Cloverfield [2007] - DVD (Michael Stahl-david, Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Jessica Lucas - Dir: Matt Reeves)

One of the first things a viewer notices about Cloverfield is that it doesn't play by ordinary storytelling rules, making this intriguing horror film as much a novelty as an event. Told from the vertiginous point-of-view of a camcorder-wielding group of friends, Cloverfield begins like a television soap opera about young Manhattanites coping with changes in their personal lives. Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is leaving New York to take an executive job at a company in Japan. At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) hands a camcorder to best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), who proceeds to tape the proceedings over old footage of Rob's ex-girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman)--images shot during happy times in their ex-relationship. Naturally, Beth shows up at the party with a new beau, bumming Rob out completely. Just before one's eyes glaze over from all this heartbreaking stuff (captured by Hud, who's something of a doofus, in laughably shaky camerawork), the unexpected happens: New York is suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster stomping through midtown and destroying everything and everybody in sight. Rob and company hit the streets, but rather than run with other evacuees, they head toward the center of the storm so that Rob can rescue an injured Beth. There are casualties along the way, but the journey into fear is fascinating and immediate if emotionally remote--a consequence of seeing these proceedings through the singular, subjective perspective of a camcorder and of a story that intentionally leaves major questions unanswered: Who or what is this monster? Where did it come from? The lack of a backstory, and spare views of the marauding creature, are clever ways by producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves to keep an audience focused exclusively on what's on the screen. But it also makes Cloverfield curiously uninvolving. Ultimately, Cloverfield, with its spectacular effects brilliantly woven into a home-video look, is a celebration of infinite possibilities in this age of accessible, digital media. -Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews of Cloverfield [2007]

DVD Watcher
W Yorks England
5th September 2008

A Complete Waste of Time & Money
This DVD was (in my opinion)a complete waste of time & money!

I turned it off after about fifty minutes.

This is probably the worst movie I have ever seen.

tails01red
Edinburgh, UK
1st September 2008

Absolute turkey of a film!
Had never heard of this film and was thinking going by the blurb on the back it might be a nugget of a film but boy was i proved wrong. Even at what 81 minutes the film was far too long and thank god for the skip chapter option. No real substance to the story and no real acting prowess shone by any of the unknown actors. The director tries to be smart with the handicam shooting of the film but this is nothing new and made the film look all the more cheap for it. This film has to be without doubt one of the worst films i have had the misfortune to watch. For people who actually have taste in films and are not bought over by flashy gimicks best avoid this!

celticshedevil
Ireland
28th August 2008

Cloverfield actually managed to surpass it's hype....
If you've been living in a cave for months then you've probably not heard that Cloverfield is a film about a giant monster attacking Manhattan all seen through the perspective of a 20-something's hand-held camera. The film has been hyped for months ....to the point where I wasn't sure it could live up to the hype. Amazingly I think it did.

After the initial 15mins of character introduction and whatnot the film does not go 5mins minutes without a WHOA moment. Because it was filmed using a shaky camera Cloverfield was compared to The Blair Witch Project long before it hit the cinemas. For me that was what deterred me from seeing it. Thankfully in Cloverfield the shaky camera worked and the camera itself becomes a character of the film as it IS the viewer making everything happening on-screen more and more realistic.

Some may complain that the acting is amateur but I think it worked for Cloverfield as the film would have made no sense if they had used big name actors/actresses. Instead we're introduced to a bunch of nobodies trying to survive a monster attack. Likewise a film with no music would seem an odd concept but adding music would have taken away from the whole experience.

The monster itself isn't seen in its entirety and is in fact only seen from different angles, leaving the audience to piece it together just as the survivors themselves are. Amazingly, this movie pulls off the seemingly impossible feat of making New York City seem claustrophobic because there was seemingly nowhere to hide from the monster. The movie draws you in, makes you a part of the experience. It succeeds primarily because of two things; what you see and what you hear.

All in all Cloverfield works. It didn't have the budget of some of the bigger monster movies but it managed to knock the socks off them all the same. 10/10.

Rexcondo

26th August 2008

God Awful
Well what can i say week's of adverts all building up to what i thought would be the most coolest monster ever, I was so horribly wrong. You see the monster once properly and he's so plain it's unbelievable. Another thing that was crap about this movie is the fact that i hated all the characters in the film none of them where at all likable, even worse is the fact that the two worst characters were the guy holding the camera who's just a straight up loser and the main character who's leading all his friends to death by going on some bizarre journey to some woman you would of thought would of been dead. What i think was even more annoying was the fact that they hardly even explained where the monster came from... oh no wait a second i think at one point the camera man comes up with a theory. Wait just one minute so this complete idiots theory is all we have to go on with how the monster came about without anyone ever noticing it even though it's massive. I've said enough this film was worse than watching a monkey pick it's nose.

P. wellard

24th August 2008

NOT VERY GOOD
ALTHOUGH MY WIFE LIKED THIS I WAS NOT SO IMPRESSED WHERE DID THE MONSTER COME FROM HOW DID THE CAMERA LAST SO LONG WITH ALL THE US FIRE POWER AND STILL NOT A SCRATCH ON THE MONSTER SO MANY OTHER QUESTIONS NEEDED ANSWERING DONT EXPECT TO MUCH FROM THIS VERY SHORT FILM