Cloverfield (2008)
Country: US
Technical: col 85m
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David
Synopsis:
The amateur video footage of a group of New York twenty-somethings attending a farewell party acquires a new significance when it becomes the sole surviving document of an attack on the city by a monster from another world.
Review:
This homage to 1950s creature features dresses itself up in modern trappings (the surviving video footage was fast becoming a commonplace - Blair Witch Project, Diary of the Dead, [REC]) and plays on modern fears (the 9/11 attacks) while offering some very underwhelming leads and banal dialogue to maintain the interest. All the same, despite a very slow start (one would be forgiven for wondering whether one had made a mistake buying a ticket here) it does not outstay its welcome, and once the fun starts the limited view aesthetic is nicely exploited. Furthermore the effects are pretty convincing and the sightings of the monster kept partial and to a minimum until the end, producing an agreeably sticky palmed atmosphere of dread. There is also some snappily ironic business involving the romantic couple, over whose home footage the night's events are being taped, and whose faces reappear each time the camera is switched off, most poignantly at the film's conclusion. The project benefited from a novel publicity campaign whereby no information regarding the nature of the catastrophe was given out, just a shot of the ravaged Statue of Liberty (channelling Planet of the Apes shamelessly) and a date of release; the title itself was also a mystery. Some footage was given out of the initial confusion where one character's cry of 'It's alive!' (someone having fun again?) was followed by much speculation that 'It' was 'a lion'!
Country: US
Technical: col 85m
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David
Synopsis:
The amateur video footage of a group of New York twenty-somethings attending a farewell party acquires a new significance when it becomes the sole surviving document of an attack on the city by a monster from another world.
Review:
This homage to 1950s creature features dresses itself up in modern trappings (the surviving video footage was fast becoming a commonplace - Blair Witch Project, Diary of the Dead, [REC]) and plays on modern fears (the 9/11 attacks) while offering some very underwhelming leads and banal dialogue to maintain the interest. All the same, despite a very slow start (one would be forgiven for wondering whether one had made a mistake buying a ticket here) it does not outstay its welcome, and once the fun starts the limited view aesthetic is nicely exploited. Furthermore the effects are pretty convincing and the sightings of the monster kept partial and to a minimum until the end, producing an agreeably sticky palmed atmosphere of dread. There is also some snappily ironic business involving the romantic couple, over whose home footage the night's events are being taped, and whose faces reappear each time the camera is switched off, most poignantly at the film's conclusion. The project benefited from a novel publicity campaign whereby no information regarding the nature of the catastrophe was given out, just a shot of the ravaged Statue of Liberty (channelling Planet of the Apes shamelessly) and a date of release; the title itself was also a mystery. Some footage was given out of the initial confusion where one character's cry of 'It's alive!' (someone having fun again?) was followed by much speculation that 'It' was 'a lion'!
Country: US
Technical: col 85m
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David
Synopsis:
The amateur video footage of a group of New York twenty-somethings attending a farewell party acquires a new significance when it becomes the sole surviving document of an attack on the city by a monster from another world.
Review:
This homage to 1950s creature features dresses itself up in modern trappings (the surviving video footage was fast becoming a commonplace - Blair Witch Project, Diary of the Dead, [REC]) and plays on modern fears (the 9/11 attacks) while offering some very underwhelming leads and banal dialogue to maintain the interest. All the same, despite a very slow start (one would be forgiven for wondering whether one had made a mistake buying a ticket here) it does not outstay its welcome, and once the fun starts the limited view aesthetic is nicely exploited. Furthermore the effects are pretty convincing and the sightings of the monster kept partial and to a minimum until the end, producing an agreeably sticky palmed atmosphere of dread. There is also some snappily ironic business involving the romantic couple, over whose home footage the night's events are being taped, and whose faces reappear each time the camera is switched off, most poignantly at the film's conclusion. The project benefited from a novel publicity campaign whereby no information regarding the nature of the catastrophe was given out, just a shot of the ravaged Statue of Liberty (channelling Planet of the Apes shamelessly) and a date of release; the title itself was also a mystery. Some footage was given out of the initial confusion where one character's cry of 'It's alive!' (someone having fun again?) was followed by much speculation that 'It' was 'a lion'!