Release Date: 01-18-08 Studio: Paramount Pictures MPAA Rating: PG-13 Genre: Horror •
Action •
Scifi Director: Matt Reeves Writers: Drew Goddard Cast: Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan Synopsis: Movie revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people. The Review: CLOVERFIELD is not a movie to see on a full stomach.
So, I'm warning you potential date night moviegoers-your dinner and a movie? Better make it movie and a dinner. Why? Because CLOVERFIELD, the BLAIR WITCH MONSTER MOVIE is shot entirely with a hand held video camera, which means there is a very very good chance you and yours may end up with a severe case of motion sickness and perhaps the contents of your $7.50 bag of popcorn may be spoiled in a most unbecoming manner.
You've been warned.
ONTO THE REVIEW-SPOILERS AND TURBULENCE AHEAD.
The plot for CLOVERFIELD can be summed up with the basic equation familiar to moviegoers everywhere. Island meets Monster. Island meets Monster. Monster and Island don't get along. Monster destroys island.
What makes CLOVERFIELD unique, besides the all shaky cam is that it tells the story from literally, the perspective, of the man on the street as the streets get pulverized, buildings collapse, bridges are ripped asunder and The Statue of Liberty gets her head torn off and thrown into the aforementioned street. Another thing that makes this monster movie truly monstrous is that this horrendous thing just appears out of nowhere and there's no explanation, no Skull Island or nuclear radiation back-story, this isn't some parable about the dangers of meddling with mother nature, no, this thing appears and saying all hell breaks loose would be quite the Godzilla-sized understatement.
Before I look at the plot, such as it is, I'll address the burning question out there: what does the monster look like?
I can tell you right away that any that if you look up CLOVERFIELD on Google images you'll see some things that look absolutely NOTHING like what the beastie looks like. So get those ideas out of your head. The CLOVERFIELD monster looks kinda like the love child of the behemoth unleashed by Adrian Veidt at the end of Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbon's graphic novel magnum opus WATCHMEN and The Elemental (the big green beastie now appearing in the highly excellent trailer for HELLBOY 2:THE GOLDEN ARMY.
Okay, okay, now for the plot:
New York all-around- cool -guy ROB (Michael Stahl-David) is on his way to Tokyo for business. His brother JASON (Mike Vogel) and JASON’s girlfriend LILY (Jessica Lucas) throw him a big going away party. His brother manages to corral his friend HUD into videotaping the event.
HUD is in love with a directionless young woman MARLENA (Lizzy "The Class"Caplan and spends most of the party trying to ingratiate himself with her. Meanwhile; ROB is in love with BETH (Odette Yustman), his best friend that he slept with a few weeks ago. That left things weird between them, so when BETH shows up at his going away party with a date (I don't remember his name but it's 4:37 AM on Friday so cut me some slack, okay? Thanks.) things get really awkward.
She leaves in a huff (in Manhattan, you can leave in a huff easier than leaving in a cab) and Rob is about to spend the rest of the party in full MOPE MODE when stuff happens and the monster movie kicks in.
JASON gets killed when the Brooklyn Bridge is wrecked by the monster and ROB, LILY, MARLENA and tag-a-long videographer HUD go in search of BETH as and they try to cope with and survive the events of the night. The military shows up, MARLENA gets bitten by some kind of other, smaller beastie that I neglected to mention earlier was seen falling off of the big bad, and she has a messy death scene.
No more plot information for you.
Before I go I have a few quibbles with the film. Actually, I have just one thing that bugged me about the film: HUD. As off screen video documentarist of the last hours of Manhattan, the audience gets to hear his running commentary all night long. And boy, does it grate after awhile. I know he's the comic relief/audience proxy or whatever, but it just seemed like SETH (Jonah Hill) from SUPERBAD was behind the camera just running his nervously running his mouth off to the point of distraction.
END SPOILERS
In review (oh wait, I already am in a review) CLOVERFIELD ain't your daddy's Monster movie with its shaky you-are-there camera work and some really frighteningly good sound work that should end up taxing the best home theatre systems just in time for the pre-X-Mas movie release on DVD frenzy.
It's really intense, dude and you'll love it. Just get an extra empty bag with your popcorn. You'll thank me for it. Rating:
