Cloverfield

Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Odette Yustman Directed by: Matt Reeves Runtime: 90 min. Rated: PG-13 Release date: January 18, 2008 - More Info
READER RATINGS:
6.3 OVERALL	Smart . . . . . . . . 7.5 Sexy . . . . . . . . . 6 Funny . . . . . . . . 5.5

The Nerve Review

Perhaps corporate robots have been sending you text messages about a certain monster movie. Not having caught much of the pre-release hype, I stepped into Cloverfield expecting nothing, and got more. The press-bots are on to something: this is a very good movie. It's tight, it's bleak, and it's understated — to whatever degree a movie about a sea creature stomping Manhattan can be. Taking a page from the Alien source-book, it mostly scares by suggestion. That may be how it made out with a PG-13 rating, when it left this adult reviewer quivering.

Cloverfield recasts the Godzilla mold in ingenious fashion. The entire film claims to be a camcorder tape recovered from the ruins of a New York City leveled by a giant monster. (Buy stock in this camcorder manufacturer, incidentally — the thing survives a lot.) It follows a small group of refugees from the Lower East Side on the night the monster strikes. These are ordinary twentysomethings, and before the shit hits the fan, we see them enjoying a goodbye party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David). When buildings start exploding, and the Statue of Liberty's head comes crashing into the street, Rob heads uptown, away from rescue, in a reckless attempt to save his trapped dream-woman, Beth (Odette Yustman). Three others follow, including the cameraman, Hud (T.J. Miller), whose panicked jokes provide comic relief. But the huge grotesquerie — and a number of smaller grotesqueries, actually — are always around the corner.

This is not Matthew Broderick's Godzilla. It never offers the distancing, bird's-eye view of the overinflated disaster movie. It never comforts with exposition. It contains little fat, and it's very, very scary. And beyond its virtues as a ride, Cloverfield nails the zeitgeist. Not that the point is belabored, but visions of a blasted New York haven't been far from the national psyche lately. If Cloverfield's characters seem a little banal, maybe they're supposed to be. Most people's lives, after all, are pretty banal, until disaster rears its colossal head. — Peter Smith

Other Reviews

Variety
Todd McCarthy
"Despite its indie-flavored shooting style, first-rate visual effects, reasonable intensity factor, nihilistic attitude and post-9/11 anxiety overlay, this punchy sci-fier is, in the end, not much different from all the marauding creature features that have come before it. . . An old-fashioned monster movie dressed up in trendy threads."
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Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
"Chillingly effective."
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Associated Press
Christy Lemire
"Abrams, et al, have said that Cloverfield is a metaphor for the fearful times we live in, but it's doubtful most moviegoers will head into it with such a lofty thought in mind, or that that they'll consider that high concept as they walk away. They're mostly going for the ride. And they'll get it."
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San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
"A terrific movie, filled with spectacle and a surprising amount of humor, which makes up for its lack of terror or emotional impact."
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Your Reviews

Cloverfield is a great movie. There are definitely some issues that only New Yorkers will have and there are definitely some issues that movie buffs will have. I happen to be both. (I won't say what they are because I care about you, the audience.) My New Yorkish geekness aside, this is a fun movie. For two hours, I got sucked in. Thats all I want out of some movies. Monster movies are hyper-formulaic, Cloverfield refuses to get sucked in to the system. The end is great, the opening is 8 minutes too long, but the movie works very well. Godzilla + Blair Witch + abnormally good looking people = Cloverfield. Go have fun and forget your worries for a few.

posted by salmin on 1/21/2008 7:29:00 PM
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