Cloverfield

[pete]

oh my god.

[JG]

dude, i had no idea. 

[hedwig]

i knew.

i learned back in the Life Aquatic days.

[edison]

on its way to New York.

[Stefen]

The only reason to get excited about this flick is how mysterious it is.

The more I find out about it the more silly it is.

Also, JJ Abrams is a hack.

[w/o horse]

My girlfriend's philosophy is something like the originality and creativity of the  marketing campaign portends an at least equally stimulating monster experience (and she thinks it's parasitic).  So the hype must be greater than or equal to the pay-off.  I think that's a terribly positive expectation.

[picolas]

if she actually said "less than", it is.

[w/o horse]

Yeah.  Mine is the hype is greater than the pay-off and hers is that the hype is equal to or maybe even less than the pay-off.  I needed the crocodile image.

And since I'm here again, I'd like to add that the marketing is driving me finger-nail-chalkboard crazy and so wholely succesfull.  I haven't been this interested in a movie there's little chance of me seeing since Snakes on a Plane, a movie I didn't see.

[polkablues]

An incoherent, blindingly positive review of Cloverfield by Harry Knowles.  In exchange, JJ Abrams probably told him he would hang out with him, or bought him a hooker or a burger or something.  Anyway, enjoy.

[MacGuffin]

'Cloverfield's' monster concept
Producer J.J. Abrams aims to provide an old-time rush.
By Mark Olsen, Special to The Times

WHEN the unusual teaser trailer for "Cloverfield" first appeared unexpectedly before last summer's blockbuster "Transformers," it set off a wave of interest verging on hysteria. The clip featured what looked like home-video footage of a New York City house party suddenly erupting into total chaos -- earth-shaking explosions followed by the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty crashing down the street as stunned onlookers whipped out their camera-phones.

Hastily posted on the Internet, the trailer was soon being dissected with a fever perhaps not seen since the landmark buildup to 1999's "The Blair Witch Project," as fans began concocting wild theories about what caused the destruction (a humongous monster), what happens (it goes ballistic on Manhattan) and how much would viewers ultimately get to see (plenty).

But the surprise and secrecy were one component of the inventive film, which opens Friday. While the teaser left potential viewers salivating for more, the most concrete piece of information it provided was that the film came from producer J.J. Abrams, best known for television shows such as the cerebral "Lost," the action-filled "Alias" and the wistfully romantic "Felicity."

"Cloverfield" originated with Abrams wanting to reenergize the monster movie, to bring into the 21st century the creepy-fun flicks he had enjoyed as boy; not the charnel-house blood baths of current horror films but rather such enigmatic thrillers as Ridley Scott's "Alien," David Cronenberg's "The Fly" and John Carpenter's "The Thing" -- movies that surpassed any supposed limitations of the genre.

"I loved monster movies when I was a kid," Abrams said recently, "and I had not seen a monster movie since then that made me feel anything, where I got that rush. I just desperately wanted to have that sensation."

With both an idea for the story and a concept for how to shoot the film, Abrams and his producing partner Bryan Burk enlisted writer Drew Goddard (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), who was working with Abrams on "Lost." Eventually Abrams would also draft Matt Reeves, a childhood friend as well as a co-creator of "Felicity," to direct. The film's $25-million budget was financed by Paramount Pictures, for whom Abrams had directed "Mission: Impossible III" and is directing "Star Trek."

Reeves had previously directed the feature film "The Pallbearer" with David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow -- not the most immediate calling card for a Monster-Eats-Manhattan picture. "They came to me because what they really wanted was a sense of intimacy and character and realism," said Reeves. "The thing that ended up being different about this film is the concept of having it be this Handycam story where everything is supposed to be told as if it's found footage. The whole movie, even though it's this epic-sized story, it's shot and done in an intimate manner. So it's this kind of realistic portrayal of an absolutely outlandish idea."

The secrecy surrounding the project extended to the casting process as well. The team behind "Cloverfield" hired a group of relatively unknown actors, making the true star of the film not just the monster but also the mystery, which is slowly revealed in the shaky, post-YouTube, faux-found-footage style in which the film was shot. Though the story is supposedly all captured on a single camera, in reality a variety of cameras were used, from top-of-the line professional gear used to seamlessly blend with digital effects to consumer-grade footage shot by the actors themselves

In many ways the story line of "Cloverfield" perfectly joins the conceits of Abrams' past work -- a shotgun wedding of the puzzles of "Lost" with the yearning of "Felicity." The film opens with a group of twentysomething New Yorkers gathering for a farewell party as one of their circle departs for a new job in Japan. Romantic entanglements are quickly established, all seen from the perspective of a video camera carried by a hapless character named Hud.

Once the destruction starts, the party empties into the street and the protagonists are plunged headlong into a nightmarish odyssey trying to escape the city. Hud dutifully captures it all on video, driven by the contemporary urge to self-document and a strange need to eke out some control over what's happening around him.

It is exactly this unlikely mix of the big-shock thrills of a Hollywood action movie and the small-scale interactions of a youth-oriented drama that give "Cloverfield" its charge. Rather than focusing on the attempts to battle the monster, the film settles in with the individual dramas of those caught up in its destructive wake.

According to Lizzy Caplan, who plays the wise-cracking Marlena, the initial audition was a scene that led her to believe the project would be like a film version of "Felicity," full of heartfelt conversations and lovelorn moments. She was surprised when a callback audition consisted of a frantic action scene that turned out to be from an episode of "Alias." "Only after being offered the part did we hear it was a monster movie, and only after signing on did we get to read the script," said Caplan.

Twenty-six-year-old T.J. Miller makes his movie debut as the endearingly beleaguered Hud, who is head over heels for Marlena. Since his character is holding the camera for essentially the entire movie -- and Miller himself often served as camera operator while performing -- he is actually seen for only a few moments. Yet Hud, in directing the viewer's point of view while also providing a running commentary to the action, is an indelible character. "The audience becomes unified with Hud," said Miller. "He's not a character that they watch, he's a character that they sort of are."

"The point of view was so restricted, it felt really fresh," explained Reeves of the film's unique perspective and format. "It was one of the things that attracted me [to this project]. You are with this group of people and then this event happens and they do their best to understand it and survive it, and that's all they know."

The original Japanese version of "Godzilla," arguably the precursor of the modern, urban monster movie, has always been seen as a direct extension of the Atomic Age anxiety over the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Among the imagery used in "Cloverfield" are collapsing skyscrapers, great clouds of dust and swirling drifts of paper that directly reference the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In the hands of Abrams, Reeves and Co., the monster movie remains a repository for the collective unease felt in the wake of a national tragedy.

" 'Cloverfield' is meant to explore the very real and obvious fears we are all living with everyday," said Abrams, "to let the audience have the experience but in a much more safe and manageable way. . . .

"I believe there are a whole lot of people who want to have that kind of catharsis and who don't necessarily want to see documentaries about the very issues they are grappling with internally."

"In a way, what 'Cloverfield' does," said Reeves, "is it puts a name on the unthinkable."

[72teeth]

Clip.

[72teeth]

Picture of Rancor Zoidberg Clovie

[w/o horse]

Our deal was that I wouldn't spoil her enthusiasm by attending the screening of a film she was excited about and I wasn't but that I would see it with her for a second time if it was a film she liked so much that she wanted to see it for a second time.  So she got home late from the midnight screening.  She told me it sucked.  I was too tired to ask her to qualify this and there's a chance that she only meant if I saw it I'd think it sucked.  She did say the script is awful and that it reminded her of a Shyamalan (she wouldn't have been referring to the filmmaking style so she must have meant the presentation of the story).

That's good enough for me.

[MacGuffin]

I thought it was pretty awesome, but I could see why some thought it sucked as mentioned by some members of my audience on their way out. It will be another Blair Witch, two sides of the fence film.

First off, if you have motion sickness, then you should take some pills before seeing it. Luckily, I don't. I will admit that the film works only because of the handheld camerawork. If not for that, and how well it was done, this would have failed right from the get-go since there's much lacking in a story, but there's supposed to be one really since this is all a "document" of that night. But I got caught up in the "you-are-there," first-person account. I found myself craning my neck, wanting to see more. At the start, the monster works because of the Jaws, the less you see, the more suspenseful-type editing, but once you get good looks, it's nothing that your imagination would have a better job working up. I just appreciated more the technique of how this monster film was done.

And for all you Lost fans, look for the numbers. "The numbers are bad."

[modage]

The best thing this movie had going for it was that I knew so little about it going in. The obvious 9/11 imagery is especially frightening as a New Yorker and even moreso when you see the characters running down your street in handheld POV. Unfortunately the scariest part of the film is what happens before you actually see the monster. Because nothing can ever be as scary as what you can imagine, the movie comes with slight disappointment but is still an effective and worthwhile theatrical experience.