his... More...
March 02, 2009:
Abrams Plots Cloverfield Sequel-Type Thing ![]()
Saying "the idea's pretty sweet," J.J. Abrams has confirmed that a sequel to "Cloverfield" -- or at least a new movie "related to" it -- is on the table. More...
September 25, 2008:
Matt Reeves Will Let the Right One In ![]()
Overture is prepping a remake of Tomas Alfredson's Swedish vampire movie "Lat Den Ratte Komma In," to be helmed by "Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves. More...
April 21, 2008:
RT on DVD: Cloverfield, Charlie Wilson and 2008's Worst-Reviewed Film
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Slusho, whatever that is! Cloverfield stomps its way onto DVD as not only the most exciting new release of the week, but the one most... More...
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