Cloverfield [Blu-ray]

List Price: $39.99 Discount Price: $16.49

Customer Reviews:

Imperfect but entertaining [Posted on 2008-09-29]
The elevator pitch for this movie is Godzilla in Manhattan, with a different monster. And that's what you get in Cloverfield, a well-done low-budget movie that shows you don't need $100 million to make a decent movie. A group of friends at a going-away party, with a video camera, are in Manhattan when a monster shows up. Part of the genius of Cloverfield is that we don't know where the monster came from, what it's doing or what it wants. Every other movie of this genre is from the POV of the science guy who figures out how to fight the monster, whether with "plain ol' sodium!" ("Horror of Party Beach"), some kind of radio waves, ("Beginning of the End," as I recall), or by nuking the site to make sure. In "Cloverfield," the POV instead is that of the schmucks like us who would be running around wondering what the heck is going on after we find the head of the Statue of Liberty out in the street in front of the house.

On the downside, there's a little too much pre-monster time in the movie. And the video camera is magical - it has enough battery life to run through an entire party and a monster attach, with some left over to run the external light and Night Shot. Where do I get one of those? What's funny as well is that Cloverfield is supposed to look like it's shot on home video - so Blu-Ray is a little bit of overkill here.

But at 90 minutes, Cloverfield keeps moving fast enough so you don't think about the holes, and the movie doesn't outstay its welcome. It's at least worth a rent.

Rent Godzilla instead [Posted on 2008-09-29]
While this film has a lot to recommend it, it is a disappointment overall. I liked the idea of a video record of an attack by a monster from the viewpoint of one person's camcorder. The performances in the film are good and the special effects are very well done. However, the overall effect never really gets you involved with the story. The monster is only seen in quick glimpses untill the very end of the film. There is no clear resolution to the film's story, other than you know that there is a military attack on the monster and that the camcorder was found later on. (Spoiler alert) You only know that most of the characters that you are watching die, one in a very gruesome way.
The films concept was a good one, I thought, but if you're going to see NYC trashed by a monster, get the remake of Godzilla. It's not a great film, but at least it doesn't take itself too seriously and has some fun to it. This film is a major downer and doesn't really hold together.

Its a B Movie and thats it... [Posted on 2008-10-01]
Despite the decent special effects and the comparative newness of the film being shown from the viewpoint of a hand held video camera this essentially just an old-fashioned monster movie. For me it only just merits 3 stars and heres why:

Good points:
The held held camera view was very effective in places and did give you a sense of the panic that can occur in disaster situations. The acting was decent and as already mentioned the special effects were well done.

Bad points:
The opening party sequence went on too long. All it was trying to tell us was that a couple had split up and that could have been done much quicker. After 10 minutes had gone by, in what is a short movie, I was beginning to wonder if I was watching the right film...
I accept that you have to suspend disbelief when watching films like this, but this had so many occasions when what happened lacked any credibility in reality (I'm talking about the Helicopter crash and the girl who was impaled on the steel pole to name two examples). I also got fed up with hearing people saying "oh my God" every 30 seconds. The hand-held camera use needed to be broken up. 84 mins was too long for a wobbly picture....

Having said all that it is worth seeing, as after the slow start its certainly an entertaining rollercoaster ride. But like I said at the start this is essentially a B Movie/Monster Movie, if you expect nothing else than you'll probably enjoy a fun movie. Expect any more and you might be disappointed

Really bad. [Posted on 2008-10-01]
Silly, stupid, not scary, if you watch the extra's (because I wanted to see what their motive was for making such a bad film was, Godzilla, since Japan has a monster the USA should have one, I ain't kidding! Also the monster was suppose to be a Baby monster that was scared and that's why it was running around crazy.) Do not waste your time or money, thank God I didn't as I rented this garbage from the Public Library for free.

A change in modern cinama [Posted on 2008-10-04]
After watching as many movies as I have you see flaws in several movies or story lines done 101 times over. Well I found this movie to be refreshing. We open with a recording from a handy cam that makes me dread watching this being reminded of what a P.O.S. "Blairwitch" was. But I gotta say having this whole movie taped from the point of view of the people involved adds to the thrill. Add a surround sound system and this movie puts the viewer right in the middle of Manhattan being destroyed. There is no Hollywood music to distract you from the idea behind this new age American monster movie.

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