Post by rrw on Apr 30, 2008 10:50:08 GMT -5
My friend, Don Evans, went to see Cloverfield when it was first released. He hated it! It made him physically ill to watch it. Same kind of motion sickness I and a lot of other "old people" suffered from when watching The Blaire Witch Project. Another friend of mine (and a horror film maker in his own right), Nick Encinias, hated it too! "Too much hype for me. Wasn't impressed!" So, you can understand why I was hesitant to even watch Cloverfield let alone buy a copy of it. Plus, there's another reason I wasn't too charged up to go down to Blockbuster's and lay down my hard earned cash. I had just bought the DVD of AvP and man, that is one of the worst movies I ever seen in my (almost) 60 years of living! The Brothers Strause (I mean how pretentious can you get with a name?) make Eli Roth look like the "Master of Horror Films" he thinks he is. Oh, by the way! G-4 annouced that Eli "I'm the God of Horror" Roth is getting ready to shoot a NEW Sci-fi film! EEEEEEEEEEEW! Can't wait for THAT! Anyway, back to Cloverfield.
Cloverfield is a movie that was put together from the leftover parts of every movie ever made. Sort of like what Doc Frankenstein did creating his monster, you know? "It's alive! Alive!" And the production team of Cloverfield has no qualms about telling the public, "That's exactly what WE did!"
Here are just a few of the movies that Cloverfield borrows from: Godzilla (Japanese version and the very bad American made 90s version), The Blaire Witch Project, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake!, Children of Men, Mars Attacks!, The Lord of the Rings, Casablanca, Independence Day, Starship Troopers, Planet of the Apes (all of them), The Thing From Another World, Train Spotting.... You know the list could go on and on and on.... AND on and on... You get the point.
BUT just like ol' Doc Frankie taking dead body parts, sewing them together and transplanting an abnormal brain in a seven foot monster... the production team of Cloverfield has created something new, exciting, and from my point of view, the first totally 21st Century horror movie! It has been a very long time since I've seen a movie that really scared me, depressed me from beginning to end. Yes, the trend in horror has been (in this century) to remake older movies. Why? Well, in part because the 21st Century hadn't yet defined what the community fear was in America. So, the filmmakers just decided to keep the horror genre going by recycling old horror movies. Yeah, they may have added a few new wrinkles to Texas Chainsaw Masacre, The Hills Have Eyes, even JC's Halloween, but when the dust cleared, all of them were just remakes of what was going on in the genre during the 70s and 80s. At best these remakes are just cheap imitations of classic and not so classic films.
Cloverfield IS different. To me, it truly tuned into the BIG American fear of the 21st Century... 911. Yep, and the production team, again, doesn't try to to hide the fact that, that is exactly what the were shooting for. Nothing has (so far) affected the 21st Century, American psyche more than 911. And that is the fear Cloverfield hands you.
Cloverfield is, at its heart, nothing more than a "disaster" film like The Towering Inferno or Earthquake! The scope is as big as in these two movies out of the 70s, but the point of view is very personal and small. All most ALL of the horror is seen from far away through a handheld personal camera (well, not really, but that is the effect that you get). Unlike the "torture" movies we are forced to watch now where you get real up close and personal with the blood and gore, Cloverfield does it from a distance. You see a blur of a giant monster, then the collapse of a building several blocks away.... then slowly the debris makes its way down the street toward our victims in plumes of dirty, gray smoke. A horribly beautiful image! Cloverfied is a beautifully shot, artistic, very naturalistic horror film. Rare to see ANY movie these days that is so well crafted.
Are there any faults in this movie? Wellll, not much. The only thing that stuck out in my mind was that some of the dialogue just didn't ring true to the overall style of the movie. The movie is difinitly shot in a naturalistic style but the dialogue just didn't quite fit in. Yes, there were lots of Oh, Nos and Oh, my Gods that you see in home movies of REAL disasters but the phrasing didn't fit in the actors' mouths a lot of the time. I don't know if it's a problem with writing, acting and/or directing, but in truth? It really is a small problem for this film.
Cloverfield is a masterpiece of the 21st Century. And that is all I'm gonna say about it. And I hope I haven't said too much. Cloverfield needs to be experienced without much of a preconceived idea about how good or bad it is. Rent it or buy it.... NOW!
Oh! one thing I left out! The monster attacks NYC on May 23rd! My BIRTHDAY! Hmm, maybe THAT'S why I liked it so much. Sheesh, forget the review. I'm prejudice!
If you're at all interested in hearing really good naturalistic dialogue checkout:
the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Thing From Another World (1951). Peace, brothers and sisters.
MAY HORROR RULE... FOREVER! WOOHAHAHAHA!
nothing like a snappy ending... lol... 
AQUA! 
and 
all
time for me 
echoes, hope you all are doing well 
