What The Hell Is Cloverfield?

Hello everyone,

I now know that that includes at least three people; one of which is my beautiful wife Veronica. Thanks for reading honey, it means a lot to me.

Today, myself and one of my friends named Mike went to see Cloverfield. Like many people who saw the Cloverfield trailer this passed summer, I was also pissed off that no title was given and that the creature was not shown. Of course, all of this was just a brilliant Blair Witch Project inspired buzz campaign, which of course including internet rumours, speculations and wall posting on movie sites. This all lead me to go and see the film and as I started to see the TV spots I kept saying to myself, what the hell is it? I will not tell you what it is though. If you really want to know call or email me and I will tell you because I am not going to spoil it for everyone.

First off, I love the use of digital video in this film. I think it adds an element of realism to the a film. I also enjoyed it being used in Collateral, Miami Vice, 28 Days Later and danish dogme film The Celebration (in my top five favourite movies). Sadly, because the entire film is shot on digital video leading there to be no omnipotent narration, the only music in the film is diegetic (exists within the world of the film), so no great and memorable music score, which I enjoy in a few films. The acting was decent; not great, not terrible. Jessica Lucas who is in the film happens to be Canadian, so it is nice to support Canadian actors, so if you are Canadian and you do not see Cloverfield you are unpatriotic. Michael Stahl-David plays the main character in the film (if there can be one in this seemingly small ensemble film) and his performance is probably the best in the film. The pace of the film is pretty quick; the monster attacks about 15 minutes into the film and the time flies by (the film is about 90 minutes). The camera movements are really shaking at times, but this does not usually last longer than maybe 20 or 30 seconds at most.

In closing, the film was entertaining and held my interest. It is more than just a monster movie because the monster is not depicted too much and because you are following the characters through this disaster and before the monster attacks you get glimpses into the lives of the 6 main characters and see their desires, ideas and concerns carried out in this just barely feature length film. If you want to be entertained then see this film, but if you are expecting a monster movie or a sci-fi movie then you are either misreading the trailers and TV spots, you have not seen any of them or you are ignoring or misreading any of the buzz or info that you are reading in magazines or on the internet.

Cloverfield, as I have read from www.joblo.com's review of the film is a boulevard in Santa Monica near the film's production offices.

I hope you have all found my review helpful and informative or at least somewhat entertaining. I should have a new movie related rant up in a few days.

your friend,

fanboy Dave