Review - Cloverfield (2008)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. I will be the first to admit that I'm not a fan of found-footage cinema. I'm aware of the popularity of found-footage movies, but I find it to be a lazy style of filmmaking done as a cheap, lazy gimmick to make more money at the box office by spending less money on production cost. However, there is one exception I will make to not liking found-footage movies, and that is with the 2008 monster movie: Cloverfield. Produced by J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, and directed by Matt Reeves, director of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the upcoming DC Comics film The Batman, Cloverfield depicts the events of a giant monster attack and is shot in the found-footage style to increase the tension and fear, making it a much scarier experience. But does a cheap gimmick make it a great movie? Let's find out as we look into Cloverfield. 

          The movie opens with several U.S. Department of Defense screens, indicating that what follows was recovered from the site of an incident codenamed "Cloverfield." Interspersed throughout the movie are scenes of Rob, a young man who is soon heading to a big corporate job in Japan, taking his girlfriend Beth out to the Coney Island amusement park in New York. The main footage, as shot from the perspective of Rob's friend Hud, showcases a going away party for Rob, when an earthquake near the Statue of Liberty rocks all of New York City. Explosions happen, and the head of the Statue of Liberty lands near the party goers, who are all in the street after the earthquake. All of a sudden, a giant monster, referred to by producers as "Clover," rampages through the city, and military forces have the city evacuated. Rob, after receiving a call from Beth, who had left the party prior to the attack, decides to go rescue Beth, with Hud, Marlena, Lily, and Rob's brother Jason all in tow. Jason, however, dies due to the monster's attack on the Brooklyn Bridge. 

           Rob, Lily, Hud, and Marlena traverse across Manhattan, avoiding military forces, the monster, and a series of lethal parasites that fall off of the monster and attack people. Marlena loses her life to one of the parasites, but eventually Rob, Lily, and Hud reach Beth, rescue her, and get to the evacuation helicopters a soldier informs them of. The helicopter almost gets everyone to safely, but the monster brings it down, and everyone loses their lives. The movie ends with footage from Rob and Beth's day on Coney Island, and we see that the two are on the Ferris Wheel. The credits roll, and at the end of the credits, we hear a voice say "Help us," but when played backwards, the voice says "It's still alive," obviously referring to the monster. 

            Cloverfield is a movie that, despite the cheapness of the found-footage style, uses the gimmick to its advantage. The found-footage style really adds a heightened sense of reality to the film, which increases the tension of the main characters trying to traverse through New York in the middle of a monster attack, making for a much scarier experience. The cast of the film, including the likes of T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, Mike Vogel, and Odette Yustman, are all terrific. In fact, T.J. Miller, who plays Hud, is amazing in this movie and we barely see him, as his character is recording the events of the movie, which means that T.J. Miller is acting behind the camera. Cool. 

         This movie took me quite a while to finally watch, but I'm glad that I did. Matt Reeves, whose work I enjoyed with films like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, made an excellent film here. Heck, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing him work on a film with J.J. Abrams again. What made this movie so intriguing was actually the marketing. Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions were very secretive with the production and the marketing of this movie, making it worth it to see in theaters. Now, there have been two additional films in the Cloverfield series: 10 Cloverfield Lane released in theaters in 2016, and The Cloverfield Paradox, which saw a release on Netflix in 2018. But, we'll talk about those films another day. For now, I'm going to give Cloverfield a rating of 4.75/5. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review - The Thundermans Return (2024)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Last night, I watched the new movie The Thundermans Return on Nickelodeon, and I have a few thoughts on it. For those who don't know what The Thundermans was, it was a Nickelodeon sitcom that ran from 2013 through 2018, and focused on a family of superheroes known as, well, the Thundermans. The show was okay, at least the episodes I happened to catch when it was on, but after seeing a lot of the advertising for this movie, I was genuinely tempted to check it out. So, here's my review of the new Nickelodeon movie The Thundermans Return.           So, the movie starts off with the Thunderman family, who since the end of the series have moved to the city of Metroburg, and are fighting crime as the superhero team the T-Force. And, something worth noting is that the family has aged in real time, so we see that Phoebe and Max are now adults, Nora and Billy are high schoolers, and Chloe is a middle schooler. Unfortunately, after a mission gone awry due to
Read more

Review - Ocean's Eleven (2001)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Back in the 1960's, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and the rest of the Rat Pack teamed up and made a movie called Ocean's 11 , which told the story of a military veteran named Danny Ocean, who teams up with his fellow squad members to rob a number of casinos in Las Vegas. It was definitely a product of the time, and is actually a really fun movie. Seeing Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Rat Pack on screen together is just genuinely fun.        In 2001, producer Jerry Weintraub and director Steven Soderbergh would bring together a fantastic cast to tell a more modern version of the Rat Pack classic, and that's the movie we're talking about today. This is my review of the 2001 Steven Soderbergh film Ocean's Eleven starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts, along with the likes of Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Eddie Jemison, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliot Gould, Carl Reiner, and
Read more

Review - Night at the Museum (2006-2014)

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and after reviewing Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon, I needed something of a pallette cleanser. And, thus, I'm taking a look at the Night at the Museum trilogy, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ben Stiller, Rami Malek, Mizuo Peck, Ricky Gervais, Patrick Gallagher, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, and Robin Williams, with additional cast members throughout the series including the likes of Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Carla Gugino, Bill Cobbs, Charlie Murphy, Jake Cherry, Amy Adams, Bill Hader, Hank Azaria, Jon Bernthal, Christopher Guest, the Jonas Brothers, Dan Stevens, Skyler Gisondo, Rebel Wilson, and Ben Kingsley.          So, the first Night at the Museum was released in 2006, and focuses on struggling entrepreneur Larry Daley, who ends up getting a job as the new overnight security guard at the Museum of Natural History, taking over for the older guards Cecil, Reginald, and Gus. Larry also befriends one of the daytime staff, Rebecca, and has a few r
Read more