Cloverfield

[misterhorror]

I'm just hopeing that the monster dosen't turn out to be a giant toddler thats takeing a tantrum!

[darkmonkeygod]

á la Gorgo?

[Iloz Zoc]

I'm psyched! Going to the midnight showing tonight so I can post a review on it tomorrow. Looks like a monster flick for the digital age. Bet it will be fun.

John

[IC4CHAMBERS]

Definitely want to see this movie..I hope it lives up to the hype

[Bizarro Jeff]

Caught the afternoon matinee...effects and story are great, and movie is shot in almost a personal documentary style, which adds to the fear....

A giant monster of some kind (and no, it doesn't look like Godzilla) come to NYC and start kicking ass...no answers are offered, and the movie has a downbeat ending...

Certainly recommended....


Bizarro Jeff

[Bizarro Jeff]

And yes--the monster is clearly show,


Bizarro jeff

[Inkfink]

Bring your motion sickness pills! It was a stomach-churner for me!

[Bizarro Jeff]

Does that mean  you liked it, or didn't?

Bizarro Jeff

[Tom Smith Monsternut]

I saw it and like it. A Godzilla movie seen through the eyes /camera lens and POV of everyday people.

Tom

[JohnRozum]

I saw this tonight and loved it. Yes, there are nits to pick, but the movie does sweep you along. The characters are developed just enough to keep you interested in them and to move the story along, but without their personal lives overwhelming the spectacle that you came to see, unlike, say, the American "Godzilla" which seemed more interested in the marital woes of Matthew Broderick's character than in giant monster mayhem. Hud, the character doing the filming, is a perfect narrator as he is an amusing, loveable dope.

This movie does what surprisingly few giant monster movies do (for the record, the others are the original "Godzilla," "Godzilla Raids Again," the 1990s Gamera trilogy, and "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack!" and "The Host" if you consider that a giant monster) that bother to deal with the impact giant monster attacks would have on the lives of the ordinary citizens of the cities the monsters destroy, and "Cloverfield" does it very effectively.

I highly recommend it.

[Grape]

I too highly recommend this movie to lovers of giant monster attack movies. Showing it from the point of view of average folks with a video camera really was a fresh approach worth doing, as opposed to being merely a gimick done just for the sake of being different.

And I really loved the characters and the story. Some may've seen them as either corny or epic. The hero on a noble quest. The bumbling but devoted sidekick who stays with the hero to the end. The beautiful maiden in distress in the high tower. Redemption! True love! The ultimate sacrifice! And that whole business about the other day recorded on the tape getting erased was beautifully poetic. Beautiful I say!

Yeah, I really, really, really enjoyed it. Of course I saw it at the end of an incredilby stressful week so I really needed the escapism.



 

[Getter_1]

I have to say - this movie was flippin' awesome.  HOWEVER - if you are prone to motion sickness, you aren't going to like this movie.  The camerawork is really distracting (faux handheld, purposely bad camera work) but you get used to it after about 20 minutes.

The monster was ho-hum but the movie really is more about what it would be like to be stuck in the middle of a giant monster movie. 

The movie is really tense and a bit draining (in a good way).  I was exhausted by the end but I really thought it was something special.

Anyway, I highly recommend it (although you guys don't know me - I'm mostly a lurker here. )

Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.

[Inkfink]

I'm one of those prone to motion sickness and had to close my eyes a few times to keep my lunch down. The last time I felt that queasy was on a boat ride. As far as a giant monster movie goes I'd say it was OK but I don't think there's much of a monster to work with for merchandising... but I could be wrong.

[ProfGriffin]

Monster Blanket- A defensive covering to shield your eyes from the horror being depicted on the Television, Movie theatre or drive-in screen. 

Greetings

Our family Monster blanket is a perfect one.  It's a knitted quilt made by my wife's grandmother.  It's old and heavy and the best part is, when you hide under it you can still see through the woven knitted threads.  It's perfect.  It shields your eyes, and yet allows you to see...Tammy used it when she was a little girl as a monster blanket.   The monster blanket was used last night by my son. 

My family and I (yes, Edward my 6-year old son too) saw Cloverfield last night and it was amazing!   It was his VERY FIRST MONSTER movie seen in the cinema.

My wife and I thought that the film was truly a masterful manipulation of camera and as filmmaking SHOULD be it shows you exactly what the director wants when he wants it.
And what he shows us  are truly terrifying and the Cloverfield Monster is a nasty piece of work.

It was thrilling and exhilarating and stomach knotting.  There's STILL a lot of questions, (what is it?  How did it appear?  Can we stop it?) but really it doesn't matter.  For once fellow monster kids, we are realistically on the ground with the fleeing people as the giant monster attacks.  For the first time, we are one of the masses in terror, wondering what the hell is going on?  There is no information...no clues, we are as LOST as the characters.  We BECOME one of them, we truly feel like we are there on the streets of a major metropolitan city (THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS) and we are terrified by what we see.  And what we can't see...we HEAR and THAT as we all know is much much worse.

"Something terrible"

My son Edward loved it,  but it was a gut-punch for him.  Wisely, we brought the monster blanket from home so we could hide under it when it got too scary and he insisted I join him under the blanket when he went in...and I did.
Gladly.
At one point as we cowered together under the safety of the Monster Blanket, but still watching... he turned to me and whispered, "I'm going to have to sleep with you and mommy tonight!" 
He did , and we didn't mind at all!

Speaking of Sound, If Cloverfield doesn't get an Oscar nod for best SOUND...then something is seriously wrong.

"Something else...also terrible"

It's a real treat to see a GIANT MONSTER movie that works.  For the first time in a LONG time...a disaster film, a rescue film, and a honest to goodness MONSTER movie!  See it!

-Prof. Griffin

PS:  OH, and stay through the end credits for a fantastic musical tribute to every Monster Movie and Sci-Fi film ever made...(yes, there is theremin usage!) AND a little audio clip that may bring a shudder to you or give you hope. 

[Grape]

Hey Professor, that was a beautiful review/recommendation/account of your experience with your son. I'm glad he wasn't too scared by it. I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to sleep for a month if I'd seen something like "Cloverfield" when I was six! But then I was too scared to watch the '31 "Dracula" at about that age. Methinks that kids today can handle a lot more.

And now that I think of it, the "Cloverfield" really doesn't have an enormous amount of gore. And very little cussing. And there isn't any gratuitous sex. Quite family friendly really, expect for the scares.

I'm glad to see that the movie was a huge box office hit over the weekend. Biggest January weekend release ever or something like that.

Also, I was just reading the FAQ's at the IMDB page for this movie. Interesting stuff there.