Release
Date: April 22nd, 2008 Studio: Paramount Pictures Director: Matt Reeves Screenwriter: Drew Goddard Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan,
Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Review: One of the first things a
viewer notices about Cloverfield is that it doesn't play by ordinary
storytelling rules, making this intriguing horror film as much a novelty as an
event. Told from the vertiginous point-of-view of a camcorder-wielding group of
friends, Cloverfield begins like a primetime television soap opera about
young Manhattanites coping with changes in their personal lives. Rob (Michael
Stahl-David) is leaving New York to take an executive job at a company in Japan.
At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogel) hands a
camcorder to best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), who proceeds to tape the proceedings
over old footage of Rob’s ex-girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman)--images shot
during happy times in that now-defunct relationship...more
Extras: Commentary by director Matt
Reeves, "The Making of Cloverfield," "I Saw It! It's Alive, It's Huge"
featurette, visual effects featurettes, "Clover Fun," deleted scenes,
two alternate endings. (Paramount).
Movie Spotlight
Cloverfield Release
Date: January 18, 2008 Studio: Paramount Pictures Director: Matt Reeves Screenwriter: Drew Goddard Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan,
Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for violence, terror and disturbing images) Official Websites: Cloverfieldmovie.com
| MySpace.com/Cloverfield_movie
| 1-18-08.com |
Slusho.jp
Plot Summary: Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away
party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city.
Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of
their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.
EN 5 Second Review:
A modern monster masterpiece plain and simple.
Review by Peter Veugelaers: Entertainmentnutz.com
One of a party follows the
lives of a network of young acquaintances and friends, by video taping
the events, whom gather for a going away party in New York after an
unpredicted disaster occurs causing a military-level civil emergency.
The cause is other-worldly.
We don’t usually anticipate the
end of our lives until we are at least seventy years-old. The young
people in this movie certainly don’t. But it comes in Cloverfield.
Death and destruction looms unpredictably. It is seeking them out. The
symbol of death is the creature, a grim reaper of sorts. It puts our
lives in perspective. Moreover, what happens to us if we die early and
our lives our cut short? Who will be there in the afterlife? The movie
shows that moment could be sooner than anticipated. We never know the
time or day. Like 9/11 it comes like a thief in the night. It is as if
the young people in this movie are too involved with their lives to even
contemplate death and what that means. But death comes running. What
would our lives mean in light of the fact that death could come to us at
anytime? Would that change our lives? Would we reprioritise our
existences? Would we think about who God is and why He allows death?
Would we have purposeful relationships by cherishing those and say
things which have meaning?
From using a hand-held camera into intricately and
seamlessly edited scenes, Cloverfield is extremely well-crafted
for a shake-and-grab motion-heavy technique of filmmaking, and includes
striking spectacle. It is about as noisy and chaotic as the 9/11 event
it is baptised in. A horror, it is not suspenseful, but instead makes
the survival of the characters an involving experience and gets the
point across powerfully. The creature and special effects are
superlative.
It's
the end of the world as captured on an unsteady camcorder, a YouTube
panic attack Colin Covert: Minneapolis Star
Tribune
Anxious times demand scary movies. Just as postwar Japan
worked through its nightmares with "Godzilla," "Rodan" and other
behemoth-as-bomb horrors, post-9/11 Hollywood has churned out
apocalyptic epics that compress our worries about alien threats into
monster melodramas that can be resolved in the time it takes to eat a
box of Raisinettes...more
While
it [the "camcorder ploy"] injects the film with a
run-and-gun urgency, the device grows tiresome and
ultimately leaves the film shortchanged Kevin Crust: LA Times
With the running times of most popcorn movies lurching well
past two hours on the way to three these days, it's not
often that we're left wanting more. But that's precisely the
response induced by the 21st century monster movie "Cloverfield"
as it clocks in at a brisk 85 minutes (and that's including
10 minutes of end credits)....more
EN 5 Second Review:
A modern monster masterpiece plain and simple.
While
it [the "camcorder ploy"] injects the film with a
run-and-gun urgency, the device grows tiresome and
ultimately leaves the film shortchanged